The creation of the original specialty certification process was under the Board for Critical Care Transport Paramedic Certification (BCCTPC) which offered the first official examination at the Air Medical Transport Conference (AMTC) in October of 2000. Under the leadership of Graham Pierce as Chairman of the Board, paramedic specialty certification flourished because of the vision and tireless commitment of a small group of paramedic champions.

Under the leadership of Graham Pierce as Chairman of the Board, paramedic specialty certification flourished because of the vision and tireless commitment of a small group of paramedic champions

Some of that group from 20 years ago included David O. Bump, John R. Clark, Dr. John Cole, Dr. Robert Donovan, Chris Giller, Lisa Gilmore, Jonathan Gryniuk; Bob Hesse, TJ Kennedy, Brian Schaeffer, and Jackie Stocking. Without their tenacity, paramedic specialty certification would not be celebrating this milestone. The IBSC is a functional specialty board with a mission to support paramedicine specialties anywhere in the world. Rather than State or local Regions creating a unique and disparate scheme to address practice in specialty areas, the IBSC is the preferred single standardized approach to competency validation that relies on a single, independent, profession-based and collaborative Board from the paramedic community. This approach serves to ensure public protection while advancing the quality of paramedic provided care while enhancing their status amongst their healthcare colleagues. Certification is key to assuring the public that the specialty paramedic is competent and current and of the highest quality.

The Certified Flight Paramedic (FP-C®), Certified Critical Care Paramedic (CCP-C®) Certified Tactical Paramedic (TP-C®), Certified Tactical Responder (TR-C®) and Certified Community Paramedic (CP-C®) examinations are well established and have become a recognized standard for clinical competency by medical providers in the United States, Europe, South Africa and the Middle East. Founded in 2000, the IBSC is a not-for-profit professional certification organization responsible for the administration and development of specialty certification exams

for critical care professionals. The mission of the IBSC is to improve quality of care in all aspects of specialty EMS care across a wide variety of settings by providing a portfolio of certification exams that are an objective, fair, and honest validation of specialty knowledge to paramedics and other allied health providers are called upon to perform critical care transport. Exams are developed that are responsive to the needs of the paramedic community. Currently, there are nearly 10,000 board certified providers in one of the five specialty designations. More information can be found at www.IBSCertifications.org