Bryan Harmer, PhD, CCP, FAEMS
EMS Expert Witness
Patient Safety - Medical Errors - Human Factors
Bio
Dr. Bryan Harmer is a critical care paramedic, educator, and human factors researcher who investigates how medical errors and other adverse events occur in the prehospital setting. He has more than twenty years in emergency medical services (EMS), including years as a field clinician in rural and urban systems. That background matters in litigation. The work is grounded in both the science of human performance and the difficult conditions under which these clinicians practice.
He is Assistant Professor of Paramedicine at Creighton University and Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine. He has extensive expereince in quality assurance, EMS education, and EMS human factors research. He completed a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences at Western Michigan University and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan Medical School focused on human factors in simulation.
His research examines latent conditions in prehospital care, including pediatric medication dosing, cognitive aids, decision support, teamwork, and task design under time pressure. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Emergency Medical Services (NAEMSP). In retained work he analyzes adverse events and alleged error at the level of the system: the people, the tools, the protocols, and the conditions in which the crew had to act.