EMS Accreditation Visionaries Honored by ACCREDITCON

Dr. Adolph H. “Buddy” Giesecke, Jr.

Dr. Adolph H. “Buddy” Giesecke, Jr. intended to become a pediatrician after graduating from medical school in 1957, but discovered his passion for anesthesiology while serving in the Army. Specialized training he received there for treatment of trauma victims led him to seek further training as a resident at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, where he later joined the faculty at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Research he conducted during his 45-year career improved the safety of Americans in surgery, and women requiring anesthesia in childbirth. The UT Southwestern professor emeritus also taught his specialty to generations of residents. His patients included President John F. Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally after they were shot in Dallas.

Dr. Giesecke attended the Texas Military Institute, and the University of Texas at Austin on an accelerated program, and entered the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in 1953. He was commissioned into the Army Medical Corps and served on active duty from 1957 to 1960. He came to Dallas to be a resident at Parkland, where he pursued his interest in trauma medicine. During his time there, Dr. Giesecke was on duty on the fateful day of November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was shot and brought to Parkland. It was Dr. Giesecke who was responsible for hooking up the lines of the hospital’s single EKG machine to the president.

In 1969, Dr. Giesecke became a full professor at UT Southwestern, and the following year he was a Fulbright lecturer and guest professor for the Institute for Anesthesiology at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. He was chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at UT Southwestern from 1981 to 1992 and even after retiring, he was known to return to lecture. He retired in 2005, only to return three months later to work part time for two more years. Dr. Giesecke represented the American Society of Anesthesiologists on the CoAEMSP board, and served as its interim executive director from 2005-2007.

Dr. Giesecke died Dec. 24, 2011, at home in Irving, Texas of natural causes. He will be best remembered for introducing several practices that are considered standard care today, and for the many other contributions he made to the field of trauma anesthesiology and obstetric anesthesiology.

William W. Goding

William W. Goding served as consultant for the Committee on Accreditation of Educational Programs for the Emergency Medical Services Professions (CoAEMSP), the Commission on Accreditation for the Allied Health Educational Programs (CAAHEP), and the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (ACAOM.) At the same time, he also served as Executive Director of the Joint Review Committee for Education in Cardiovascular Technology. Bill was retired from North Shore Community College in Danvers, where he had served as the Respiratory Care program director and the Dean of Health Professions. Bill was active in volunteer service for the profession of Respiratory Care, and held elected offices in organizations including the Massachusetts Society for Respiratory Care; the Committee on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC), where he also served as interim director; and the National Board for Respiratory Care (NBRC).

He graduated from Tufts University, University of Massachusetts–Boston, and attended the University of Massachusetts–Lowell for post-graduate studies. His untimely death occurred on January 11, 2016, at the age of 66, just hours after hosting a CoAEMSP staff meeting at his Florida vacation home.

Bill was a long-time resident of Massachusetts, and owned a family-oriented stable located in rural Massachusetts. He enjoyed traveling with college friends from Tufts, and spent winters in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral, Florida with his wife, Jackie. He cherished spending time with his two grandchildren, other family members, and his ‘barn family’ at the stables.

Bill was talented, sharp, and exceptionally knowledgeable about accreditation of educational programs. He brought that expertise to the CoAEMSP where he was instrumental in growing it from 220 programs to nearly 720. In addition, he developed the Letter of Review (LoR) process, a critical piece that allowed hundreds of programs to successfully gain CAAHEP accreditation. Bill helped the CoAEMSP automate many of the standard processes now in place, and provided the means to successfully grow the operation in such a short period of time. Thanks to Bill, the CoAEMSP is more efficient, prepared, and visionary.
He is sorely missed.

Dr. James M. Atkins

Dr. James M. Atkins is an accomplished physician, educator, and clinician in the field of cardiology, as well as in EMS, Paramedic education, and the CAAHEP accreditation process. He has had a long-term interest in cardiac arrest and the care of acute myocardial infarction, having written several papers and book chapters on these subjects. He was the medical director of the Paramedic system in Dallas County for 27 years and Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He worked as a cardiologist at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas VA Hospital, and Zale-Lipshy Hospital. Dr. Atkins created the EMS system for the City of Dallas, as well as its EMS education program, in which he trained over 13,000 EMTs and Paramedics during his tenure.

Dr. Atkins has served as Chair of the CoAEMSP, with which he has been involved since its early stages. He also contributed to the National Heart Attack Alert Program of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for its entire ten years of the program. He chaired the Access to Care Subcommittee and the Executive Committee of the National Heart Attack Alert Program.

He graduated from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas and completed his internship and residency in internal medicine, as well as subspecialty training in cardiology, at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas.

Dr. Atkins has received numerous distinctive awards for his service and contributions, including recognition from the American Heart Association, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. A past president of the American Heart Association-Texas Affiliate, Dr. Atkins was named an Honorary Life Member of its Board of Directors. Dr. Atkins has also served a three-year term as President of the Texas Chapter of the American College of Cardiology, in addition to serving on its Board of Governors. He is one of just three people inducted into the Texas EMS Hall of Fame.