Monday, November 16, 2 p.m.

Jeff Skiles, US Airways Co-Pilot, Flight 1549

Lessons from the Miracle on the Hudson

When you're a pilot and both your engines fail over the largest city in America, you must act quickly and independently, but you must also trust in the system that has trained you and prepared you to handle such crisis moments. Jeff Skiles' story of the "Miracle on the Hudson" would not have the perfect ending if not for years of training and preparation that allowed the two pilots to understand exactly what the other was doing thus maximizing their time, communication, and effectiveness.       Having only met each other three days earlier, Skiles and Sullenberger were able to work together as a team because they trusted in their system and training and professionalism of everyone involved, from the air-traffic controllers to their crew.        As he takes audiences through the nearly catastrophic events leading up to U.S. Airways Flight 1549's emergency landing on the Hudson River, Skiles delivers the key lessons and principles that made the flight crew prepared, calm, and confident that they would successfully land the plane. If such lessons can save 155 lives when time is tight and every move must be perfect, imagine what these lessons can do for your organization.

 

Julienne Irwin, Singer and Recording Artist   We're also excited to have Julienne Irwin joining us for Monday's Opening Session to sing the National Anthem.  A resident of Harford County, Maryland, Julienne was a finalist on the second season of America's Got Talent at the age of 14.  Julienne is working on her first album due to be released in December 2009.

 

 

Tuesday, November 17, 1:15 p.m.

Thomas M. Scalea, MD, F.A.C.S.

Physician-In-Chief

R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center

University of Maryland Medical System

The Golden Hour

The principles that guide care of the acutely injured patients involve delivering the right person to the right place in the right amount of time. This concept, termed “The Golden Hour,” by the founder of the Maryland EMS system, R Adams Cowley, is still used to guide prehospital triage principles. It recognizes time as an important variable in ultimate outcome following injury. It also recognizes that even serious injury may be somewhat subtle at the time of initial presentation. Triage then, is designed to limit the number of patients who are delivered to a center who may not be able to provide definitive care (under-triage), while also attempting to minimize transporting patients to care more sophisticated than necessary (over-triage).

The Maryland system is based on overlapping air and ground transportation. This allows the majority of patients to be well cared for either in local Emergency Departments or regional trauma centers by minimizing both time and expense. The state police medivac system allows for greater distances to be covered in short time, thus, transporting the most seriously injured patients to a specialty center.

These same principles are used to guide triage in trauma care by the U.S. Military. While the distances are clearly much longer, and there are also special considerations to providing care over those distances, the principles remain essentially the same.

In 1997, Dr. Scalea became the Physician-in-Chief at the University of Maryland R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center. Believing that one must lead by example, he remains a busy clinical surgeon still taking night call. This year the Shock Trauma will admit over 7700 patients.

Dr. Scalea has recognized the importance of collaboration in the prehospital phase care. There is now an EMS coordinator’s office with three FTE’s. These individuals organize the important clinical and educational outreach functions of the Shock Trauma Center. Several years ago, Dr. Scalea established the GO Team, a rapid response team consisting of an anesthesiologist, surgeon, critical care medicine specialist, and a certified registered nurse anesthetist. The physician-led GO team is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day. When dispatched, the GO team serves as a specialized component of Maryland’s statewide emergency medical system. Their mission is to expedite critical care interventions in situations where entrapment will delay transport to definitive care. The GO team compliments Maryland’s Statewide EMS System by providing critical care and surgical services that are typically considered beyond the scope of prehospital emergency care.

Additionally, Dr. Scalea has reorganized both research and education in the Program in Trauma. Dr. Scalea remains a prolific investigator and has recruited an academically outstanding faculty. Under Dr. Scalea’s leadership, trauma has become a requirement for all third year medical students and is described as one of the best experiences during medical school.

In 2008, Dr. Scalea was named to Baltimore Magazine's "Top Doctors" List.  He can also be seen on Discovery Health's "The Critical Hour" television show.

Dana Tulis

Deputy Director, Office of Emergency Management

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

EPA Emergency Management Update & Current Initiatives

Dana will provide an update on emergency management activities at EPA, focusing on the strategic direction for chemical emergency preparedness, oil, emergency response and homeland security programs.

Dana has been serving as the Deputy Director for the Office of Emergency Management for the last 5 years and has worked in EPA for over 22 years.

She oversees the technical aspects of the Office which include establishing decontamination policies (with a recent emphasis on bacillus anthracis and radiation), building environmental laboratory capacity, analyte and site-specific concerns (e.g., asbestos, dioxin), removal and homeland security guidance, and information technology systems. During the Hurricane Katrina response, she established and implemented a Headquarters Environmental Unit which coordinated with the senior political leadership within the Agency, interfaced with the
press, and enabled the posting of over 450,000 laboratory analyses on the Internet.

Prior to OEM, she worked in the office formerly known as OERR (Office of Emergency and Remedial Response), where she served as the Director of the Analytical Operations Center for most of that time. She supervised over 235,000 laboratory analyses for the World Trade Center (WTC) response and revitalized the contract laboratory program (CLP). She has worked in EPA’s Office of Homeland Security, the Office of Solid Waste, and the Office of Atmospheric Programs. She spent 11 years in various staff and management positions in the Office of Underground Storage Tanks. Prior to that, she worked at consulting firms and public interest groups. She has a Masters in Environmental Engineering from Duke University and Bachelor Degrees in Biology and Psychology from Colby College.