Injuries are the leading cause of death for young Canadians. Annually in Ontario, injuries result in the death of nearly 6,000 people, over 75,000 hospitalizations and almost 6 billion dollars in direct health care costs. The role of prehospital care in a trauma system is to facilitate prompt transport to a trauma centre and initiate stabilization of the patient. These are complex tasks performed by paramedics in austere environments with incomplete information and minimal therapies available.
Aiming to improve access and reducing delays to trauma care for injured patients in Ontario, Dr. Nolan is currently working to develop a Prehospital Transfusion Prediction (PTP) score to reliably predict the need for blood transfusion before injured patients arrive at hospital, acting as a “prehospital code blood”. This would prompt the receiving hospital to have blood products available and a level-1 infuser primed and ready before the patient arrives, significantly reducing the time to blood transfusion and improving mortality for severe trauma.
Critical Levels Podcast (Episode 24 | Trauma – Dr. Nolan)
Unlearning the ABCs: a call to reprioritize prehospital intubation for trauma patients. Nolan B, Hillier M.CJEM. 2021 May;23(3):271-273. doi: 10.1007/s43678-020-00050-2. Epub 2021 Jan 4.PMID: 33959924
The Rapid Emergency Medicine Score: A Critical Appraisal of Its Measurement Properties and Applicability to the Air Retrieval Environment. Nolan B, Tien H, Haas B, Saskin R, Nathens A.Air Med J. 2019 May-Jun;38(3):154-160. doi: 10.1016/j.amj.2019.02.001. Epub 2019 Mar 7.PMID: 31122578
Care of the Injured Patients at Nursing Stations and during Air Medical Transport. Nolan B, Ackery A, Mamakwa S, Glenn S, VanderBurgh D, Orkin A, Kirlew M, Dell E, Tien H.Air Med J. 2018 May-Jun;37(3):161-164. doi: 10.1016/j.amj.2017.11.013. Epub 2018 Feb 21.PMID: 29735227
