The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently announced its new initiative with the National Association of State EMS Officials (NASEMSO) to develop evidence based voluntary fatigue risk management guidelines and resources tailored to the EMS occupation. NHTSA is announcing the first in a series of expert panel meetings to develop evidence-based guidelines for fatigue management in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) community to be held April 26-27, 2016 at DOT Headquarters in Washington, DC. This meeting will focus on generating research questions germane to fatigue mitigation in EMS settings as well as inclusion criteria for the evidence based guideline literature review. Members of the public are encouraged to attend the meeting and make comments about the topic during times set aside specifically for this purpose. Due to space limitations, attendance at the meeting is limited to invited participants and those who register in advance at http://www.nasemso.org/Projects/Fatigue-in-EMS/index.asp. Written comments can also be made on http://www.regulations.gov (Docket No. NHTSA-2015-0121). The tentative agenda topics are as follows:
- Background on Fatigue in EMS and our approach to EBG development
- Overview of the GRADE methodology
- Expert Panel & Research Team presentations
- Panel Discussion
- Public Comment