Emerging EMS Technology: Strategic Leadership to Implementation. Two days of hands-on AI and technology work, built for the EMS leaders who will decide what comes next.
Includes a signed copy of the book, Thursday lunch, and more than 11 hours of professional development. Registration is handled by the Iowa EMS Association.
Data source: NEMSIS 2022 Public-Release Research Dataset. Original analysis by Donnie Woodyard, Jr.
EMS leaders are past the question of whether artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, advanced air mobility, and data-driven care will reshape prehospital medicine. They are not on the horizon. They are here. The real gap facing our field today is not awareness. It is implementation.
This is a two-day working session for the directors, chiefs, medical directors, and decision-makers who are ready to stop reading about the future and start building it. Day one, you understand the technology. Day two, you lead it. You will do the work alongside peers carrying the same staffing math and the same budget pressure, and you will leave with a plan you can start Monday morning.
A short invitation from your host, on what the conference is, who it is for, and why it matters now.
Autonomous-vehicle pilots, eVTOL medical transport demonstrations, drone response programs, and AI-assisted documentation are no longer theoretical. The question for EMS leaders is not whether these technologies arrive, but how to evaluate them responsibly, on their own terms, before vendors, policymakers, or market pressure define those terms for them. That is what these two days are for.
A repeatable method to evaluate and adopt technology responsibly, so you can tell a tool that moves your system forward from a shiny distraction that drains your budget.
A draft AI policy for your agency, a vendor evaluation checklist, a workforce plan, and a written 90-day action plan with specific commitments. You build them in the room, not on the drive home.
A room full of peers you will be calling six months from now, plus the language, the evidence, and the conviction to lead these conversations back home instead of waiting to be told what to do.
Every argument session runs the same way: a sharp thesis, then real discussion at your table where you agree, disagree, and defend it. Not a slideshow.
You put your own hands on AI platforms and large language models, live, from first prompt to power user, on a real task. Not a demo from a stage.
Four briefings show how the AI actually works inside the products entering EMS. Built to teach, not to sell. One rule: show us how it works, not why to buy yours.
Four EMS leaders, chosen by the attendees, show how they have put AI and technology to work in their own services. Real implementation, real results.
The systems with the least slack have the most to gain. Rural and resource-limited EMS is a design priority in every session, not an afterthought.
The Rural Health Transformation Program is moving $50 billion into rural health, with technology, data, cybersecurity, and prehospital services named as eligible uses. The first-year window closes in fall 2026.
The agencies that succeed will be the ones that prepare now, lead decisively, and implement strategically.
Times shown in Central. Highlighted sessions are facilitated thesis-and-table or hands-on blocks. Inside the Technology spotlights and peer presentations run throughout.
Before you choose technologies, answer the question that governs everything, and why it still decides how you get paid and whether you can see a patient's records.
Roughly 80% of physicians use AI; about 6% of EMS agencies do. The gap is widening in real time, and your clinicians are likely already using these tools with patient data.
Bring a device and go from first prompt to real work: drafting a policy, summarizing research, building board talking points. Beginners leave confident, daily users leave sharper.
The country is racing to kill the clipboard. Learn bidirectional exchange and how to query your own NEMSIS data in plain English, without waiting on a vendor dashboard.
The FAA's eVTOL pilot launched this spring. Autonomous vehicles, eVTOL transport, and AED-carrying drones are moving from demo to deployment. You'll see the data, not the hype.
The moment an AI-generated narrative is signed, it is a legal record, and you own it. Build the workflow, security, and policy that keep you defensible.
The questions to ask, the contract terms to insist on, and how to run a real pilot before you commit your whole system to a vendor.
Where the money actually is: $50 billion in Rural Health Transformation funding, and how to position your agency before the first-year window closes this fall.
What this does to your people: deskilling, trust, recruitment, and the burnout math. Your most experienced medic's fear, answered honestly.
A field-tested framework for leading when the rules don't apply, drawn from building EMS in Sri Lanka's civil war and disaster response in Haiti.
The capstone. You've spent two days learning the technology; here is what acting on it demands of you, your agency, and your profession.
Working time. You leave with a written 90-day plan: one technology to pilot, one leader to develop, one barrier to remove.
The Rural Health Transformation Program is moving $50 billion into rural health, and technology, data, cybersecurity, and prehospital services are all named uses. You will leave knowing how to position your agency before the first-year window closes in fall 2026, not a year after the money is spoken for.
MAML, NRP · Principal, Med1 Technology, LLC
Donnie Woodyard is one of the most experienced EMS system builders in the country, with more than 30 years leading EMS at every level, from field paramedic to state director to national executive. He currently serves as Executive Director of the United States EMS Compact, the governmental body enabling interstate EMS practice across more than two dozen states and over 450,000 clinicians.
As State EMS Director in Colorado and Louisiana, he championed regulatory reform, launched statewide mental-health initiatives for clinicians, and led through the COVID-19 pandemic. As COO at the National Registry of EMTs, he modernized technology systems and helped lay the groundwork for the EMS Compact. During Sri Lanka's civil war he designed the nation's first EMS framework and authored prehospital textbooks in Sinhalese and Tamil. Following the 2010 Haiti earthquake he directed multinational medical response teams serving more than 186,000 patients.
A six-time published author and Harvard AI in Healthcare certificate holder, he is a graduate of the Naval Postgraduate School's Executive Leaders Program, an FAA fixed-wing and Part 107 drone pilot, and a Civil Air Patrol squadron commander. He advises on emerging aviation technology for EMS, conducting market-intelligence analysis using national NEMSIS data.
Disclosure
This conference is presented through Med1 Technology, LLC, a private consulting practice. This engagement is separate from and not affiliated with the Interstate Commission for EMS Personnel Practice (U.S. EMS Compact) or any other governmental entity.
Registration is open now to hold your seat, confirmed based on availability. Capacity is limited by design, so registering early is the only way to guarantee a place in the room.
The chief, the medical director, and the data or IT lead will build a stronger 90-day plan together in the workshop than any of them will alone. Seats are limited, so reserve the team's places early.
Put AI or emerging tech to work in your own service? Register to present your innovation when you arrive. Four sessions will be chosen by the audience, so come prepared. Not a sales pitch: real implementation, real results, 15 minutes each.
The future of EMS will not be led by vendors or software alone. It will be led by the professionals on the ground who understand that burnout, staffing shortages, and outdated systems are not abstract challenges. They are daily operational realities.
This is a working session, not an open-capacity expo. Registration is capped at 225 EMS leaders, so the room stays collaborative and the hands-on work stays workable. Once those seats are claimed, registration closes. If you intend to lead your system's future, register early through IEMSA.