Quarterly Newsletter December 2024

As we near the end of 2024, we have a few exciting updates to share with you!

It was great to see many of you at the 2024Colorado State EMS Conference in November. If you were there and stopped by our booth or attended a lecture presented by our CEO, Dr. Sean Keenan, thank you!

A little about Specialized Medical Standards:

There are many new faces reading this newsletter, so we wanted to give a quick “here’s who we are” intro.

We at Specialized Medical Standards develop and distribute medical guidelines, training programs and quality education for medical first responders. We also proudly host and support the Prolonged Field Care Collective and the Prolonged Field Care podcast.

Our flagship training course is called Austere Emergency Care (AEC for short). This training prepares pre-hospital providers – both military and civilian – to provide timely and efficient care to serious and critical casualties in austere conditions (situations without robust medical supervision or support). 

AEC Course Numbers

As of December 18, 2024, 900+ participants have gone through the Austere Emergency Care training and over 36,000 continuing education credits have been awarded. Some participants have also earned Wilderness Medical Society Fellowship in the Academy of Wilderness Medicine (FAWM) credit hours.

Check out the new AEC video

Watch this new video about the Austere Emergency Care course. If you’ve been through the training, see if you can spot yourself in the footage!

Some more of this year’s highlights are:

• Our training partners held 98 courses total this year
• We’ve trained and certified 20 Instructors
• We’ve updated some of our online course material with activities and better videos
• We have (almost) finalized the Prolonged Field Care Field Handbook (see below for a giveaway)

Win a Prolonged Field Care Field Handbook!
Help us decide on the cover for our new handbook coming out in January 2025. By voting for your favorite option, you’ll be entered to win a free copy of the new handbook.

Contest ends December 22, 2024

New Prolonged Field Care Merch

Grab some gifts for you or yourself to represent the Prolonged Field Care Collective. You’ll find shirts, mugs, phone holders, and more on the website.

See the store

Upcoming Courses

• January 6 – 9 in Colorado Springs, CO
  • Hosted by Ragged Edge Solutions 
• January 9 – 12 in Poland < Sold Out >
  • Hosted by CoROM 
• February 6– 9 in Gunnison, Colorado
  • Hosted by ANR
• March 13 – 16 in Poland < Sold Out >
  • Hosted by CoROM 
• March 17 – 20 in Colorado Springs, Colorado
  • Hosted by ANR
• March 17 – 20 in Canterbury, New Zealand
  • Hosted by Ragged Edge Solutions
• May 22 – 25 in Poland < Sold Out >
  • Hosted by CoROM

Here’s what we hope to achieve in 2025

• Create additional courses and continuing education online training materials
• Identify opportunities to establish Austere Emergency Care (AEC) as a standard for services, government and/or educational entities
• Continue to build and foster a network of SMS-trained Instructors and Directors
• Fund critical operational needs for our part-time staff. Currently, over 50% of our staff time is unpaid, in-kind expert, and administrative support

Support the Cause

Your donations help us to partner with medical experts to write curriculum, design a handbook, and ultimately develop more robust and engaging training materials for participants.

As the year comes to an end, we ask you to seriously consider a donation to further our efforts in 2025. As a non-profit, we rely heavily on grants and your generosity to keep up this important work. Your donations help rural EMS frontline providers receive critical education and life-saving training.