Institute of Health Management
in Mass Destruction Defense


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Paul Pepe

Emergency Management Coordinator



University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-
706.542. (voice)
706. (fax)



Educational Background

Professor of Medicine, Surgery, Public Health Allied Health & Chairman, Emergency Medicine,
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the Parkland Health & Hospital System;
Director, City of Dallas Medical Emergency Services (for Public Safety, Public Health & Homeland Security); Medical Director, Dallas Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS) for Anti-Terrorism,
Dallas Metropolitan BioTel (EMS) System, & the Dallas Police & Fire Departments, Dallas TX

Dr. Paul Pepe oversees one of the nation�s largest emergency departments (40 faculty, 60 residents and fellows) at the extremely busy county (public) emergency-trauma center (Parkland Hospital) and the North Texas Poison Control Center. He is also the Director of Medical Emergency Services for Public Safety, Public Health and Homeland Security in the Office of the City Manager for the City of Dallas and the jurisdictional Medical Director for the regional BioTel (EMS) System (a centralized EMS program that includes over 3,000 firefighters, EMTS and paramedics from the fire departments for the City of Dallas & 12 surrounding cities). He also provides medical direction for the Dallas Police Department and the Dallas Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS) for anti-terrorism.

Area of Specialty

In addition to a distinguished, productive career in academic medicine (with nearly 500 published scientific papers and abstracts including multiple landmark publications), Dr. Pepe has simultaneously served as a high-level municipal or state employee for a quarter century, managing large public budgets, but doing so in a in-the-trenches, �street-wise� manner. He is renowned for a grass-roots approach to 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 reported cardiac arrest and trauma survival rates among all large U.S. metropolitan cities. He was a senior author on the original American Heart Association �Chain of Survival� publication (1991), a reference now cited symbolically in nearly every CPR-related publication & training course worldwide.

Moreover, many of his publications, training tactics, and media interactions have helped to alter public policy, state legislation and federal executive orders. He has worked with the former and current U.S. Surgeon Generals regarding emergency care training initiatives and he has helped to develop relevant position papers or curricula, often based on his own research. He also helps to set national priorities for cardiac & trauma resuscitation research for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) which has now formally designated his program in Dallas as a federally-funded Resuscitation Research Center that will participate in nearly a dozen clinical trials over the next five years.

He also developed the concept of training academic physicians in Government Emergency Medical Security Services (GEMSS) launching the first formal fellowship programs long before the events of fall 2001 and creating day-to-day support systems for local and federal law enforcement officials. He also heads the �Eagles Coalition�, a small but cohesive and highly-influential consortium comprised of the jurisdictional 9-1-1 (EMS) system medical directors for the nation�s 25 �30 largest cities (with combined populations of 50,000,000) as well as pivotal federal agencies, including the FBI, Homeland Security, U.S. Secret Service, White House Medical Unit (& other key national medical leaders).

Professional Affiliations

Public service positions:
1977-82: Assistant to the medical directors of the Seattle Fire Department Medic I Program
1982-96: The first Physician Director for the City of Houston Emergency Medical Services System and Medical Director for the Houston Fire and Police Departments
1998-2000: Commonwealth Emergency Medical Director for Pennsylvania under then Governor, Tom Ridge; dubbed by the media as Pennsylvania�s �top doc�, he reviewed, helped to develop, and approved all statewide emergency care protocols, including those for weapons of mass effect.

Appointments:
Appointed as a lead Editor for the evolving National Disaster Life Support� courses (ADLS�, BDLS�, CDLS�, HDLS�), an ambitious American Medical Association preparedness initiative targeting the nation�s healthcare workers & developed under grants from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) & U.S. Depts. of Homeland Security (DHS) & Health & Human Services (DHHS). His department at the University has now been formally named part of a CDC Exemplar Center for Public Health Emergency Preparedness for these purposes.

Has formally served as Emergency Medicine-Trauma Consultant to diverse entities ranging from the White House Medical Unit, the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) and the FBI (with top secret clearance), to the U.S. DHHS, the NIH (NHBLI & NINDS), ABC News and many other media.

A global lecturer, international advisor and an acclaimed scientist who has won numerous health policy, community service, academic and professional society awards, here and abroad. Often featured on network news programs and in prime-time media broadcasts, he has been cited in the media as a �Mentor to Millions� and an �Advocate for the Injured�.

Selected Publications

Pepe PE, Rinnert KJ, Wigginton JG. Disaster medicine. In: Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine. Suter PM, Sibbald WJ (eds) Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg 2005 (in press)
Fowler RL, Pepe PE, Moore PE. Media and communications preparedness for terrorist events. In: Medical Response to Terrorism. Keyes DC, Burstein JL, Schwartz RB, Swienton RE (Eds) Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins, Philadelphia 2005; pp 320-328.
Pepe PE, Rinnert KJ. Bioterrorism & Medical Risk Management. Intl Lawyer 2002;36:9-20.
Pepe PE. Responding to emergencies: Review of the Phillips Petroleum explosion. Council of State Governments. March 1990, Council of State Governments, Louisville, KY; p. 9.
Pepe PE. A government emergency medical security services (GEMSS) fellowship. Proceedings of the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine Western Region. April 5, 2003.
Pepe PE, Kvetan V. Field management and critical care in mass disaster. Critical Care Clinics April 1991;7:401-420.
Pepe PE, Stewart RD, Copass MK. Ten golden rules for urban multiple casualty incident management. Prehosp Disaster Med 1989;4:131-134.
Pepe PE. Multiple Casualty Incident Plans: Ten Golden Rules for Prehospital Management. Dallas Med J. November 2001; 462-468.
Advanced Disaster Life Support. (Co-Editor). American Medical Association 2003, Chicago.
Basic Disaster Life Support. (Co-Editor). American Medical Association 2003, Chicago
Core Disaster Life Support. (Co-Editor). American Medical Association 2004, Chicago.
Pepe PE. Media. In: Prehospital Systems and Medical Oversight. Kuehl AE (ed), Mosby Lifeline, St. Louis, 2002. Chapter 41, pp 481-492.
Pepe PE, Curka PA. Scene supervision of EMS. In: Quality Management in Prehospital Care. Swor R (ed). C.V.Mosby and Co., St. Louis, 1991, Chapter 18, pp. 203-211.
Pepe PE. Roots and philosophy of emergency medical services. In: National EMS Medical Directors Course Textbooks, Kuehl AE (Ed). emsAC, Reno NV, 1992-2004, pp.1-8.
Pepe PE. 10 golden rules for public speaking & dealing with media. In: National EMS Medical Directors Course Texts, Kuehl AE (Ed). emsAC, Reno NV, 1992-2004, pp. 41-58.
Pepe PE, Warnke WJ, Copass MK. Emergency medical services and systems of out of hospital resuscitation. In: Cardiac Arrest: the Science & Practice of Resuscitation Medicine. Paradis, Halperin & Nowak RM (Eds). Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, 1995; pp.581-596.
Bickell WH, Wall MJ, Pepe PE, et al. Immediate versus delayed fluid resuscitation for hypotensive patients with penetrating torso injury. N Engl J Med 27,1994;331:1105-1109.
Cummins RO, Ornato JP, Thies W and Pepe PE. Improving survival from sudden cardiac arrest: the "chain of survival" concept. Circulation 1991; 83:1832-1847.