Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
EMS Faculty
George Lindbeck, MD
gl2y@uvahealth.org
Dr. Lindbeck attended medical School at the University of Maryland, completed his initial residency in Internal Medicine at UVA, completed Internal Medicine board certification, and then went on to certification in Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medical Services. He has served as Medical Director for a wide variety of EMS agencies in central Virginia ranging from flight programs through volunteer EMS and career and fire-based EMS agencies. He has served as Virginia’s State EMS Medical Director since 2008. Clinically he has practiced in busy, high acuity community EM practices as well as academic EM settings.
William J. Brady, MD
wb4z@uvahealth.org
William Brady, MD, FACEP, FAAEM is a practicing emergency physician at the University of Virginia (UVA); he is residency trained in both emergency medicine and internal medicine. He is a tenured professor of Emergency Medicine, Medicine (Cardiovascular), and Nursing, Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs, and the David A. Harrison Distinguished Educator at the UVA Health System. He is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Educators at the UVA School of Medicine and is the recipient of numerous teaching awards, including the UVA School of Medicine’s David A. Harrison Distinguished Educator Award, the All-University UVA Faculty Teaching Award, and the American College of Emergency Physicians National Faculty Teaching Award. At the UVA, he serves as the chair of the Medical Center’s Resuscitation Committee and Medical Advisor to UVA’s Department of Safety and Security; in the community, he functions as the operational medical director of Albemarle County Fire Rescue. He also serves as the deputy editor of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine and an examiner for the American Board of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Brady is actively involved in the instruction of healthcare providers on many topics, with a particular focus on the electrocardiogram and cardiac arrest with lectures given regionally, nationally, and internationally. He has also published numerous scholarly works (original research, reviews, annotated bibliographies, invited editorials, guidelines, and textbook chapters), addressing the electrocardiogram, travel medicine, and mass gathering medicine; in addition, he has written and / or edited multiple textbooks focusing on these subjects. He has contributed to clinical policy guidelines for both the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Heart Association involving acute coronary syndromes. Dr. Brady lives in Charlottesville, VA with his family; he is active in the community, working in volunteer capacities in public safety.
Brendan Byrne, MD
ugm2pz@uvahealth.org
Dr. Byrne attended medical school at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, completed an internship at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Virginia, and completed his EM residency at Wayne State University. He has extensive experience both in the practice of Emergency Medicine and as an officer in the US Navy medical Corps, and continues in the USNR as a Captain. His experiences and training include dive medicine and rescue, tactical EMS with both civilian law enforcement and military SpecOps and Navy Special Warfare (SEAL) teams. His particular interests include tactical EMS, austere/wilderness medicine, and hyperbaric medicine.
Natalie Reynolds, MD
etx6pa@uvahealth.org
Dr. Reynolds attended the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and completed her EM residency and EMS Fellowship at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio, Texas. She is board certified in Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medical Services. In addition to her general interest in EMS, she has a particular interest in tactical EMS.
Peter Vandersteenhoven, MD
pjv4ep@uvahealth.org
Dr. Vandersteenhoven attended medical school at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina, completed his EM residency at UVA, and an EMS Fellowship at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Dr. Vandersteenhoven has particular interest in air medical services and emergency care.
Robert O’Connor, MD, MPH
reo4x@uvahealth.org
Dr. O’Connor recently retired as Department Chair of Emergency Medicine at UVA and remains active with the EMS Fellowship program and medical direction of the Pegasus flight program. He continues to have an outstanding career in EM and EMS and has received a number of national awards, most recently the ACEP award for Outstanding Contribution in EMS.
Debra Perina, MD
Dr. Perina is Professor Emeritus of Emergency Medicine and continues to be active with the EMS Fellowship and in EMS medical direction locally. She has had an outstanding career in EM and EMS, and started the EMS Fellowship program at UVA. She was one of the core members of EM physicians who established Emergency Medical Services as a recognized subspecialty of Emergency Medicine. She has received a number of national awards in recognition of her tireless efforts for EMS.
EMS Fellowship
High angle rescue training scenario using the training resources embedded in the Fontaine Ave. fire station.
