The policy in Houston, Texas, is to dual dispatch medically trained firefighters in addition to emergency medical services (EMS) units to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) cases. While believed to improve public health outcomes, no research exists to support the policy that when firefighters respond before a better-equipped EMS unit, they increase the probability of survival. This retrospective study by Dr. Loren Raun et al uses logistic regression to determine the association between return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and response time for fire apparatus first responders controlling for arrival of the EMS unit. Read more about the results of this article, “Effectiveness of the Dual Dispatch to Cardiac Arrest Policy in Houston, Texas,” published ahead of print in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice.

Dr. Loren Raun

Loren Raun, PhD, is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Statistics at Rice University where she teaches classes in her areas of expertise: human health risk assessment from environmental exposure and environmental statistics. She has been involved in all aspects of human health risk assessment, including as a practitioner in the private sector, regulatory reviewer, policy developer, and instructor. She is currently the Chief Environmental Science Officer for the Houston Health Department.