Celebrating a lifetime of achievement!
At the 2021 Air Medical Transport Conference we had the opportunity to celebrate a truly extraordinary person who has dedicated their life’s work to the service of others. Life Link III’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. RJ Frascone, was named the 2021 recipient of the AAMS Marriott-Carlson Lifetime Achievement Award.
This esteemed honor recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions to the overall enhancement, development, leadership or promotion of the emergency medical transport community and has been actively involved or participated in an emergency medical transport organization. With a distinguished career of more than 40 years working in healthcare, Dr. Frascone has dedicated his life’s work to the practice of emergency medicine, prehospital medicine, and clinical excellence in the air medical industry.
It would be impossible to list all of Dr. Frascone’s accomplishments and the impact he has made. Some of the most notable include:
- Since 1990, he has served as the Chief Medical Officer for Life Link III – a position he still holds today
- He is also the Medical Director of Regions Hospital EMS in St Paul, Minnesota, oversees Medical Direction for the City of St. Paul as well as 26 other agencies
- He is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Minnesota and practiced Emergency Medicine for 42 years at Regions Hospital where he has trained over 1,000 resident physicians
- He led Life Link III as an early adopter of video laryngoscopy
- He played a key role in the research and development of Active Compression-Decompression and the ResQPod in an effort enhance CPR
- He led research regarding pre-hospital ultrasound, Neonatal Hearing Protection and noise reduction in the transport isolette
- He elevated the level of care at Life Link III by implementing Point of Care Ultrasound, Point of Care Lab Testing, and Carrying whole blood on every transport
- He was involved with the launching of the Mobile ECMO program serving as the Director of EMS Operations for Minnesota Mobile Resuscitation Consortium
- When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, Dr. Frascone encouraged his clinical leadership team to think differently and identify solutions to safely and effectively transport these patients – this led to the use non-invasive SeaLong helmets
- He pioneered the use of mechanical CPR in the air medical setting to ensure the best chance of survival for the patient while maintaining safety for the flight as the #1 priority Today, Life Link III utilizes the LUCAS mechanical CPR device on board all rotor wing and fixed wing aircraft.
We are so grateful for Dr. Frascone and all that he has done for Life Link III, EMS, and countless patients and communities that have benefitted from a lifetime of incredible service. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Frascone on this incredible honor!
To view Dr. Frascone’s video, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqjikcEv7c0
