Bridging the Gap between EMS and Health Services Research: A Conference for Rese

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DESCRIPTION (PROVIDED BY APPLICANT): Emergency medical services (EMS) are a vital part of healthcare delivery for the most severely ill and injured patients. EMS providers are needed to respond to recurring medical emergencies as well as mass casualty events such as natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Despite its importance, EMS is among the least understood and least monitored areas of the health sector. To facilitate improvements in the quality and coordination of EMS systems, the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy (CSHP) proposes to sponsor an invitational conference on EMS research and performance. The conference will bring together researchers, EMS stakeholders, and EMS regulators to achieve the following specific goals: 1. Create an agenda to integrate EMS research with the broader discipline of health services research. 2. Identify opportunities to link EMS databases with other data used by health services researchers. 3. Identify priority measures of EMS quality with emphasis on measures that contribute to quality assessment across entire episodes of care. 4. Develop methods for turning EMS research into practice by incorporating perspectives and concerns of EMS stakeholders and regulators. 5. Identify lessons learned from recent EMS innovations across the U.S. The one-day conference will feature presentations and discussions that include experts on EMS systems, data, and oversight; healthcare quality; and relations between hospitals and EMS providers. The conference is intended to be a catalyst for future collaborative research that connects EMS activity with broader healthcare policy and qualityimprovement initiatives. Toward that end, the final project report will identify important unanswered research questions, core EMS quality and performance measures, and specific data collection efforts that are required to implement the measures.