A Grant Proposal to Provide Remote Physiologic Monitoring of Haz-Mat Operators to Intervene to Reduce the Risk of Potential Cardiovascular Injury

Campbell, Michael C (2013) A Grant Proposal to Provide Remote Physiologic Monitoring of Haz-Mat Operators to Intervene to Reduce the Risk of Potential Cardiovascular Injury. Master Essay, University of Pittsburgh.

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Abstract

Fifty firefighters die each year in the line of duty from a cardiac arrest event. This is thought to be the high level of cardiac risk factors amongst firefighters. The majority of these deaths have been linked to overexertion in a population with undiagnosed or untreated hypertension. The Haz-Mat community is the oft forgotten part of the fire service that faces significant exposure to heat stress and therefore risk overexertion injuries including myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death due to working in chemical protective clothing (CPC). Preliminary work with Haz-Mat responders on treadmills and our own pilot observational study suggests significant changes in heart rate and blood pressure due to work in CPC. Our preliminary work showed that median heart rate increased, temperature increased, median systolic blood pressure decreased and diastolic blood pressure stayed the same between the pre and post screenings. We hypothesize that capturing vital signs at 6 key moments will determine what proportion extremes of heart rate and blood pressure compared to standard monitoring (prior to donning CPC and after removing the CPC) will help determine which operators may be at risk for cardiovascular injury. The public heath relevance of real time medical surveillance is that it will allow us to immediately identify responders with health conditions associated with sudden cardiac death such as severe hypertension and tachycardia; allowing us to intervene prior to the event thus reducing harm to the cardiovascular health of this population. Our intervention, if successful, could reach a population of 18.000-36,000 responders responding to over the 9.000 Haz-Mat calls in the US each year. The efficacy of this monitoring will be greater since it will be contemporaneous rather than the old model which was retrospective. Third, it will provide for the potential for risk stratification. We will need to measure how many responders are impacted by our intervention utilizing a near miss database similar to the one operated for firefighters by the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) and by continuing to monitor line of duty deaths from overexertion.

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Details

Item Type:	Other Thesis, Dissertation, or Long Paper (Master Essay)
Status:	Unpublished
Creators/Authors:	Creators Email Pitt Username ORCID Campbell, Michael C
Contributors:	Contribution Contributors Name Email Pitt Username ORCID Committee Chair Finegold, David N dnf@pitt.edu DNF UNSPECIFIED Committee Member Suyama, Joe suyamaj@msx.upmc.edu JOS8 UNSPECIFIED
Date:	19 November 2013
Date Type:	Publication
Access Restriction:	No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately.
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh
Institution:	University of Pittsburgh
Schools and Programs:	School of Public Health > Multidisciplinary MPH
Degree:	MPH - Master of Public Health
Thesis Type:	Master Essay
Refereed:	No
Date Deposited:	12 Feb 2014 16:43
Last Modified:	05 Aug 2023 10:56
URI:	http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/20025

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