Leveraging Experience and Expertise

The NEMSAC appointees represent a wide range of emergency medical services disciplines and representatives, including volunteer and career EMS responders; EMS State directors; medical researchers and educators; highway safety professionals; dispatchers and air medical personnel; EMS physicians, surgeons, and nurses; data management specialists, homeland security experts, and others.

Expanding Collaboration The NHTSA Office of EMS (OEMS) has always sought to facilitate a consensus-based process for developing effective Federal programs by collaborating with other Federal agencies and with EMS community representatives. In fact, understanding that the end-users of Federal emergency medical programs and products are EMS providers, OEMS has long held that EMS providers should be directly involved in the development of these Federal programs.

In 2006, NHTSA moved to formalize its collaborative approach to working with EMS providers, consumers, and other stakeholders. In keeping with the requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) to utilize a group of citizens to provide ongoing recommendations to a Federal agency, NHTSA requested that an official committee of EMS stakeholders be chartered. In response, Transportation Secretary Peters determined that the establishment of an advisory committee was necessary, approved its formation, and NEMSAC was created.

An Overwhelming Response

On December 18, 2006, NHTSA put out a call for nominees to NEMSAC through the Federal Register. The response from the EMS community was overwhelming: more than 400 EMS representatives from across the country were nominated by their peers in less than two months' time. With so many qualified applicants, the selection process was a difficult one. In accordance with FACA requirements, NHTSA conducted a thorough review of all applications and sent a final nominee list to Secretary Peters for her consideration.

Additional Opportunities to Get Involved

NHTSA realizes that many more qualified individuals were nominated than could be appointed to the Council. However, interested parties can still make valuable contributions to NEMSAC in several ways. For example, an individual or organization may request to be placed on the NEMSAC mailing list, submit written comments to the Council, and attend NEMSAC meetings. Time will be set aside during each meeting for public comment. NHTSA encourages all those interested to take advantage of this opportunity to have your voice heard. Congratulations to all those appointees selected! The NHTSA OEMS team looks forward to working with NEMSAC, as well as the greater EMS community. Watch this space for updates on NEMSAC activities.