The Medical Evaluation Task Force was established in 2009 with the goal of developing recommendations on how to achieve an annual medical exam for all fire/EMS personnel in North America.
Mega Issue Response Reports
Mega Issue Responses August 2010 (pdf 1.6 mb), the task force’s initial report, offered several recommendations on how to meet the medical exam goal.
Mega Issue Responses August 2011 (pdf, 1.8 mb), explores and discusses some of the implementation steps and considerations to move forward.
Fire Department Physicians Group
One of the initiatives of the IAFC’s Medical Evaluation Task Force was to develop a working group of fire department physicians that could answer questions from IAFC members about the different aspects of annual medical exams, as outlined in NFPA 1582 and the IAFF/IAFC Wellness-Fitness Initiative.
Now, through the Open Forum on the IAFC’s KnowledgeNet, IAFC members may post questions and receive responses directly from the physician working group.
Some examples of issues that may arise are, but are not limited to:
- active duty with prosthetic limbs
- clarification of VO2 max testing protocols
- fitness for duty
- cardiac conditions
- seizure history
- diabetes
- monocular vision
- recommended tests for inclusion in the annual medical exam
IAFC is proud to offer this new source of expertise to our members. Many thanks to the physicians who have offered to participate.