Lay summary
Paul Davis is a St John Ambulance Flight Intensive Care Paramedic on the Northland Emergency Services Trust rescue helicopter based in Whangarei. His research objectives are: to design an inclusion/exclusion protocol that identifies those heart attack patients for whom pre-hospital thrombolysis (PHT) is indicated/contraindicated; to introduce the protocol to paramedics and assess their abilities in its application, in simulation; to index the accuracy of this paramedic clinical decisionmaking by protocol against that of an independent cardiology consultant (expert). Quantitative analysis of these data may support further development and implementation of a new model of PHT delivery in Aotearoa – that is, at-the-scene by autonomous paramedics. Proven overseas to be a more efficient and timely method of PHT delivery, this could then contribute to reducing morbidity and mortality for heart attack patients in Aotearoa. This will particularly benefit Maori whose prevalence of heart disease is significantly higher than non-Maori.