EHS faculty speak at regional emergency health care system conference

 

Faculty from the Department of Emergency Health Sciences served as panelists on topics including stroke response, cardiac system process improvement and pulmonary embolism during the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council (STRAC) annual conference.

The 2022 STRAC Regional Emergency Health Care Systems Conference was held in late June and included panels on topics related to STRAC’s service lines, including trauma, perinatal, emergency medicine, cardiac, disaster management, behavioral health, pediatrics and stroke.

Professor David Wampler, PhD, LP, FAEMS, director of clinical research for Office of EMS Medical Director, and Associate Professor/Clinical Craig Cooley, MD, MPH, EMT-P, were speakers on a cardiac panel. Wampler gave a situation report on the current status of the cardiac system process improvement committee, and Cooley spoke on emergency department decision-making for critical cardiac patients.

Assistant Professor/Clinical Stephen Harper, MD, spoke about pulmonary embolism and prehospital and emergency department recognition of pulmonary embolism. Harper also spoke about prehospital stroke recognition. Cooley and Harper are jointly appointed in the Department of Emergency Health Sciences and the Department of Emergency Medicine.

“The partnership between UT Health San Antonio and STRAC is an example of how trauma and critical care is delivered, and more importantly, continually improved, for the citizens of this region,” said Associate Professor and Department of Emergency Health Sciences Chair Lance Villers, PhD. “These important conferences provide up-to-date science among trauma surgeons, cardiologists, neurologists, EMTs and paramedics, all with the same mission of improving outcomes from injuries and illnesses."

Encompassing more than 26,000 square miles in Southwest Texas, STRAC is one of 22 regional advisory councils in Texas that make up the state’s trauma and emergency health care system.