A little more than 3 years ago, Gabe Diamond was working as a ground paramedic for the City of Pittsburgh EMS. He worked in an ER, as well as a few suburban EMS agencies, trying to learn more and build his experience at each place.
Fueled by the passion for a challenge, he applied to work for STAT MedEvac and was hired as a full-time flight paramedic. More pharmacology, interfacility patients, and helicopter operations were all part of the training with his mentor and preceptor, Joyce Fee.
He anticipated that making the change from ground medicine to air medicine would be difficult. The transition of working inside the confined space of an aircraft, vs. inside a more spacious ground ambulance, turned out to be more challenging than the clinical side.
As he got more comfortable, he realized how he might be able to streamline part of the job. From pharmacology calculations to burn calculation references, SharePoint documents, protocol references to aircraft operation notes, there seemed to be endless reference documents, and none of them all in one place.
Gabe tends to favor the 24-hour shifts, working eight days a month. There is time for a hobby. So, in his downtime, Gabe decided to use the little bit of programming knowledge that he had, took a 30-hour programming class, and then searched programming tips on the internet. He combined that training with some trial-and-error experiments and created a well-received app for his STAT MedEvac peers, combining all of the reference material into one resource.
He felt it was better to create the app first, as a hobby, so that he would have a prototype to show the STAT MedEvac administration, with hopes to officially work on the project. The administrators gave him the approval to work on the app and when it was time for the app to be tested, he posted an internal note looking for 8 to 10 trial users. Eighty flight crew members agreed to trial the app and provided feedback. Now, nearly every flight crew member uses the app and they continue to provide feedback so Gabe can continue enhancing its use.
While it cannot be found on the public app stores, and is proprietary to STAT MedEvac, the app is an example of the high-caliber, life-changing, don’t-rest-on-your-laurels, individuals that work in critical care transport. Gabe Diamond is a life-changer working at STAT MedEvac. His drive to be efficient benefitted all of his peers.
Who on your crew, in your workplace, or within your peer circles is a life changer? Tell us. We’d love to write about them.