January 13, 2020 | Erin Bluvas, bluvase@sc.edu
Daniel Patterson, a 2001 graduate of the Master of Public Health program and 2004 graduate of the Ph.D. in Health Services Policy and Management (HSPM), has been named the James O. Page Professor of Emergency Healthcare Worker Safety in the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. Patterson is also an associate professor of emergency medicine in the school of medicine.
Patterson’s interest in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) began during his doctoral program at the Arnold School where he studied recruitment and retention of emergency medical technicians, medically unnecessary utilization of EMS and deficits in access to EMS in rural areas. During this time, he worked closely with HSPM Distinguished Professor Emerita Janice Probst and investigators at the Rural and Minority Health Research Center (previously known as the South Carolina Rural Health Research Center).
Following graduation, Patterson continued his health services research as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina’s Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. He then joined the University of Pittsburgh in 2007 and earned a Master of Science in Epidemiology, completed a fellowship in patient safety and leadership sponsored by Society for Academic Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medicine Patient Safety Foundation, and received a five-year K12 training grant from NIH and the University of Pittsburgh. Other notable professional experiences include directing research for the Center for Emergency Medicine of Western Pennsylvania and working as a senior scientist at Carolinas Healthcare System Medical Center in North Carolina.
Today, the endowed chair examines safety in emergency care settings with an emphasis on safety culture, fatigue, shift work, sleep health, teamwork, medial errors and adverse events, and clinician injury in the prehospital EMS setting. His work has resulted in the establishment of base rate data for key indicators of EMS safety and the creation of reliable and valid safety measurement tools.
Underscoring his research is Patterson’s cumulative and continuing clinical experiences as a nationally registered paramedic who practices in the field on a weekly basis. He was twice elected to the Board of Directors for the National Association of EMS Physicians and is a fellow of the National Association of EMS Physicians’ Academy of EMS (FAEMS).
“My philosophy is that the research must be grounded in reality — a researcher must be in touch with what happens on the ground, in the field, clinic or hospital,” Patterson says.
Patterson was honored for his endowed chair position in December of 2019 when his institution sponsored a lecture “From Anecdote to Evidence: Fatigue and Teamwork in Emergency Medical Services” and reception in his honor. Additional recent honors include the 2010 EMS Innovator by JEMS & Physio-Control Inc., 2011-2012 Michael E. and Sandra P. Samuels Distinguished Alumni Award from the Arnold School’s Department of Health Services and Policy Management, and National Association of EMS Physicians’ 2015 Best EMS Professional Research.
[Daniel Patterson is pictured above (in blue) along with members of his family, including twin brother Nathaniel Patterson (far left) who is also an alumnus of the Arnold School's HSPM department.]
Related:
Arnold School alumnus elected to board of the National Association of EMS Physicians