By Dirk Hoffman

The award is presented to an ACEP member who has made an outstanding contribution in EMS of national significance or application.

Clemency accepted the award at ACEP’s national conference Oct. 5. in Chicago.

Through innovative educational initiatives, collaborative leadership, and an unwavering commitment to the advancement of the EMS subspecialty, Clemency has had a profound and lasting impact on the development of EMS physicians and the quality of prehospital medical oversight across the United States, according to his nomination for the award.

Clemency said he is thankful for the honor from the ACEP and its EMS committee.

“ACEP in collaboration with the National Association of EMS Physicians, has been at the forefront of the growth of our EMS subspecialty, its fellows, and its now nearly 2,000 subspecialty-boarded physicians,” he said.

“I have been fortunate to have many amazing mentors in my career; I would like to particularly acknowledge Mike Dailey, Craig Cooley, Tony Billittier, Mike Levy, Rob McCormack, David Hostler, and Brooke Lerner. They also allowed me to build a career that is far cooler than my 18-year-old self could have imagined when I sat in the back row of my original EMT course.”

But most of all, Clemency said he wanted to recognize the EMS clinicians of Western New York, and especially AMR and the Hamburg companies.

“Whether it’s working more codes on scene, providing age-based medications or finding common-sense approaches to the treatment of potential spinal injuries, they are always willing to step outside their comfort zone to advance the science and improve the care of our patients,” he said.

Clemency has played a central role in national EMS board preparation through his long‑standing involvement with the ACEP/NAEMSP EMS Board Certification Review Course. For more than a decade, he has served as faculty for this nationally recognized program, the only comprehensive review course dedicated to EMS subspecialty certification.

He is also the creator of EMS In‑Training Exam (EMSITE), the first and only national assessment designed to evaluate the medical knowledge and readiness of EMS fellows.

Recognizing the need for a standardized benchmarking tool for fellowship programs, Clemency founded the EMSITE and continues to serve as its editor‑in‑chief. Developed through collaboration with EMS educators nationwide, the examination is now administered annually to more than 95 percent of EMS fellows in the United States.

Clemency also developed the University at Buffalo EMS Question Bank, a rigorously peer-reviewed resource created in collaboration with fellowship directors nationwide and structured around American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) core content and blueprint specifications.

Clemency has also provided leadership in shaping the future of EMS fellowship training. As the first EMS board‑certified physician to serve on the ACGME Review Committee for Emergency Medicine, he provides essential subject‑matter expertise and serves as a vital link between accrediting leadership and EMS fellowship directors.

He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and has demonstrated a sustained commitment to advancing the science of prehospital medicine through practice-changing research focused on the care EMTs and paramedics deliver in the field. Clemency’s prehospital research includes studies on cardiac arrest, spinal injuries, substance use disorder, trauma, and pediatrics. 

As the principal investigator of a three-publication series examining the use of long spine boards in patients with suspected spinal injury, Clemency led a comprehensive, multi-year investigation that reviewed and linked thousands of prehospital and hospital cases.

The research showed that patients immobilized on long spine boards rarely sustained disabling spinal injuries yet experienced higher rates of emergency department imaging and associated downstream effects. These findings contributed to a paradigm shift in spinal injury management across New York State. 

Clemency also serves as a site principal investigator in the federally funded Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN), leading two major prehospital pediatric care studies.

The Treating Respiratory Emergencies in Children (TRECS) study evaluates a bundled treatment approach for pediatric asthma in the prehospital setting, while the Pediatric Dose Optimization for Seizures in EMS (PediDOSE) study investigates whether age-based dosing can improve the timeliness and effectiveness of seizure management.