Since its inception on July 1, 1999, the University of Virginia Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Fellowship has been dedicated to excellence, achieving full ACGME accreditation on October 1, 2012.
Our Mission
We aim to cultivate leaders in EMS by equipping them with the necessary skills and knowledge to advance the specialty through leadership, evidence-based practice, research, and innovation.
UVA Health serves as the tertiary care referral center serving a large suburban to rural area of central Virginia. EMS Fellows are credentialed as EM faculty and work clinically in the Emergency Department providing care alongside our EM residents and other training programs. Our state-of-the-art Emergency Department opened in the Fall of 2019 and has over 70,000 patient visits annually. There are 70 beds, including a dedicated 8 bed behavioral care unit and a 12 bed pediatric unit. UVA Health provides a wide variety of services including an accredited Level 1 adult trauma center, pediatric surgery and trauma care, and active stroke and STEMI programs.
Charlottesville Fire Department’s Station 10 on Fontaine Avenue.
Fellowship Opportunities and Experiences
The Fellowship offers diverse exposure to various EMS activities across a spectrum of agencies, from hospital-based services to volunteer and career fire-based systems. Fellows engage in:
- Medical direction and protocol development
- Systems planning
- Disaster and mass casualty drills
- Allied health training programs
- Air medical and ground critical care transport
- Tactical, event, and wilderness medicine
Fellows collaborate with UVA Health’s EMS services, including air medical services through Pegasus air transport, ground critical care transport including neonatal transport services (NETS), EMS provider certification and continuing education training, and the special events medical management (SEMM) program. There are also longstanding partnerships with EMS services in Shenandoah National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The EMS Fellowship is actively developing opportunities for collaboration with the Department’s Global Health Division for international experiences in EMS and development of EMS programs in other countries.
The response vehicle used by the Medical Director and EMS Fellow in the City of Charlottesville.
The Fellowship maintains strong ties with the Charlottesville Fire Department (over 5,000 EMS responses annually) and Albemarle County Fire and Rescue (over 12,000 EMS calls a year) offering fellows extensive prehospital experience. Fellows will have opportunities for training with the fire department in general fire ground operations and specialized operations such as hazardous materials (HAZMAT), and specialized rescue situations including Charlottesville and Albemarle County tactical teams. Opportunities to live and train at the state-of-the-art Charlottesville fire station are available. A response vehicle will also be available for emergency response with both agencies. Fellows can participate in EMS management and medical direction activities at the regional and state levels, including emergency medical dispatch at UVA Health’s Medical Communications Center (MedCom) and the Charlottesville-Albemarle-UVA Emergency Communications Center. The Fellowship also utilizes the VA State Office of EMS as a training partner where fellows gain exposure to EMS policy, regulation, and compliance activities. The Medical Center recently established a Community Paramedicine program that the EMS Fellow will have the opportunity to participate in, including oversight and ride-alongs with the field team and participation in community health outreach programs.
Curriculum and Resources
Our curriculum blueprint is the Core Content of Emergency Medical Services Medicine and includes all aspects of the content and a regularly scheduled lecture series. Program graduates have successfully transitioned to various roles in academics and community practice nationwide, supporting diverse EMS programs.
Fellowship Structure and Requirements
The Fellowship is a one-year program leading to a certificate of completion, with an optional two-year experience culminating in a master’s degree in Public Health (MPH), business (MBA), or healthcare outcomes research (MS). Fellows receive a faculty appointment as a Clinical Instructor in Emergency Medicine at UVA, functioning as faculty in the Emergency Medicine Residency. Candidates must have completed a residency in Emergency Medicine and be board certified or board eligible in Emergency Medicine.
Fellows are provided with office space, computer resources, administrative support, and research assistance, ensuring a comprehensive and supportive training environment.
Contact
George Lindbeck, MD
Director, EMS Fellowship
Medical Director, Virginia State EMS and Trauma Systems
Email: gl2y@uvahealth.org
Phone: (434) 924-8485
Apply
- Send a letter of interest and CV to gl2y@uvahealth.org
- The successful applicant will have completed an emergency medicine residency and will be ABEM board-certified or eligible