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Tue Oct 7 23:38:52 BST 2008

In all due respect, I have read the articles.    Where  comparison studies on 
injury severity, distance, time, costs and outcomes are  compared, ground 
ambulance have always been equal or superior to helicopter  transport.    The 
reverences are in many different journals,  including critical care, trauma, 
surgical, air industry, hospital management,  EMS, and others.   Many, if not most 
of the articles are not  Class 3, 2, or 1 papers, but are mainly expert 
opinion, with NO concomitant  comparisons.     The entry criteria are often very  
interesting.      Over my lifetime, I have  probably read over 500 of the 
helicopter references.   The very first  entry in my own CV is a helicopter 
article.      Where  helicopter services have been known to be lost, and where data 
were kept pre and  post loss of the service, the times, and outcomes showed NO 
benefit to air  ambulance transport.      

It is time we came together and established appropriate standards, use  
criteria, and outcomes analysis, with the same scrutiny that we apply to cases  in 
the OR, ICU, and other critical care.      

Kenneth L. Mattox, MD

In a message dated 10/7/2008 5:09:40 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
dthomson at phihelico.com writes:

However, the
articles you are looking for were published in Prehospital  Emergency
Care. If you go to the website of the National Association of  EMS
Physicians (www.naemsp.org) you can download the Air Medical  Dispatch
position paper.  Referenced in that paper are some  annotated
bibliographies by Stephen Thomas that outline the literature  related to
air medical transport.  He also wrote another annotated  bibliography in
2004 in PEC. If you are a member of NAEMSP those papers are  available
for download.

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