Dallas, TX – Dr. David P. Keseg receives 2012 Copass Award

Dr. David P. Keseg, Medical Director for the Columbus Division of Fire received the Michael Keys Copass Award during the Gathering of the Eagles – The EMS State of the Science Conference in Dallas, Texas.

Dr. Keseg is beginning his twenty-fifth year as a Medical Director for the Division of Fire and currently oversees over 110,000 EMS runs annually. Dr. Keseg completed his undergraduate and Medical School training at the Ohio State University. He did his Residency in Emergency Medicine at the Los Angeles County – USC Hospital program. He is Board Certified in Emergency Medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Medicine. He has been practicing as an Emergency Physician and involved in EMS medical direction for 33 years.

The distinction is awarded annually to the Emergency Medical Services Medical Director who has demonstrated longstanding service, contributions and leadership in the unique realm of out-of-hospital emergency care and who, in addition, has served as a role model, not only for emergency medical services personnel, but also for fellow 9-1-1 system medical directors across the nation.

The award is named in honor of Dr. Michael Keys Copass, the Medical Director of Seattle Fire Department’s Medic One Program and recognized as the gold standard among EMS Medical Directors.

Previous winners of this prestigious award include Dr. Peter Moyer (formerly of Boston EMS), Dr. Marshall Issacs (Dallas Fire Rescue), Dr. Raymond Fowler, and Dr. David Persse (Houston Fire Department), among others.

Winners of the Michael Keys Copass Award are selected by the members of the U.S. Metropolitan Municipalities Emergency Medical Services Medical Directors Consortium, the de facto coalition of jurisdictional 9-1-1 system medical directors for the nation’s most populous cities, as well as the medical directors/lead medical officers for key related federal agencies and units such as the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, White House Medical Unit, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Collectively, this small, but cohesive, cadre of about two dozen emergency care physicians is responsible for the day-to-day out-of-hospital 9-1-1 emergency and resuscitative care for about 50,000,000 Americans as well as for guiding the medical aspects of homeland security and disaster mitigation in the nation’s highest-risk venues.