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Faculty

Benjamin Weston

MD, MPH, FAEMS
Chief Medical Director / Professor
Milwaukee County / Medical College of Wisconsin

Dr. Weston is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He serves as Chief Health Policy Advisor for Milwaukee County working to enhance the health of one million residents and is the Chief Medical Director for the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management, providing oversight for 15 fire departments with 120,000 annual patient encounters. He was recently among seven selected fellows to the National Academy of Medicine. He has been featured on MSNBC, CNN, BBC, and The New York Times and provided medical oversight for the NFL, NBA, MLB, Indycar, and USA Triathlon. He practices clinically in the emergency department at Froedtert Hospital, a level 1 trauma center and is an NIH funded researcher with interests in prehospital care, health equity, and public health surveillance.

2026 Sessions

From Data to Decisions: Leveraging EMS Data, AI, and Smart Systems to Improve Care and Operations

Emergency Medical Services generate a continuous stream of high-value clinical and operational data, yet much of it remains underutilized beyond traditional quality assurance. Building on prior work demonstrating EMS data as a public health tool , this session focuses on the next evolution: transforming EMS data into real-time decision support for operations, quality improvement, and equity.

Through four practical, field-tested innovations, this session will demonstrate how EMS agencies can unlock the full potential of their data systems:

• Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) Optimization Dashboard: Using dispatch code–level analytics to better align resource deployment with historical call characteristics and improve system efficiency.
• HOPE (Helping Optimize Prehospital Equity): A multi-agency national collaborative integrating standardized demographic and clinical EMS data to identify and address disparities in care.
• Suicide AI Detection: Leveraging natural language processing of ePCR narratives to identify suicide-related encounters that are often missed by traditional structured data fields.
• Next-Generation CQI Smart Forms: Designing adaptive, data-driven quality improvement tools that surface trends in real time and enhance clinical oversight.

Each presenter will walk through the problem, approach, and real-world implementation, with an emphasis on scalability across diverse EMS systems. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies to move beyond retrospective QA and build proactive, data-driven EMS systems that improve care delivery, operational performance, and health equity.

Co-Presenter (2 Presenters)

Panelist (3 or more Presenters)

Friday, October 02 8:30–9:30 AM
Faculty

Thomas Engel

MD, MPH
Ast. Professor of Emergency Medicine / Deputy Chief Medical Director Milwaukee County OEM
Medical College of Wisconsin

Dr. Engel is an EMS physician and Deputy Chief Medical Director of Milwaukee County EMS. As Milwaukee County EMS has a high number of trauma patients, Dr. Engel developed a system wide quality network surrounding patients receiving a prehospital needle thoracostomy. This quality plan included the implementation of a landmark device for EMT-Ps within the Milwaukee County system, modern education and guideline development, and novel research on the topic of prehospital needle thoracostomy. Dr. Engel is a local educator and regional lecturer on a variety of EMS topics while also utilizing his education and experience to focus on prehospital system improvement, procedural mastery, and critical care. He has experience lecturing internationally through global health and military medicine engagements. He has served in executive council regional advisory roles throughout Wisconsin.

Faculty

Benjamin Weston

MD, MPH, FAEMS
Chief Medical Director / Professor
Milwaukee County / Medical College of Wisconsin

Dr. Weston is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He serves as Chief Health Policy Advisor for Milwaukee County working to enhance the health of one million residents and is the Chief Medical Director for the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management, providing oversight for 15 fire departments with 120,000 annual patient encounters. He was recently among seven selected fellows to the National Academy of Medicine. He has been featured on MSNBC, CNN, BBC, and The New York Times and provided medical oversight for the NFL, NBA, MLB, Indycar, and USA Triathlon. He practices clinically in the emergency department at Froedtert Hospital, a level 1 trauma center and is an NIH funded researcher with interests in prehospital care, health equity, and public health surveillance.

Faculty

Dan Pojar

BSEMS, NRP
EMS Division Director
Milwaukee County OEM-EMS

Dan Pojar currently serves as the EMS Division Director in the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management. This role provides comprehensive administrative oversight and support to the Milwaukee County EMS System which comprises of 15 EMS agencies and over 1,600 EMS Professionals. Dan oversees the continuing education and training, quality assurance, data analytics, special operations and research involving EMS in Milwaukee County. Milwaukee County EMS is committed to quality patient care through evidence-based practice, Just Culture, and intentional inclusion. Dan started his EMS career in 2006 while attending Creighton University and completing his BSEMS in 2010. Dan’s interests are in EMS research, equity and high-quality patient care. Dan is a co-creator of the nationally recognized Milwaukee County COVID-19 dashboard as well as a co-creator of several Milwaukee County EMS dashboards.
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