As president of the IAFC, I have had the privilege to travel around the United States and the world, meeting many of the current and future leaders in the fire/EMS field. I also have had the privilege to see many of the innovations and emerging technologies that will revolutionize fire and EMS as we know it. I firmly am convinced that our industry is in good hands and our future is strong.

Our future is not based solely on innovation or technology for their own sake; but, rather, on leveraging new tools and ideas to advance our capabilities and quality of service. Many fire and emergency service leaders are bringing innovation and emergency technology together right now, and they are reshaping the way we do business.

There is one example that I believe will truly revolutionize and improve the success rate of cardiac-arrest victims beyond what we have ever seen before.

I look back over my career and see all the iterations that CPR has experienced. At the beginning, it was to train first responders in CPR. Next we trained tens of thousands of civilians to perform CPR while the first responders were en route.

Technology offered the next advancement in CPR, with the advent of semiautomatic and automatic defibrillators. Again, they first were used by fire and EMS personnel. This was followed by the distribution of defibrillators throughout our communities to be used by bystanders at the scene. All of this had a positive impact on the survival rate of cardiac-arrest victims.

However, I believe the next two iterations that will revolutionize CPR and increase the survival rates stratospherically are dispatcher-aided/hands-only CPR and a smartphone application that will alert the bystander of a cardiac arrest event.

The hands-only resuscitation approach was started in Arizona in 2005 and overseen by the state’s director of emergency services, Dr. Bently Bobrow. Under the new concept, dispatchers would instruct 911 callers to forget about mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and simply do chest compressions. Responders treated primary cardiac arrests patients using a protocol that called for 100 compressions per minute for two minutes. This was followed by a single defibrillator shock and then another 200 compressions.

This was a really tough sell in the beginning because it was contrary to what had been the doctrine for so many years. But after collecting and analyzing the data, Arizona realized a much higher survival rate for cardiac arrest victims than the national average. Last fall, the American Heart Association issued new guidelines strongly recommending that 911 dispatchers instruct callers to use compression-only CPR.

The second piece to the puzzle regarding more successful CPR is bringing those trained and those in cardiac arrest together. Chief Richard Price and the members of the San Ramon Valley (Calif.) Fire Protection District are now replacing fate with modern technology. A free smartphone application will notify those willing to perform CPR and who are within 500 feet of the victim.

If the person receiving the notification chooses to respond, a map is displayed showing them their location, the location of the victim and the closest AED. (More information on how this system can work in your jurisdiction can be found at
www.firedepartment.mobi.)

The innovation in tactics and the use of new technology each will show results on their own, but bringing the two together may create an even larger impact.

The future of the fire and emergency service is bright because there are leaders out there every day working to make it so. By nature, we are problem solvers, and therefore, each of us can be innovators. Innovation does not require a lot of resources or money — it just takes a little thought and a little courage to step out of the box.

Stay safe, be proud of what you do, and try to make a difference when you can.

Jack Parow is the president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. The retired fire chief in Chelmsford, Mass., Parow is a 33-year veteran of the fire service.

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