St. John's support local college students with
medical research efforts

Nov. 24, 2008

A student’s collaborative research project testing the effectiveness of commonly used EMS prehospital medications after exposure to thermal extremes was published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

The research was conducted by Dustin Gammon, an Emergency Medical Technician for St. John’s Hospital and student at Missouri State University, as an undergraduate laboratory research project. The study was funded by St. John’s Trauma Services and Research Department, and St. John’s Emergency Medical Services and overseen by Missouri State’s Department of Chemistry.

The objective of the research was to determine the concentration of 23 commonly carried EMS medications after they have experienced thermal extremes in a prehospital environment, so the medical field would have a better understanding of their effectiveness.  The study concluded that eight of the 23 medications demonstrated a significant decrease in concentration in a prehospital environment. The results provide new information and perspective regarding the stability of emergency drugs.

“Unfortunately, this type of research is not often attempted, primarily due to the lack of external funding for EMS-based research in the United States,” said Dustin Gammon, CCEMT-P.  “I feel that St. John’s EMS again demonstrated its dedication to providing outstanding patient care with this most recent collaborative effort.”

The research efforts are gaining a lot of attention, most recently from the State Medical Directors Association.  The data will help drive future processes relating to medication handling and storage.

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ST. JOHN’S PHYSICIANS ASSIST PRE-MED STUDENTS WITH HANDS ON RESEARCH

Drury University Students, with the assistance of St. John’s physician Roger Huckfeldt, M.D. recently presented their findings about the efficacy of Mini-IPV in care patients to the American College of Surgeons.

Efficient oxygenation and ventilation of patients during transport is essential.  Patients requiring mechanical ventilation to support respiratory efforts often require prolonged transport times in the pre-hospital setting as well as movement from place to place after ICU admission. Optimal transport mechanical ventilation must have ease of us, portability, durability and the ability to ventilate and oxygenate critically ill or injured patients

Students studied the safety and efficacy of a new miniature percussion ventilator, developed by Forrest Byrd, in a group of critically injured patients being treated in the Neuro-Trauma Intensive Care unit at St. John’s. The new Mini-IPV is approximately one-tenth the size of a standard ventilator and it is compact enough to be clipped onto a belt.  It is fully controlled by a single dial and is easy to use with minimal training.

Students, under physician supervision, used the Mini-IPV to ventilate ten critically injured patients for a period of four hours, monitoring their heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation and ventilation.

Students found all 10 patients completed the four hour ventilation trial without noted change in monitored parameters.  They concluded the Mini-IPV was safe and efficacious in this trial and should be further studied.

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FOR MEDIA INFORMATION, CONTACT ST. JOHN’S MEDIA RELATIONS AT 417-820-2171 OR ANGELA.GARRISON@MERCY.NET