Dr. Daniel Spaite Receives American College of Emergency Physicians’ Outstanding Contributions in Research Award

Daniel Spaite, MD, professor and distinguished chair in the University of Arizona Department of Emergency Medicine, was selected to receive the “Outstanding Contributions in Research” Award from the American College of Emergency Physicians. The prestigious award recognizes Dr. Spaite’s outstanding contributions to emergency medicine research throughout his career and will be presented in October during the 2015 ACEP Scientific Assembly International Meeting in Boston. The annual meeting is the largest gathering of emergency physicians in the country.

Through his collaborative research, Dr. Spaite has made a significant difference in the survival rates of people who suffer cardiac arrest outside of a hospital and who suffer traumatic brain injury. He and Bentley Bobrow, MD, professor of emergency medicine, both associate directors of the Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center – Phoenix, were instrumental in the statewide integration of early chest compression-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation in emergency medical services protocols. This has led to a tripling of the rate of survival tripled from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Arizona.

Together, they also are co-directors of the National Institutes of Health-funded Excellence in Prehospital Injury Care (EPIC) Project. Via this program, they have partnered with the Arizona Department of Health Services and more than 120 emergency medical services (EMS) agencies throughout Arizona to implement the international evidence-based guidelines to improve treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the EMS system. Because of the EPIC Partnership, more than 90 percent of all Arizona TBI patients receive care from EMS providers using these state-of-the-art guidelines.

“Congratulations to Dr. Spaite on yet another impressive achievement,” said Sam Keim, MD, head, UA Department of Emergency Medicine. “Dan is one of the leading EMS researchers in the world and greatly deserves this award. He also is a true team player and makes all those around him better. We are extremely proud of him and his work!”

Dr. Spaite holds the endowed Virginia Piper Distinguished Chair of Emergency Medicine at the UA College of Medicine. He has been the principal investigator or a co-investigator for many key efforts related to the evaluation of EMS systems: The Ontario Prehospital ALS Study (OPALS), the RAMPART prehospital status epilepticus trial, the EMS Agenda for the Future, the NHTSA Uniform Data Consensus Conference, the EMS Research Agenda, the EMS Outcomes Project (EMSOP), the EMS Cost Analysis Project (EMSCAP), and the NHTSA-sponsored development of a national model for Evidence-Based Guidelines in EMS.

In 2010, he received the Ronald Stewart, MD, Career Award given by the National Association of Emergency Medical Services Physicians. It is the highest honor awarded by NAEMSP and is given for “outstanding contributions in prehospital care and the development of quality EMS throughout the world.”