A weekly round-up of news, articles and surveys to make your next emergency better. Have a suggestion for the round-up? Contact me at abetteremergency@gmail.com.

I spend a lot of time traveling through airports, and I’m fairly conscious of my surroundings and other passengers. According to this report, it seems my instincts about people may be as good as TSA employees’: TSA Should Limit Future Funding for Behavior Detection Activities.

In the field of pre-hospital medicine, there’s a disconnect: Allegheny Health Network works to decrease heart attack response time, which sounds great, until you read that shorter waits for angioplasty do not lower death rates. Also, when I read that emergency care providers have poor hand hygiene, it reinforces my plan to stay healthy, i.e., stay away from hospitals! Also, don’t share food with someone dressed in scrubs.

Have you read my post about the impacts of the new health insurance law? Several articles made me wonder if this is a sign of the times to come for EMS. Particularly, how outsourcing of emergency medical technicians raises concerns and how this proposal jeopardizes state EMS agencies.

I’m participating in several discussions about climate change and severe weather, so I found the Climate Change Vulnerability Index pretty interesting. I also thought that this article on how disaster costs have quadrupled was sobering, especially if we’re to ever break the cycle of disasters impacting those who can least afford it. Also, I see validity to this: communities should hit the ‘pause button’ following a disaster. We shouldn’t rebuild exactly the same, and work to break repetitive outcomes from events.

While not the most savvy online person out there, I can see how this is bad: Police investigate Instagram account exposing witnesses in criminal cases.

This article made me stop and think: Help Veterans by Taking Them Off the Pedestal.

Now for some good news! This article about how some drones can kill you, this one could save your life gives me hope that technology will be used for more than peeping on Americans or blowing people up. The application of drones to save lives while reducing risk is worth more research.