Nearly 200 people came together on October 17, 2023 for the 15th Annual EMS Research Day, an in-person/virtual hybrid event to showcase and celebrate research in Dal EM’s Division of Emergency Medical Services.

The event opened with the Dr. Edward J Cain Distinguished Scholar Keynote. Dr. Sheldon Cheskes delivered the thought-provoking address, Trials and Tribulations of a Resuscitation Scientist. He is the Medical Director at Sunnybrook Center for Prehospital Medicine for the regions of Halton and Peel.

After the keynote address, 11 researchers presented abstracts of their recent work.

Dominic Lajeunesse, a primary care paramedic in Central Zone, emceed the event. This year’s judges were Dr. Sheldon Cheskes (this year’s keynote speaker), Dr. Yves Leroux (emergency physician and Interim Director, Division of EMS), Jennifer Greene (advanced care paramedic and Knowledge Translation Specialist, Division of EMS), and Michael Janczyszyn (advanced care paramedic and EHS AED Registry Program Coordinator).

Dr. Judah Goldstein won the Dr. Ron Stewart EMS Research Award for Most Significant Research in EMS Conducted by a Paramedic for his study, Evaluating Resource Use Across Health Care and Police Services Among Chronically Homeless, Middle Aged Men with Alcohol Use Disorder: A Multi-sector, Multi-methods Case Series.

There were two recipients of the Top EMS Research Project Award this year. Dr. Renée Kinden received an award for her study, Prehospital Mortality Among Pediatric Trauma Patients in Nova Scotia: A 17-year Retrospective Analysis. The other was awarded to Dr. Luc de Montigny for his research project, How Well Does the Medical Priority Dispatch System Predict Clinical Outcomes? An Assessment Using Two Large EMS Datasets Linked to Outcomes. 

As co-recipients of the 2023 Top EMS Research Project Award, Renée and Luc will go on to present their projects at the department-wide Emergency Medicine Research Day, coming along in May 2024.