Chris Kerley leads the Center for MEDICS, a training center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that is home to the first fully functioning simulation lab for emergency medical services in the Northeast.

Kerley helped spearhead the development of this center, which boasts lifelike human patient simulators that can speak and demonstrate symptoms of illness and trauma; computer systems that record every step a trainee takes in treating a mannequin “patient;” and large video screens so that trainees can watch, and analyze, themselves in action after they perform scenarios. In addition to the lab itself, which offers both an emergency room and apartment setting for simulations, Kerley also has a large classroom where he lectures on everything from emergency procedures to pharmacology.

“We are using this state-of-the-art equipment to better all providers in the Cambridge EMS system, to allow them to analyze their skills as well as their mistakes, and to bring everyone together so that they work as a team,” Kerley said. The Center for MEDICS is an affiliated company of Professional Ambulance Service, which has provided emergency medical services since 1969.

But it’s not just employees that Kerley trains. Hospitals in the Greater Boston area send Kerley their doctors and nurses to learn emergency medicine, as well as fire departments and police departments from both larger cities and small towns. Kerley puts them through the paces of medical techniques that are hard to learn anywhere else because the equipment is not widely available. For example, learning how to treat babies or young children in a trauma situation is difficult since not every training center has a mannequin of the right size. Kerley is going the distance – his lab will soon house the first mannequin of a newborn infant, “SimNewb,” as it is called – allowing the Center for MEDICS to offer the only neo-natal training program in emergency services in Massachusetts using this lifelike simulator.

Originally from Ireland, Chris arrived at the Center for MEDICS by way of Northeastern University, where he served as the clinical coordinator for EMS instruction at the school. His arrival in Boston followed a diverse international career, which ranged from serving as a mountain rescue instructor for the Irish Department of Defense; to working as a refugee camp manager for the United Nations in Ethiopia; to working as a paramedic in South Africa and serving as a Special EMS Advisor for the Government of Botswana. A graduate of the University of South Africa, Kerley describes himself as, fundamentally, an innovative teacher devoted to education and learning.

“I enjoy my job and the opportunity to help improve the standards of EMS in different countries,” Kerley said. “I went into teaching because I could impact 20 people in a classroom and through them, exponentially impact others.”