The office of the Medical Director is charged with providing medical oversight to the interdisciplinary team that offers state-of-the-art medical care to the citizens of Boston's communities. The Medical Director is the supervising physician of Research, Training, and Quality Improvement (RTQI) at Boston EMS. With RTQI, he and his team of doctors work as advocates for quality medical care of the patients of Boston through medical oversight of pre-hospital emergency care as dictated by statewide treatment protocols, advancement of pre-hospital medical care through medical research, physician leadership through training physicians in pre-hospital medicine in the Boston EMS Fellowship Program, community involvement through outreach programs and educational initiatives, coordination of hospitals, disaster preparedness along with the DelValle Institute of Emergency Preparedness, and continued training of Boston EMS personnel. The medical team also works closely with the administrative and operational directors of Boston EMS to ensure a highly coordinated system of care.

Research, Training and Quality Improvement (RTQI)

Under the leadership of the Medical Director, the staff of RTQI includes:
• Associate and assistant medical directors,
• Physician fellows
• Deputy Superintendents
• Training Captains
• Quality Improvement Paramedic
• ALS clinical coordinator
• Administrative staff and research professionals.

The RTQI team is responsible for the initial education and continued training of EMTs and paramedics, research to advance pre-hospital medical care, and quality improvement to ensure continued superior care to the citizens of Boston and its visitors.

Boston EMS provides a continuum of training education. At the community level, first responder and CPR trainings are offered to all Boston Public High School freshmen, as well as many other groups within the city, including state legislators and private businesses. For those interested in advancing their lifesaving skills and pursuing a career as an Emergency Medical Technician, Boston EMS offers a first rate, low cost course to members of the public for the EMT-Basic level training, which is taught by experienced training captains and EMTs. Upon successful completion of the course, students can take the state exam and become licensed as EMTs within Massachusetts.

Only individuals certified as EMTs are eligible for hire at Boston EMS, upon completion of an internal test and interview, all new recruits are entered into a six month Training Academy. The full-time course includes rigorous classroom and field instruction, exercises, and drills. Similarly, members promoted to Paramedics enter into a more intensive, class and field training program. Both programs are offered in-house and instruction is provided by training personnel with extensive field and educational experience.

Continuing education by the training captains, EMS physicians, as well as outside lectures are an essential component occurring on a monthly basis to educate current members of the service on new and existing treatment protocols, new equipment, and to review cases with challenging or up-to-date medical decision-making. All of the Refresher Training Courses and Monthly Continuing Medical Education meets or exceeds the recertification requirements of the State Office of Emergency Medical Services, Metropolitan Boston Emergency Medical Services Council, and the Federal Department of Transportation guidelines for Basic and Advanced EMT training.

In order to continue to provide the most advanced care to our patients, research into areas of state-of-the-art pre-hospital medicine is a focus of RTQI. Areas of current research interest include the uses of best practices in cardiac resuscitation including therapeutic hypothermia, the use of new breathing equipment including CPAP which has previously only been used in the hospital setting, and the use of alternative intravenous access devices. We ensure that our system provides the best care possible by physician and senior paramedic review on a scheduled basis of the most challenging and most common medical cases to ensure the best care has been given. Through the processes in place at RTQI, members of our community can feel confident in the care they will receive when they are in need of emergency assistance.