MERGINET.NEWS: January Issue Online!

["Richard Bilger" <rbilger@merginet.com>]

We're pleased to bring you the latest additions to
MERGINET.NEWS (Vol. 6, No. 1). You can view this
issue online at:

http://www.merginet.com
Select "MERGINET.NEWS" or "Current Issue" from
the navigation menu's.

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FROM THE EDITOR:
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Welcome to a new year of MERGINET.NEWS! Our January, 2001, issue
is now on-line. Go there to read Mary Ann McBurnie’s description
of the Public Access Defibrillation study, now being set up in 40
cities. Michelle McKay takes a whimsical, and intriguing, look at
“Medics in Space,” and Australian Buck Reed reports on Alan Eade’
s experiences at last autumn’s riots at the World Economic Forum
meetings in Melbourne.

In “The Sharps Container” you’ll find short information pieces
about what’s happening in EMS in the U.S., and “No Borders”
offers the same on a global level.

As always, we appreciate your comments, concerns, and
compliments. We reply to everyone who writes. Send email to
publisher Richard Bilger at rbilger@merginet.com or me at
kate@merginet.com - be in touch!

Warm regards,
Kate Dernocoeur, Editor
mailto:kate@merginet.com

New in this issue!

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Features
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>> The Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) Trial
by Mary Ann McBurnie, Ph.D.
Due to the development of automated external defibrillators
(AEDs), the notion of Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) appears
to be a promising means of improving emergency treatment for
victims of sudden cardiac arrest who collapse in public places.
Currently, about one fourth of the 300,000 annual deaths due to
sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) occur in public areas.

>> Medics in Space
by Michelle Mackay
As early as 1975, NASA began toying with the idea of commercial
space travel. One scenario envisions a wheel shaped space station
that houses 10,000 colonists — day by day, the dream inches
closer to reality. The era of the physically fit astronaut
specimen is waning; the era of the couch potato space traveler is
about to begin. And just as in ordinary Planet Earth communities,
a greater populace brings with it a broader spectrum of illness,
both chronic and emergency.

>> Riots in Melbourne
by Buck Reed
As out-of-hospital care providers, we often take many things for
granted. Scene safety is one of them. When we do run into an
aggressive patient or bystander, we have to use a whole range of
additional skills to protect the scene and the patient. So what
sort of skills do you use when faced with 10,000 aggressive
bystanders? St. John Ambulance Australia's Victorian District
found out the hard way on September 11, 2000.


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Medic Life
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>>  RUNNIN' RED: Fuzzy Math — by Vic & Vern
We couldn't let another month go by without addressing this
MRLPASOoBL (Medicare Reimbursement Let's Put Ambulance Services
Out of Business Legislation). It has taken us a fair amount of
research, web searches, strip searches, and soul searches to come
up with this plan.

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Educators Corner
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>> "Sleepers" — by Valerie DeFrance
They were your average looking bunch, the majority of them in
their twenties with a few old duffers showing up to give it a go.
I glanced up occasionally to see how full the classroom was going
to get, always unsure of my numbers until the end of the first or
second day. It was just the typical frantic last ten minutes
before the start of another EMT course.

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Columns
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>> Studying a Study: Comparing Biphasic and Monophasic AED Shocks
by Harold Cohen
Using biphasic defibrillation brings with it a three-fold
potential of greater success: fewer defibrillations, the need for
less energy, and a reduction in patient injury potential.
Traditional external defibrillation has used monophasic,
single-direction defibrillation. In 1994, the introduction of
implantable cardiac defibrillators introduced medicine to a
biphasic, multi-direction electrical shock.


>> Book Review: First Things First — by Mike Taigman
Do you ever say things like, "I'd love to spend time with you,
but I have to work. There's this deadline. It's urgent. Of course
you understand," or, "I just don't have time to exercise. I know
it's important, but there are so many pressing things right now.
Maybe when things slow down a little." How about, "I have too
much to do, and not enough time to do it all," or, "A personal
life? What's that?"

More online!

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MERGINET.NEWS Online!
Click here: http://www.MERGINET.com/index-news.htm

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MERGINET is a service designed to provide resources, news,
education and fun to the all in EMS, Fire, Rescue and Emergency
Medicine. Updated daily.
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MERGINET Medical Resources
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