About this episode

The episode explores high-stakes decision-making in HEMS with guest Adele Dobler, focusing on cognitive load, biases, and risk management.

In pre-hospital care, few environments demand more precise and timely judgment than within a HEMS system. Decisions are made rapidly, often with incomplete information, within dynamic and unforgiving conditions. It is an operational space where clinical urgency intersects with aviation risk, and where each intervention requires a careful balance between decisive action and the principle of doing no harm. Today’s guest, Adele Dobler, works at this exact interface. With thousands of flight hours spanning urban HEMS, remote medical evacuation, and high-risk environments, from central London to the deserts and high-altitude regions of Kenya, she brings exceptional depth of experience in high-stakes decision-making. Her operational background includes flying aircraft such as the H135 and H145, frequently at night, under night vision goggles (NVG), and within complex, evolving mission profiles across diverse global settings. In this episode, we examine the realities of decision-making in HEMS, including cognitive load, inherent biases, operational trade-offs, and the critical inflection points that shape outcomes. The discussion focuses on dynamic judgment, risk management, and…

People in this episode

Host: Eoin Walker

Guest: Adele Dobler

Topics covered

• decision-making
• HEMS
• cognitive load
• risk management
• professional accountability
• aviation risk

Keywords

• HEMS
• decision-making
• cognitive load
• aviation risk
• risk management
• professional accountability
• emergency response

Sponsors

PAX

Mentioned in this episode

Places: central London, Kenya, deserts, high-altitude regions

More episodes of Pre-Hospital Care Podcast

• A Second Chance at Life: Shane Bradley's Story · July 19, 2026 · 28 min
• The New Drug Landscape: Club Drugs, Novel Psychoactive Substances and Frontline Emergency Care · July 16, 2026 · 51 min
• Pain First: Rethinking Analgesia in Prehospital Trauma with Luca Carenzo and Urs Pietsch · July 12, 2026 · 47 min
• EMDR Therapy: An Evidence-Based Approach to Trauma with Dr Abigail Pamich · July 11, 2026 · 36 min
• Evolving Shock in Major Trauma: A Prehospital Case Review with Michael DeFilippo · July 5, 2026 · 53 min
• The Medico-Legal Handbook for Pre-Hospital Care · July 2, 2026 · 56 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Pre-Hospital Care Podcast podcast page.