Dr. Jeff Clawson

Overview 

Dr. Jeff Clawson worked as an EMT and dispatcher in Utah before starting medical school, and in 1972, while working as an ambulance attendant during medical school, he helped deliver a baby. Later, as a medical consultant for the Salt Lake City Fire Department, he saw that dispatchers had no standard set of questions to ask on medical calls. In 1978, he wrote 29 protocols with key questions, instructions to give callers before help arrived, and ways to rank call severity. The first working version of what became the Medical Priority Dispatch System went live at the Salt Lake City Fire Department in 1979. In 1988, he founded the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch, and he is often called the father of emergency medical dispatch.

Why He Matters

Clawson's system changed the dispatcher from someone who only sent help into someone who could start helping in the first minute of a call. An ambulance takes time to arrive, but a dispatcher is on the line right away and can coach a caller through steps like CPR. By 2018, more than 3,600 communication centers used the academy's protocols, and it had members in 46 countries. That means callers in many different places get the same careful questions and steady guidance. Dispatchers in many places still follow scripted questions built on his idea.