New Mexico EMS Medical Director

I was delighted to take over as the State EMS Medical Director in January, 2011. I look forward to working with all members of the EMS community across New Mexico.

This upcoming year promises to be a busy one:  The New Mexico EMS Interventions Research Group (a team consisting of members from the Bureau, from UNM and from across the state) has begun work evaluating EMS skills that lie within the NM scope of practice.  The goal is to see which EMS skills make sense in our EMS environment. This work will help guide New Mexico's EMS scope of practice, using an evidence-based process to evaluate the utility of each EMS skill.  We recognize that the rural nature of this state requires our EMS scope to be broad and flexible; this investigation will help all caregivers to focus on providing care that is supported by the best possible evidence.

We have also begun to evaluate community paramedicine programs.  Community paramedics are trained to provide an expanded scope of care, and have been particularly successful in rural communities, particularly in Minnesota and Colorado.  Community paramedics may offer new access to care for medically underserved communities across the state.  We will be investigating these programs to see how they might fit within our system.

Finally, we are working on revising and updating the EMS Medical Director training program, and coming up with ways to ensure that it is accessible to every NM-based medical director.  Look for a new program by the end of the year.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if I can be of help at any point. 

Sincerely, 

Marc-David Munk, MD, MPH, FACEP

State EMS Medical Director

marcdavid.munk@state.nm.us

Medical Director Rule 7.27.3 nmac

New Mexico Emergency Medical Systems (NMEMS)