I am the author of this site as well as a trip leader. I would like for you to know a little about me. Although born in the USA, I speak fluent Czech. My parents who immigrated to the US after World War II realized that my sister and I would learn English anyway and thus made sure that we also learned their native language, "Thank You Mom and Dad!" This knowledge is being kept alive by numerous trips back to the Czech Republic, as well as by my new wife Monika who comes from the Czech republic. We were married on July 1st 2000. Our first baby born March 2001 is already on her way to learning Czech, although her babbling seems to be universally understood at this point!
In recent times, I have been visiting with physicians and medics, riding with EMS, and lecturing and writing on our systems and training. As a result, I have numerous contacts there and a first hand knowledge of the area.
In May of 1999 at the Rallye Rejviz I had the opportunity to observe my first EMS/ambulance road rally up front and personal-as a participant! This story can be read here. Later that year, I was accompanied by a group of doctors, nurses and paramedics when we participated in the first joint U.S.-Czech conference on Emergency Medicine and EMS, held in Prague in September 1999.
May 2000, saw a group of nurses and medics accompany me to participate and observe in what was the largest Rally Rejviz up to that point in time. 44 teams from three different countries competed, and observers from as far away as Turkey and Argentina assisted. For this rally I had coauthored and helped grade a trauma scenario. The results from this scenario were presented at the 2001 NAEMSP annual meeting in Florida. They were also presented at the First Pan-Mediterranean Conference on Emergency Medicine in Stresa Italy in Sept 2001.
In September 2000 a group of us went to Wroclaw Poland for the 1st International Congress of the Polish Society of Emergency Medicine, and then to Krakow were we met with EMS workers and toured the local American-Polish Children's Hospital. Following this we traveled to Slovakia and participated in Zachrana (Rescue) 2000, the Slovak EMS rally. See pictures of the May and September 2000 events here.
May 2001: U.S. medics compete for the first time! Three US team joined 5 Polish teams, a Spanish and mixed Japenese-Argentinean and several Slovak teams to make this a truly international rally. There were 51 ambulances competing. There was even an observer from Nepal!
In 2001 I also joined BASICS, the British Association For Immediate Care please visit their web page.
Back home I am a full time attending Emergency Medicine physician at Summa Health System in Akron, Ohio. I also serve as the associate EMS director for Summa Health System and as medical director to area squads. At the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, I hold the position of associate professor in Emergency Medicine.
As a member of Emergency International, I serve as their regional liaison to the Czech Republic. As a member of NAEMSP I serve as the chairman of the International Advisory task force. Finally, I stay active in Ohio and national ACEP as well as in SAEM, and the WMS.
I am very excited about our work and what we hope to accomplish. Thank you for your interest and participation.