IA MED – professional medical training online in a brave new world

First of all, could you share a bit of information about the background of IA MED?
Immediate Medicine Action, Inc. (IA MED) is a disabled veteran-owned small business founded by Chris Smetana and Jonathan Reed that provides cutting-edge specialty medical training, ranging from pre-hospital emergency medicine, in-hospital emergency or critical care medicine, aeromedical critical care, austere remote & tactical medicine, conference management, and program & content accreditation. Our proprietary system has been continuously developed and refined since 2011, using a comprehensive data-driven approach.

IA MED provides accreditation services for the medical community ranging from EMTs, Paramedics, Nurses, MAs, MD, and soon CRNA, PA, RTs and CCP

IA MED provides accreditation services for the medical community ranging from EMTs, Paramedics, Nurses, MAs, MD, and soon CRNA, PA, RTs and CCP (Cardio Pulmonary Perfusionist) though the IA MED Educational Committee comprised of industry-leading professionals in their respective field.
We founded IA MED because we were frustrated with the level of education and how it was delivered in our industry. Medical education is often tied to charting software to check a box. Most medical education organizations focus on stale, inefficient, and bureaucratic minimum-standards. This leads to poor education, clinical outcomes and staunches the forward progression of the medical industry.  
IA MED believes that the agency, clinician, and most importantly the patient deserve better. We teach the ‘why’ and the ‘how’, not the textbook answer, leaving the clinician better apt at clinical thinking and progression.

What does IA MED provide in terms of the variety of courses?
IA MED currently offers a variety of courses and medical education. We teach a four-day Flight Medical Provider Course that is available in-person, livestream, and online/on demand. We also have our one day Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) that is offered in the same format, with more courses being released this year, such as our Cardiac Assist Device Course (CAD), Basic and Advanced Mechanical Ventilation, Flight Safety/Operations/and Survival, Basic and Advanced K9 Care, Commercial Airline Medical Transport Course, Procedural Anatomy Lab, Advanced Airway, Tactical Paramedic and Community Paramedic with more in development.

IA MED also launched a collaboration with various medical podcasts and agencies called the CME Collective (or The Collective  for short) in March 2019. The CME Collective provides Free Access to Online Medical Education (FOAMed) and allows medical clinicians to search the medical podcast, blogs, and videos in an easy to navigate online library. Think of it as the iTunes for medical education. Clinicians can read, listen, or watch their favorite podcasts and get the clinical information to elevate their practice and knowledge.

Clinicians can read, listen, or watch their favorite podcasts and get the clinical information to elevate their practice and knowledge

Additionally, if they need in medical Continuing Education Hour (CEH), they can pay a small fee or choose an annual subscription to receive unlimited hours. This is the first time our industry has been able to bring collaborators together from varying medical professions and organizations to accredit their material, benefiting their listeners. 
The Collective also hosts live shows where we share industry knowledge and what other medical professionals are doing throughout the world. This allows viewers to share ideas, procedures, protocols, and progress medicine on a global scale with cutting edge content and online virtual medical conferences. 
Current CME Collective educators include:

• IA MED
• Every Coast Helicopter Operations (ECHO)
• RebelEM
• Heavy Lies the Helmet
• Johns Hopkins Lifeline

Who is the ‘typical’ attendee to your courses?

IA MED services a wide range of medical professionals to include Medical Assistants, EMTs, Paramedics, Registered Nurses, Nurse Practitioners, Respiratory Therapist, Doctors, Cardio-Pulmonary Perfusionist, and Ultrasound Techs.

There is an IA Med Educational Committee; how many people are on the committee, and how do you get appointed to the committee?

The IA MED Educational Committee is comprised of our Program Director, Director of Development, Lead Paramedic, Lead RN, Medical Director and various industry SME depending on the content being reviewed for accreditation. They are appointed through an interview process with the committee members, and are considered to be a SME in their respective field of practice.

Having an online platform where you felt safe and encouraged to ask questions, share thoughts and ideas, collaborate, and most importantly see what others are doing in their respective region, state, or country due to the diversity of medical providers that attended, was great.

ICON – IA Med Conference Online – took place on 6 and 7 June this year. Was it well attended, and what was the feedback like from attendees?

ICON 2020 was well attended with over 400 attendees throughout the conference. IA MED was able to stand up the first fully accredited virtual medical conference in the United States in less than two months with speakers and attendees from around the globe.
It was a truly inspiring event to be a part of, with profoundly moving and educational talks on all aspects of medicine. These ranged from provider safety, mental health, clinical skills, physiology, leadership both personal and professional growth.
The feedback we received from attendees was overwhelming. While many initially doubted the live ability, what we saw was the dynamic interaction the attendees could have with both the speaker and each other through online chats. It also provides them a sense of community in the trying times of Covid-19, allowing them to interact and network.
Having an online platform where you felt safe and encouraged to ask questions, share thoughts and ideas, collaborate, and most importantly see what others are doing in their respective region, state, or country due to the diversity of medical providers that attended, was great.
We are looking forward to elevating what we learned recently and applying it to ICON 2021 February 26/27th (https://training.iamed.us/learning-paths/icon-winter-2021)

Accreditation is becoming more and more important in the pre-hospital emergency medicine sector; why do you think this is the case? Does IA Med work with CAMTS, CAAS or NAAMTA to ensure your accreditation courses meet – or exceed – their criteria?

IA MED does provide accreditation audit services to help agencies identify deficiencies and weak points while providing solutions that exceeds CAMTS, CAAS or NAAMTA standards.

Accreditation is extremely important because it sets a baseline standard for both the medical industry and providers alike. At IA MED we exceed those standards by going above and beyond through a continual refinement process and data driven approach. It is important that both the agency and clinician know that the piece of material they are seeing, reading or listening to meets an accepted industry standard and that is evidenced based.
IA MED does provide accreditation audit services to help agencies identify deficiencies and weak points while providing solutions that exceed CAMTS, CAAS or NAAMTA standards.
We don’t aim for the minimum requirements, we aim to exceed those standards and elevate and progress our industry through collaboration and innovation with like-minded individuals and organizations. This is the power of a community and we are humbled by the thousands who have joined in to support the growth of our community.

Covid-19 has meant that more people have been relying on online educational tools and resources; have you seen an increase in interest during lockdown?

When IA MED was founded, we were solely an in-person training company. While in the jungles of Guatemala teaching survival and aircrewman with one of our training partners last March, Covid-19 really took hold and I had to pull out to redesign and open up our livestream options due to mass gatherings and in person training being shut down.
In 96 hours, the IA MED team was able to covert 100 per cent of our training model from in person to online, which was then followed with our online medical conference (ICON) and our all new online and on demand courses.
It has pushed the IA MED team to innovate more creative way to deliver online learning with new spike for online and on demand training. We have grown our educational offerings, training, and development by almost 400 per cent since Covid-19.