What was the preferred method of intubation in 1990?

You may be able to answer that question, but not every EMS professional can.  It’s just the type of trivia question you may have to answer if you find yourself a contestant in the Stars of Life Championship, the academic tournament which tests EMS knowledge.

The 2009 Stars of Life Championship was won by Missouri EMS professionals Heather Seeman, Angie Johns, Andrew Spain – team name Zombies – in Fort Worth, Texas on November 23, 2009!

The Missouri victory brings the 2010 National Stars of Life Championship to the MEMSA-MAA sponsored ICE/Spring Break Conference at the Lodge of the Four Seasons this April.

The Stars of Life Championship was started by Director of Emergency Care Education at St. John's Hospital in Springfield, Missouri, and Director of Multi-Lead Medics™, Bob Page.  Bob’s first exposure to the concept was with a similar program, the Valsalva Bowl, which he participated in at a Texas EMS conference in 1990.  Teams of three had to answer EMS/Medical questions and hit a buzzer if they knew the answer.  Bob won!  He has the toilet seat trophy in his office to this day.

He liked the academic challenge idea so much he decided to create his own academic bowl in 1993 when he relocated to St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, Missouri, the Stars of Life Championship.  This first contest was held in Missouri.  Bob quickly brought the game to other states as he attended their EMS conferences.

Currently, nine states participate in Stars of Life, including the program in their state or regional EMS conferences.  Winners of the state competitions are invited to the national championship which is hosted by the previous year’s winners.  Since the Missouri team won in Fort Worth in 2009, the upcoming national championship will be in Missouri.

The nature of the Stars of Life is academic.  In fact, many states offer CEU credits not only to the contestants but those in the audience – because it is an educational session.  Questions, seventy percent BLS and thirty percent ALS, are read by a moderator and simultaneously appear on a big screen for the audience and participants. They are based on EMS trivia, textbooks and other resources providing general medical, patient care, anatomy and physiology topics.  Bob has collected roughly ten thousand questions over the years.

In Jeopardy style, individual team members take turns answering questions by viewing the main screen which displays different categories and point values.  When a question is asked, individuals have a certain amount of time to hit the buzzer.  If an answer cannot be given once the buzzer has been hit, the individual’s team loses points.

The bracket-style tournament has been described as exciting, fast-paced and nerve wracking as knowledge and speed meet head-to-head in preliminary matches and then the final championship in front of hundreds and sometimes thousands of audience members.  The awards are big trophies, pride and knowledge.

Missouri’s 2009 Champions, Seeman, Johns and Spain, will keep the First Place traveling trophy for the year and then defend it in April at the ICE/Spring Break Conference.

Best of luck to our winners and a gracious thank you to Bob Page for devising such a wonderful educational program!