October 8, 2010 - The Association of Air Medical Services (AAMS), the industry trade organization for air-medical and critical-care transport, commended the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its much-anticipated Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on air-medical safety. 

The NPRM will be published in the Federal Register on October 12th and the 90-day public comment period closes on Jan. 10, 2011. The NPRM follows recommendations issued by the National Transportation Board (NTSB) after its three-day hearing last year. 

AAMS has cooperated extensively with both the FAA and the NTSB on the proposed regulatory initiatives, and they look forward to providing comments to the FAA on final implementation of these important safety measures.

Todate, human factors remain largely unexplored. AAMS' supporting foundation, Medevac Foundation International, is working with crash survivors on culture-of safety issues and funding research regarding pilot-fatigue and other concerns. One such recent study assessing perceptions of safety culture among emergency medical services (EMS) agencies revealed that EMS crews at air-medical agencies scored the highest nearly across the board (October-December 2010, Prehospital Emergency Care). However, these studies are only the beginning, AAMS need more government funding and public support for additional studies that address human-factors concerns. 

AAMS remains confident that through combined cooperative efforts in the regulatory arena, along with these proactive initiatives, they will achieve their chief objective: Making medevac transport safer without eroding service to Americans, who depend on it as an emergency care safety net, particularly in rural areas.