Newspaper Article on the MedicCast

A McDaniel graduate has made a name for himself in the podcast world. Jamie Davis grew up in Westminster and is now a finalist in an international competition for his health-related podcasts. A podcast is a recorded audio or video program put on the Internet that anyone can download.The shows can be played by standard Web browsers, MP3 players and downloaded onto a digital audio player.

Davis, a volunteer firefighter and paramedic at the Community Fire Company of Rising Sun, is a finalist in the Health and Fitness category for the 2006 Podcast Awards. He was nominated for his MedicCast Podcast radio show, where he highlights issues relating to the medical and emergency first-response issues.

“[Paramedics] constantly need to review our skills,” Davis said, “whether it is medical breakthroughs, new medications or trends in emergency response training.”

On his show, Davis has discussed topics ranging from the role paramedics played in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to how to correctly perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The shows are normally 30 to 45 minutes long. Davis has broadcast 26 episodes since he began in February. “People can download radio and television shows at their own schedule,” Davis said. “This is a revolution we haven’t seen since the Internet revolution.”

There were 875,000 listener-nominated podcasts entered into the competition, put on by podcastawards.com, a subdivision of Podcast Connect Inc. Todd Cochrane, chief executive officer of Podcast Connect, said the 875,000 were eventually whittled down to 500 that were reviewed and entered into the drawing.

There were 22 different categories, including science and entertainment, Cochrane said. Within the Health and Fitness category, he said, there are more than 10 finalists. Cochrane said a panel of 10 to 20 listener volunteers will judge the podcasts based on content, user-friendliness and downloadability.

Reach staff writer Tomas Pagan-Motta at 410-857-7890 or tmotta@lcniofmd.com.