APRU Study Team Members
Principal Investigator Kathleen (Katie) Pine, PhD, Associate Professor. Dr. Pine has extensive experience researching EMS care delivery, co-designing evidence-based metrics to assess healthcare quality (including EMS), and informing the design of information systems and data practices to facilitate data-driven evaluation and quality improvement while avoiding unintended consequences. She currently leads a large-scale research project funded by the National Science Foundation focused on addressing rising EMS call volume at four major metro fire departments (Fairfax County Fire & Rescue, Los Angeles County Fire Department, Columbus Division of Fire, and Fort Worth Fire Department)—one of the key outputs of this project is a data dashboard and a metric dictionary for evaluating effectiveness of MIH/community paramedicine programs. This work is directly informing the evaluation and research strategy for Anaheim’s APRU program. As an offshoot of the project, Dr. Pine and Dr. Jang are analyzing the effectiveness of the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s APRU program using ImageTrend data. Dr. Pine has previously worked with organizations such as California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative and MemorialCare to develop and study healthcare metrics and data practices needed for data-driven evaluation. Additional relevant experience includes leading a project to examine implementation of artificial intelligence applications in fire departments and a collaborative research project to improve delivery of crisis response services by the Phoenix Fire Department and other area Phoenix crisis service providers. Dr. Pine has expertise in qualitative and mixed methods research methodologies as well as participatory design.
Co-Investigator Raminta Daniulaityte, PhD, Professor. Dr. Daniulaityte has extensive experience conducting research on substance use, including opioids, cannabis, and other illicit drugs. She brings a wealth of knowledge on the epidemiology of substance use disorders, existing and emerging treatments for SUD (for example harm reduction and MAT), community based SUD interventions, and SUD related policy. Given the focus on SUD and opioids, Dr. Daniulaityte’s expertise adds crucial knowledge to the team that can inform the APRU’s care delivery approach as well as inform evaluation of the SUD aspects of the program. Dr. Daniulaityte has published extensively on SUD and will help to produce impactful research on the APRU’s approach and outcomes.
Co-Investigator Min Jang, PhD, Assistant Research Scientist. Dr. Jang is an expert in health economics and health policy with expertise in statistical methods with extensive experience in evaluation of health programs and health policies. He is part of ASU’s Safety Net Advancement Center, which works with health systems, healthcare payers, and other community partners to develop, implement, and evaluate strategies to improve healthcare access and overall population health. As a statistician and health economist, Dr. Jang brings experience in collecting, cleaning, and analyzing data to evaluate healthcare programs and policies. He has direct experience working with EMS data through a project to analyze the effectiveness of Los Angeles County Fire Department’s APRU program (undertaken jointly with Dr. Pine) in which he is using LACoFD’s EPCR data to analyze the effectiveness of the APRU in producing multiple outcomes including diverting patients from the ER, reducing EMS call volume, and reducing fiscal spending on EMS calls vs traditional response. He is also working with Phoenix Fire Department to analyze response times to EMS calls using EPCR and CAD data. In addition, Dr. Jang has analyzed the effectiveness of transitions in care settings for people with opioid use disorder as well as conducted research on delivery of mental health services.
Consultant Capt. Matthew Parrish, Columbus Division of Fire. Captain Parrish Joined the Columbus Division of Fire in 1992 where he currently serves as Fire Chief Jeffrey Happ’s Chief of Staff. Captain Parrish oversees the Department’s RREACT (Rapid Response Emergency Addiction Crisis Team) and SPARC (Special Program Assessing Resource Connectivity) programs. The RREACT program provides a critical model of success for fire- based MIH programs aimed at treating SUD patients. Captain Parrish s State certified as a Professional Firefighter, Paramedic, CIT Officer, Hazmat Officer, and Emergency Medical Communications Dispatcher. Captain Parrish is a graduate of the 2023 Ambulance Service Managers Program and has a degree in EMS Administration from Columbia Southern University. Captain Parrish has received numerous awards and accolades over his career.
Most recently he was recognized as the 2020 State of Ohio EMS Provider of the year along with receiving the Fire Chief’s award in 2020 & 2021 for his work with the RREACT & SPARC Programs. Captain Parrish’s groundbreaking work on MIH programs has resulted in several external awards including being selected as the first recipient of The Firstwatch Jack Stout EMS Fellowship through Fitch & Associates and the Franklin County ADAMH Board - 2019 Barry Mastrine Award. He brings practical hands-on experience in implementation and evaluation of MIH programs, including a program very similar to the APRU, and can inform design of information systems, data collection, referrals, operations, and evaluation.
Finally, Captain Parrish and Dr. Pine are collaborating on an NSF research project (mentioned above).
Research Assistant Vicente Bremner, EMT-P. Paramedic Bremner serves as a paramedic at Lynch Ambulance and has worked in the past as a paramedic at la Habra Heights Fire Department, AMR, and Anaheim Fire & Rescue. Paramedic Bremner is currently completing a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in statistics and data science. He also teaches at the UCLA Center for Prehospital Medicine. Paramedic Bremner has impressive research experience for an undergraduate student, including an upcoming presentation at EMS World 2025 and an in-process project with Dr. Pine to test the hypothesis that low acuity EMS calls contribute to firefighter burnout (a topic directly relevant to MIH programs as it helps to establish MIH programs as an intervention to address firefighter burnout). As a paramedic with experience working on the frontlines as well as a student with quantitative and mixed methods research skills, Paramedic Bremner is an ideal research assistant who will provide invaluable help with data collection, analysis, report writing, and manuscript writing.
Together, this team provides an incredibly rare mix of domain expertise in fire-based EMS and mobile integrated health, substance use disorder epidemiology, treatment, and care delivery, and evaluation of MIH programs via data-driven measures and metrics. The team also possesses deep methodological skill in statistics, data systems/management, program evaluation, qualitative research, and mixed methods research. This corpus of domain knowledge and methodological expertise will allow the team to provide a rigorous program evaluaiton using data-driven measures that will inform continuous improvement of the APRU program. Further, it will allow for the conduct of groundbreaking research on the APRU and publication of papers about the APRU’s operations and clinical innovations that will help to build a body pf evidence on the effectiveness of MIH for SUD. Further, working with ASU provides a wealth of resources that will help to ensure success of the project such as access to statistical software and data management tools, a massive academic library, and support from centers such as the Safety Net Advancement Center and the Center for Health Information and Research.