WSU hosts Emergency Medical Symposium
OGDEN, Utah – Not many years ago, a heart attack outside the hospital meant almost certain death. Now out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients who receive good medical care before they reach the hospital have a much better chance of survival. Weber State University’s Dr. Ezekiel R. Dumke College of Health Professions will host “Heart Matters,” an emergency medical symposium on Feb. 1 at 11 a.m. in the Shepherd Union Ballrooms to share information about new research and techniques for saving lives.
“Emergency Medical Services (EMS) as a profession is still somewhat in its infancy when compared to other allied health professions,” said Bill Robertson, assistant professor of Emergency Care & Rescue. “We are just now doing our own research on best 
practices and clinical education. Having this symposium will hopefully get EMS clinicians and other acute-care medical providers in the area excited about research and teach them that they too can play a part in the ongoing studies that help the EMS profession, and emergency medicine in general.”
Keith Lurie, the keynote speaker, will discuss his advanced cardiac arrest research. He is s a practicing cardiac electrophysiologist and professor of internal and emergency medicine at the University of Minnesota.
David Page will discuss the importance and impact of research or evidence-based practice in the field of the pre-clinical hospital field. He is the director of the Prehospital Care Research Forum at the University of California, Los Angeles, and co-founder of Fisdap, a skills tracking and testing application used by many EMS programs.
“With the advances in recent years both in the techniques we use and in new technology, we are saving many more lives than in the past,” said Robertson. “Unfortunately, those advances do not always make it out to all the EMS agencies in the country. We hope to be able to share current research with the local EMS community.”
The Heart Matters symposium is free and open to the public. For more information, visit weber.edu/heartmatters.
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Melissa Smith, public relations
801-626-6348 • melissasmith9@weber.edu- Contact:
Bill Robertson, assistant professor of Emergency Care & Rescue
801-626-6521 • williamrobertson@weber.edu