The PCDS Support Group

My name is Scott, and I suffer from PCDS.

What is PCDS? The abbreviation stands for Post Conference Depression Syndrome. Many of us realized this disorder was going to plague us in the last hours of EMS Expo in Dallas, and as we said goodbye in Baltimore, it was clear that I was going to have to battle with it again.

Okay, enough of the drama. What a great week! The four days flew by, and there was so much to see, hear and learn about. Here are some of my conference highlights:

1. The EMS 10 Awards — I wrote about them briefly in my EMS Today Eve post from Thursday morning. What a great way to start of the week: attend a dinner that honors some great EMS innovators. As I mentioned previously, it was great to see two members of our own EMS Podcasting and Blogging community walking away with awards that night. Congratulations to Greg Friese, Chris Montera, and all of the other winners, and thank you Erik Denny for including my in the festivities.

2. Firestorm — I ran into Julie Winokur, the Director, Producer and Editor of Firestorm, a great movie about ER overcrowding and the misuse of the Emergency Medical System in general in the City of Los Angeles. I was able to attend the Three-City Premiere last May in Philadelphia, and wrote a review of it on the blog as well. It turned out that Talking Eyes Media was putting on another showing of it, this time on the Exhibit Floor at EMS Today. I was excited to see that the showing resulted in a standing room only crowd. If you haven’t seen Firestorm yet, I urge you to do so. It’s a great “no punches pulled” look at the struggles not only faced by the EMS community, but by modern Health Care.

3. Culture Shock: Transforming the Culture of an Organization – There were a lot of people that I wanted to see, and a lot of things to do in a short time, so I wasn’t able to make as many sessions as I would have liked. This was one that I made it a point to attend. In my current job, we face a number of challenges, and it turns out that we are not the only ones. Matt Zavadsky, the Associate Director of Operations for MedStar EMS in Fort Worth, Texas painted a picture of the struggles his service faced three years ago, and they are strikingly similar to what I am experiencing now. What did I learn from all of this? We are taking steps in the right direction here where I am. Also, we now have some ideas for the next steps that we must take.

4. Veinlite Transilluminators — Saturday morning, I was able to set aside a few hours to really go through the Exhibit Hall and check out some of the products that were there. This one impressed me the most. It’s an LED light that makes it easier to actually illuminate and spot veins deeper in the skin to make IV cannulation easier. We tried it out on each other (minus the “ouch” part) and I was really impressed with how easy it was to clearly spot a vein on some folks who might otherwise be a slightly challenging stick.

5. First Responders Network — Ted Setla, Justin Schorr, Sam Bradley and the entire Chronicles of EMS Team are at it again. They’ve created the First Responders Network, focusing on content “Created By and For First Responders.” Look for some big announcements and big things to come from this group. If you’re not excited, you should be.

6. ProMed’s Podcasting Booth — If you were there and you didn’t sit in on some of the shows that were held on the event floor, boy did you miss out! Most of the ProMed network was there, and I made appearances on First Few Moments and The GenMed Show. A big “thank you” goes out to Jamie Davis, Chris Montera, Carissa O’Brien, and the entire ProMed team for giving us a platform to let our voices be heard. And of course, an even bigger “thank you” goes out to Kyle David Bates, Meris Shuwarger, and of course Natalie Quebodeaux for including me in their projects.

7. The People — Just as in Dallas, long days at the Convention Center turned into even longer nights. I saw spots in Baltimore I’d never been to before, and spent time with some amazing people. I met up with friends I only get to see once or twice a year, made some great new friends, and even connected with some people I hadn’t seen in years. To everyone I had the pleasure and honor to meet and speak with down there, I thank you. Events like EMS Today remind me of how great our community truly is.

I want to talk more about what I saw in the booths of three major vendors on the Exhibit Hall Floor, so look for that post later in the week!

My second major EMS Conference was just as exciting and overwhelming as Dallas was. As I said on the GenMed Show, if you’ve never been to a conference like that before, what are you waiting for? There are friendships to be made, products to see, information to learn, and good times to be had.

Now that I’m home, and the week has come to an end, it’s time to start my planning for. Get excited, people, its only 176 days away!