About
Ronald Pirrallo is an emergency physician and Vice Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine Academic Affairs and Director of Emergency Medicine Research in the Prisma Health System. He also holds an appointment as a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville and Adjunct Professor Department of Industrial Engineering in the College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences.
Ronald received his undergraduate Physics and medical degree from Wayne State University. He trained at The Ohio State University Emergency Medicine Residency program and completed a 2 year Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Fellowship at William Beaumont and University of Michigan Hospitals including a Master of Health Services Administration degree from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
In 2015 after more than 20 years at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Emeritus Director of Medical Services, Milwaukee County EMS and a Professor of Emergency Medicine with the Award of Tenure, Dr. Pirrallo was recruited to Greenville to lead the build of a new academic Department of Emergency Medicine. This build out has included an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education approved Emergency Medicine Residency training program for 30 physicians and a required M3 Emergency Department rotation for all UofSC School of Medicine Greenville medical students. For more information about Dr. Pirrallo.
How Dr. Pirrallo's research is transforming health care
Dr. Pirrallo’s initial research foci was on EMS and ranged from developing a functional “Gold Standard” for mass-casualty triage to evaluating promising cardiac resuscitation techniques during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The primary outcome of these investigations has been to determine best practices founded upon scientific evidence in these complex and chaotic environments. Dr. Pirrallo has worked collaborative with international and national colleagues on Health Resources and Services Administration Emergency Medical Services for Children Targeted Issues, National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC) studies, National Institutes of Health/ National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)Neurological Emergencies Treatment Trials (NETT) with successful completion and groundbreaking findings.
He has provided consultation to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization and is a Past President of the National Association of EMS Physicians. He has published multiple peer-reviewed articles, two textbooks on quality management in EMS and serves on the Editorial Board of the peer-reviewed journal Prehospital Emergency Care. He brings this past scholarship experience and sound research practices to guide the leadership team, research collaborators and various learners that will advance the science and emergency medical care at Prisma Health.
News and media related to Dr. Pirrallo’s research
Ronald’s long-time involvement and leadership of the National Association of EMS Physicians has led to multiple newsworthy events and position papers. The National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP) is an organization of physicians and other professionals partnering to provide leadership and foster excellence in the subspecialty of EMS medicine. He was a member of the American Board of Emergency Medicine EMS Examination Task Force that established the core content of emergency medical services medicine and an inaugural EMS Subspecialty Examination Item Writer.
Although relatively new to Prisma Health (formerly the Greenville Health System), Dr. Pirrallo’s understanding of the complexities of EMS coupled with his extensive experience of collaboration has led to projects with colleagues from the UofSC as well as Clemson University Departments of Industrial Engineering, Management, Public Health, Chemistry, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Psychology.
Health research keywords
Prisma Health, Cardiac Arrest, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), Resuscitation, Emergency Medical Services, Disaster Preparedness and Response, Mass–Casualty Triage, Injury Control, Residential Fire Safety, Motor Vehicle Crashes, Modeling, Physiologic monitoring, Public Health Surveillance
