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Earlier this month, member Christopher Watford developed a Standardized STEMI Identification Assessment and posted a beta version here for our members to test out. Soon after the assessment went viral in the EMS world. I took a few moments today to ask Christopher a few questions.
EMTLife: Good morning Christopher. Thanks for taking some time to chat with me today.
Let's start with a little background about yourself. What level of training do you have?
Christopher: I'm a paramedic with roughly 6 years of EMS experience, and a lead software engineer with 15 years of experience.
EMTLife: What type of service do you work for?
Christopher: I volunteer with a fire department that provides ALS transport and I work part time for a hospital based EMS system. I'm also a volunteer on an industrial fire brigade for the company where I develop software.
EMTLife: How did you come up with the Standardized STEMI Identification Assessment?
Christopher: It should be noted up front that I did not create the assessment. Dr. Jamie McCabe et al created the assessment and administered it to a cohort of physicians via Survey Monkey. They very graciously licensed the material in a manner which allowed derivative work such as mine (CC BY-NC).
It is the result of my desire to have an ECG assessment which identified key areas for improvement in a candidate, which also provided the descriptive statistics necessary to make system level decisions based on the responses.
EMTLife: Why did you create the assessment?
Christopher: I had attended a local "Train the Trainer" session put on by our STEMI coordinator which included a set of ECG's we went through concurrently with an interventional cardiologist. Each of the participants had a remote control with which they could signal either "STEMI" or "Not a STEMI". It was very interesting to see which ECG's the interventionalist said were difficult yet our group found easy, versus those he said were easy and we found difficult.
Around that same time I participated in a closed beta-test of a website designed to assess the ability of paramedics to identify a STEMI. It was unique in that it gave descriptive statistics--i.e. sensitivity and specificity--beyond just your raw accuracy. It was very well done, and I wanted something similar for my department.
I attempted to adapt this for my own department using our online training system, but it was unable to provide the ECG-by-ECG analysis and reporting features I was looking for. As a software engineer I decided it was feasible to attempt the test using easily available tools such as the forms and spreadsheets provided by Google Apps. The initial attempt took roughly one afternoon to complete.
EMTLife: When did you launch the assessment?
Christopher: I privately launched the assessment earlier this month to a select group, and publicly launched the assessment June 21st.
EMTLife: How many times has it been taken?
Christopher: Since June 21st it has been taken over 3200 times; roughly 1 respondent every other minute! It has overwhelmed my Google Apps limits three times so far, requiring additional programming under the hood to accommodate its unexpected success.
EMTLife: That's very impressive. I'm sure you're receiving a lot of great data. What do you plan to do with the results?
Christopher: Locally I have used them to identify areas for improvement in paramedic identification of coronary artery occlusion. Our area is 100% paramedic interpretation, so it is important that we understand our failings and adjust our education to meet that need.
I may attempt to publish the results, as there are some interesting findings with respect to the similarities and differences in answers between the public cohort and the original McCabe study.
EMTLife: If you do publish the results, would you be willing to share them in the forum?
Christopher: Sharing is caring, and information deserves to be free
I most certainly will share them with the forum.
EMTLife: Awesome! How long have you been a member of EMTLife?
Christopher: Great question! Perhaps two years? Maybe longer.
EMTLife: Yeah, it looks like just over two years. What has kept you coming back to the community?
Christopher: The opportunity to collaborate with EMS providers from around the US and internationally. Also it provides another avenue to spread educational material on the topics I'm passionate in.
EMTLife: Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions. I know it was short notice.
Christopher: You're welcome.
---
I hope all of you, our members, enjoyed reading this interview. I hope we're able to do more of these in the future.
If you haven't already, you can take the assessment by clicking here.
Enjoy the rest of your day and stay safe!
EMTLife: Good morning Christopher. Thanks for taking some time to chat with me today.
Let's start with a little background about yourself. What level of training do you have?
Christopher: I'm a paramedic with roughly 6 years of EMS experience, and a lead software engineer with 15 years of experience.
EMTLife: What type of service do you work for?
Christopher: I volunteer with a fire department that provides ALS transport and I work part time for a hospital based EMS system. I'm also a volunteer on an industrial fire brigade for the company where I develop software.
EMTLife: How did you come up with the Standardized STEMI Identification Assessment?
Christopher: It should be noted up front that I did not create the assessment. Dr. Jamie McCabe et al created the assessment and administered it to a cohort of physicians via Survey Monkey. They very graciously licensed the material in a manner which allowed derivative work such as mine (CC BY-NC).
It is the result of my desire to have an ECG assessment which identified key areas for improvement in a candidate, which also provided the descriptive statistics necessary to make system level decisions based on the responses.
EMTLife: Why did you create the assessment?
Christopher: I had attended a local "Train the Trainer" session put on by our STEMI coordinator which included a set of ECG's we went through concurrently with an interventional cardiologist. Each of the participants had a remote control with which they could signal either "STEMI" or "Not a STEMI". It was very interesting to see which ECG's the interventionalist said were difficult yet our group found easy, versus those he said were easy and we found difficult.
Around that same time I participated in a closed beta-test of a website designed to assess the ability of paramedics to identify a STEMI. It was unique in that it gave descriptive statistics--i.e. sensitivity and specificity--beyond just your raw accuracy. It was very well done, and I wanted something similar for my department.
I attempted to adapt this for my own department using our online training system, but it was unable to provide the ECG-by-ECG analysis and reporting features I was looking for. As a software engineer I decided it was feasible to attempt the test using easily available tools such as the forms and spreadsheets provided by Google Apps. The initial attempt took roughly one afternoon to complete.
EMTLife: When did you launch the assessment?
Christopher: I privately launched the assessment earlier this month to a select group, and publicly launched the assessment June 21st.
EMTLife: How many times has it been taken?
Christopher: Since June 21st it has been taken over 3200 times; roughly 1 respondent every other minute! It has overwhelmed my Google Apps limits three times so far, requiring additional programming under the hood to accommodate its unexpected success.
EMTLife: That's very impressive. I'm sure you're receiving a lot of great data. What do you plan to do with the results?
Christopher: Locally I have used them to identify areas for improvement in paramedic identification of coronary artery occlusion. Our area is 100% paramedic interpretation, so it is important that we understand our failings and adjust our education to meet that need.
I may attempt to publish the results, as there are some interesting findings with respect to the similarities and differences in answers between the public cohort and the original McCabe study.
EMTLife: If you do publish the results, would you be willing to share them in the forum?
Christopher: Sharing is caring, and information deserves to be free
I most certainly will share them with the forum.EMTLife: Awesome! How long have you been a member of EMTLife?
Christopher: Great question! Perhaps two years? Maybe longer.
EMTLife: Yeah, it looks like just over two years. What has kept you coming back to the community?
Christopher: The opportunity to collaborate with EMS providers from around the US and internationally. Also it provides another avenue to spread educational material on the topics I'm passionate in.
EMTLife: Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions. I know it was short notice.
Christopher: You're welcome.
---
I hope all of you, our members, enjoyed reading this interview. I hope we're able to do more of these in the future.
If you haven't already, you can take the assessment by clicking here.
Enjoy the rest of your day and stay safe!
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