The MedEvac Foundation International has approved grant funding for Dr. Daniel Patterson to investigate sleep-wake patterns and real-time fatigue reduction in emergency medical service (EMS) clinicians.

The medical transportation community requires that emergency care be available 24 hours per day. Shift work requires the prehospital emergency clinician to diverge from normal circadian sleep cycles and be alert when the pressure to sleep is greatest. While recent data suggests a link between sleep, fatigue and safety in the EMS setting, the data are limited to cross-sectional designs and subject to recall and measurement bias. The proposed study will provide detailed prospective observational data to address questions pertaining to the relationships between shift duration, sleep/wake cycles and behavioral alertness.

The overarching goal of the study is to address the Foundation’s research priority of “Educational techniques and technologies aimed at improving patient care, critical decision making, safety, or other areas pertinent to transport medicine.” Dr. Patterson, along with several colleagues, intends to accomplish this goal by performing a multi-site study of air-medical EMS clinicians. The Foundation Board has approved Phase 1 of the study, which will involve a prospective observational study of sleep/wake cycles, shift work duration, intershift recovery, fatigue and behavioral alertness (i.e., psychomotor vigilance).

The analysis of Phase 1 data will focus on differences between 12-hour versus 24-hour shifts.

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