Amsterdam— The International Academies of Emergency Dispatch® (IAED™) is pleased to announce that its secondary triage research was selected as the recipient of the 2014 Sophus Falck Scientific Abstract Award as the best pre-hospital care abstract at the prestigious European Society for Emergency Medicine’s (EuSEM) 8th European Congress on Sept. 29 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. A grant prize of 5,000 Euros ($6,300) accompanies the award sponsored by the Sophus Falck Foundation.
The research project’s authors are Tracey Barron, IAED Research & Studies Officer and Chair of the Council of Research and Clinical Focus Group; Dr. Conrad Fivaz, Emergency Response Operations Director with Priority Dispatch Corp.™ (PDC™) and Chair of the Emergency Communication Nurse System™ (ECNS™) Council of Standards; and Jerry Overton, Chair of IAED’s Board of Accreditation.
The study, entitled, “Using EMS Telephone Triage Data to Assess the Amount of Ambulance Resources Saved through Telephone Triage,” found that from more than 2.6 million emergency 9-9-9 calls in the U.K. that received a phone or face-to-face response between April 2011–April 2012, nearly 90,000 were resolved through “hear and treat” secondary triage response, similar to the Academy’s ECNS. More tellingly, the study found that those secondary triage responses resulted in deployment savings of 22.5 million British pounds (or nearly $29 million) and saved the British ambulance services 134,935 total unit hours.
“The results were spectacular and that’s why we feel they picked us for the award,” Fivaz said. “I think it’s a testimony to the Academy’s commitment to research. It shows that it is being recognized on an international stage.”
Overton, who attended the Amsterdam awards presentation at which Barron presented and accepted the accolade on behalf of her colleagues and the IAED, echoed Fivaz’s sentiments
“It is superb to have the Academy prominent in the evidence-based community,” Overton said.
“This piece of research is the perfect springboard for more studies into the important field of ‘hear and treat’ telephone triage,” Barron said.
Fivaz said the prize grant will help fund further IAED research.
“This award demonstrates the commitment of the Academy to the science of emergency dispatch,” said Dr. Jeff Clawson creator of the protocols and co-founder of the IAED. “It makes me believe that the initial, very distant dream, only imagined in 1987, of having the ‘Bell Labs’ of dispatch, has really been accomplished and continues to make the future a reality through the Academies’ ever expanding efforts. I couldn’t be prouder!”
Founded in 1988, the IAED is the foremost standard setting and certification organization for emergency communications with more than 54,000 members in 43 countries. More than 3,650 communication centers take advantage of IAED’s protocols and training—translated into 20 languages/dialects—for medical, fire, police, and nurse triage dispatching. Of those, more than 100 have become Accredited Centers of Excellence (ACE).