The History of Emergency Trauma Technician Curriculum in Alaska
The Emergency Trauma Technician (ETT) curriculum is based principally upon the research, experience, and knowledge of those that have spent their lives providing care to the sick and injured of Alaska. To each, we owe a debt that we can only repay through providing emergency medical care based on the knowledge passed on by those who have proceeded us.
The ETT course is dedicated to two physicians who have provided more training, direct medical care, and inspiration than any other physicians known to this author. The first is Dr. George Longenbaugh, a surgeon who practiced for most of his care in Sitka. His many years of struggling to help patients of trauma in an isolated community can be seen directly through the productive lives that those patients have lived afterward. Sitka is a stronger community because of his work.
Dr. Copass was heavily involved in EMS in Alaska. He founded Airlift Northwest, a critical care air service that transports patients around Southeast Alaska as well as to Anchorage, Seattle, and other more distant locations. As a part of his work with Airlift Northwest, he has participated in the training, research, and the promotion of high-quality EMS care throughout the state of Alaska.
Southeast Region EMS Council has been the focus of EMS throughout southeast Alaska. The strength of the council is drawn from the people involved. The staff conducts training and provides advice to small EMS services of the region; the board of directors provides a connection to the communities; and the EMS providers whose daily efforts to improve one life at a time.
~Taken from the ETT Manual Forward written by William Kriegsman, MD
