Faculty Spotlights >> Walt Stoy: Global EMS Educator
It’s Not How Much You Know, It’s How Much You Care
Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Walt Stoy, professor emeritus, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, cares very deeply. He has spent more than four decades educating the providers of emergency medical services (EMS)—not just in Pittsburgh, but around the world.
His credits are legendary.
After attending an international conference in Brighton, England, in 1984, Stoy became fascinated by how different countries approached emergency medicine—and the lack of EMS provider education in certain parts of the world. He dug deeper. Learned more. And started to develop a network of colleagues.
Stoy found inspiration in one of his many mentors, Peter Safar, considered to be the father of CPR. He recalls, “Peter always told me, ‘It’s up to us to save the world.’”
By 1994, Stoy had designed and developed an EMT program adapting U.S. national standards to educate EMS providers in Iceland. He established an international office at the Center for Emergency Medicine of Western Pennsylvania and in the late 1990s began building relationships with countries in the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar, where paramedic services were in need of enhancement.
Where in the World is Walt Stoy?
Just about everywhere. Stoy estimates that over the years, he has enhanced EMS training in six countries and was responsible for bringing students from 28 countries to receive training at the CEM as well as the University of Pittsburgh EM Program. This allowed for improvement in the quality of care in their home countries.
Early Accomplishments Put Stoy on the Map
Early in his career, Stoy collaborated with the U.S. Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to revise the EMT-Basic: National Standard Curriculum and later the First Responder, EMT-Intermediate and Paramedic curriculum revisions. He implemented the nation’s first and only emergency medicine undergraduate degree at School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. And as the founding director of the Office of Education at the Center for Emergency Medicine of Western Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgh-based consortium of UPMC hospitals, he initiated a paramedic education program that has gone on to impact the lives of millions of patients.
Between 2006 and 2010, Stoy lived in Qatar for 10 days every month. He trained, tested and certified EMS providers there, and was instrumental in the development of the American College of Surgeons Level 1 Trauma Center at Hamad Medical Center in Doha. He hired 23 full-time employees to work in Qatar, including physicians, surgeons, nurses and paramedics.
Stoy never lost sight of the importance of cultural norms and attitudes and respectfully incorporated them into his training. Although he has officially retired from his faculty role at Pitt, his expertise—and his sensitivity to local culture—still makes him sought after by governments around the globe.
“We can adapt our EMS programing for anyone, regardless of language or cultural differences,” says Stoy. “It’s simply about caring enough to make a difference, especially in areas that need our assistance.”
His connections are deeply personal. He continues to explore how he can contribute to the EMS community. Stoy still seeks to make a difference in prehospital care education as well as to program design and development.
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