Dr. Paul Pepe, Professor of Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Public Health & Riggs Family (endowed) Chair in Emergency Medicine (EM) at UT Southwestern, heads an academic EM program of about 55 faculty & 70 residents/fellows based at the county emergency-trauma center, Parkland Hospital. He is also City of Dallas Director of Medical Emergency Services for Public Safety, Public Health & Homeland Security and is the jurisdictional Medical Director for the regional EMS system (about a quarter million annual 9-1-1 incidents, involving about 3,000 paramedics/first responders in Dallas and 15 surrounding cities) and Medical Director for special services for the DFW Airport, the Dallas Police Dept. and the Dallas Metropolitan Medical Response System for counter-terrorism and disaster mitigation. An extremely distinguished academician (over 400 published scientific papers/abstracts, including many landmark publications), Dr. Pepe has served simultaneously as a high-level municipal or state employee for over three decades. Renown for a grass-roots, street-wise style in planning, implementing and overseeing a systems approach to saving lives, both operationally and through clinical trials, his programs have resulted in some of the highest cardiac arrest and trauma survival rates worldwide. In addition to the Chain of Survival publication, he is known for his original measurements of physiological mechanisms (eg, Auto-PEEP), intrepid clinical concepts (eg, deferred rescue breaths in CPR), and ground-breaking clinical trials (eg, deferred IV fluids for trauma). Published years ago by Dr. Pepe & colleagues, these studies are now part of mainstream medical practice and research. Many of his numerous studies, injury prevention programs and media interactions have consistently affected public policy and legislation. Helping to set national priorities for cardiac and trauma resuscitation research, the NIH now has formally designated his EM program as a federally-funded resuscitation research center set to conduct 10 clinical trials over the next 5-10 years. He served as an assistant to the medical directors of the Seattle Fire Department EMS (1977-82), as Director for the City of Houston EMS System (1982-96) and as Commonwealth Emergency Medical Director for Pennsylvania under Governor Tom Ridge. In addition, Dr. Pepe has served for years as emergency medicine-trauma consultant to various entities such as the White House Medical Unit, U.S. Secret Service (USSS), FBI, NIH, network news organizations, and even the National Basketball Association Trainers. He coordinates the so-called Eagles consortium, a cohesive and highly-influential de facto coalition of the jurisdictional 9-1-1 (EMS) system medical directors for the nation’s 25-30 largest cities and pivotal federal agencies (eg, FBI, USSS, ATF, DHS, White House Medical Unit). An omnipresent global lecturer, he has won numerous health policy, community service, scientific, educational and professional society awards, here and abroad, including distinguished alumnus awards and a formal citation for courage and life-time public service in the U.S. Congressional Record. He was recently nominated ’Texan of the Year’ and was elected to Mastership in the American College of Physicians (MACP) for numerous lifetime achievements. Often featured on network news and prime-time broadcasts (e.g., Rescue 9-1-1 pilot, ABC News Nightline special, ’In the ER’, TLC’s award-winning, ’The Strongest Link’, and Larry King Live), he has been called a ’Mentor to Millions’ and an ’Advocate for the Injured’. When recently receiving an award in Washington, DC for lifetime achievements presented by then U.S. Surgeon General, Richard Carmona, on behalf of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), Dr. Pepe was cited as the most accomplished emergency medical services physician of our generation.
