Advanced Hazmat Life Support – Switzerland
The Swiss Center for Rescue, Emergency and Disaster Medicine (SCRED) has set itself the goal of offering a standardized HAZMAT advanced training course for paramedics, emergency physicians, and emergency professionals in Switzerland. Ths further education program is based on the American AHLS provider curriculum, but is harmonized and adapted for Switzerland and where possible for the EU standards.
Alliances with Swiss Institutes and Organizations
SCRED is fostering good relationships with the Tox Info Suisse, Labor Spiez and Swiss military organizations. Besides that, we achieved a collaboration with Swiss Universities and a successful integration of the AHLS-Provider course into two curricula. It is our mission to build a broad acceptance of the AHLS doctrine within Switzerland.
AHLS-Swiss-Faculty
The AHLS-Swiss-Faculty ensures teaching material and slides are up to date and in line with the AHLS international course, as well as with Swiss and or European standards. In order to provide sustainability and consistency with Swiss norms, a pool of instructors is required. The AHLS-Swiss-Faculty is coordinated by SCRED.
SCRED recruits and supports the Swiss instructor pool. We aim to provide instructors from a variety of backgrounds, eg. emergency physicians, prehospital emergency physicians, paramedics, emergency department nurses, toxicologists, pharmacologists and pharmacists, firebrigade and army NBC-specialists, military physicians and civil protection staff.
The AHLS-Swiss-Faculty guarantees the standard and quality of nominated AHLS-Provider instructors.
Swiss AHLS Instructors with Frank Walter from AHLS International (not complete)
AHLS-Swiss-Faculty
How is the AHLS Faculty Switzerland regulated?
Commissioning party: Coordinated Medical Service (KSD) in coordination with Spiez Laboratory
Main sponsor: Coordinated Medical Service (KSD)
Organization for planning and realization of the AHLS-Provider & Instructor courses: Swiss Center for Rescue, Emergency and Disaster Medicine (SCRED)
AHSL-Swiss-Faculty: Expert-Board & representation of the relevant partner organizations.
Responsibilities:
- Translation and adaptation of teaching material
- New and further development of the CBRN-Swiss modules
- Submission of our activity reports to the international AHLS faculty
- Recruitment and ongoing training of the AHLS instructor pool
Who are the experts and organizations represented on the Faculty?
Experts
- Dr. phil. nat. Beat Aebi, head of incident response, Labor Spiez
- Dr. med. Colette Degrandi, senior physician, Tox Info Suisse
- Petra Emmerich, program manager HF NDS, EMP, Z-INA University of Applied Sciences, Zurich
- Sven Hoffmann, program manager DAS Work+Health, University Zurich & Université de Lausanne
- Dr. med. Hugo Kupferschmidt, head of Poisons Information Centre, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
- Prof. Dr. med. Anne Leuppi-Taegtmeyer, Senior Physician, Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, University Hospital of Basel
- Michael Müller, Rettungssanitäter NDS HF, Dipl. Anesthesia Care Expert NDS HF, Rettung St. Gallen
- Dr. med. David Schurter, MD, Anesthesiologist, Senior Emergency Physician, Schutz & Rettung Zurich
- Nicolas Widmer, PharmD, PhD, PD, Chief Pharmacist, Pharmacy of the Eastern Vaud Hospitals, Rennaz and Operational Director of the Specialised Centre for Emergency and Disaster Pharmacy, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland, University of Geneva
- PD Dr. med. Mathias Zürcher, CEO SCRED and program director SFG (medical incidents response), senior physician for rescue and disaster medicine, anesthesiology, University Hospital of Basel
Cooperation partners / organizations
- Tox Info Suisse
- Federal Office for Civil Protection, Radioactivity Advisory Group of the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC)
- Spiez Laboratory
- Coordinated Medical Service (KSD)
- Medial Incident Command Service (Sanitätsdienstliche Führung Grossereignis (SFG))
- DAS Work+Health, University of Zurich/Lausanne
- CAS Disaster Pharmacy, University of Geneva
Can other organizations get involved?
The Faculty is open to collaboration with all interested organizations and institutions engaged in the field of emergency response to CBRN incidents. Interested parties are requested to contact the SCRED office.
Antidotes Switzerland
The AHLS-Swiss-Faculty is dedicated to ensuring that all substances on the Swiss antidotes list are included and integrated into the official AHLS teaching materials. For this reason, the AHLS-Swiss-Faculty has a permanent representation in the AHLS-International-Faculty, which meets annually during the North American Congress of Clinical Toxicology. The close collaboration with Tox Info Suisse as well as the leaders of the CAS in Medicines and Medical Devices in Emergency and Disaster curriculum promotes participants’ understanding about the application and handling of the substances listed on the Swiss Antidote List.
