Gold Coast doctor Koichi Yasuda is soaring into a new field and joining the Brisbane-based LifeFlight crew.
Originally from Japan, Dr Yasuda has worked at Gold Coast University Hospital for the past 10 years in various emergency department roles.
He recently underwent a week of intensive aeromedical training at the LifeFlight Training Academy at Brisbane Airport to prepare for his new role at LifeFlight.
Dr Yasuda said his work in emergency medicine had brought him into contact with several doctors working in retrieval medicine.
“I’ve been working in an emergency department for 10 years, and I had a lot of colleagues working in pre-hospital situations,” Mr Yasuda said.
“Then one of my colleagues strongly recommended me to apply for a retrieval registrar job at LifeFlight.”
Dr Yasuda expected it would be a major change from working in an emergency department where there are extensive resources.
“In ED settings, we have a lot of colleagues like nursing staff, doctors, allied health and other specialties. Then, if we need to, we can involve these teams very quickly, but in pre-hospital settings there are limited resources and help.”
He said retrieval medicine involved making ’quick decisions’ often at the scene of an incident where someone needs life-saving medical care.
Dr Yasuda said his time at the LifeFlight Training Academy, including the Helicopter Underwater Escape Training (HUET), equipped him with the tools to tackle the physical, mental and medical challenges he will face in the field.
“Initially I was very stressed because I’ve never been exposed to this kind of simulations,” he said.
“I’ve learned quite a lot, and the main thing is you always need to be calm, and the mental half of training is quite important.”
Dr Yasuda, who first worked in Tasmania after arriving in Australia, said he worked long arduous hours in Japan and moved to embrace a more family-friendly lifestyle.
Doctor Yasuda will join Dr Andrew Flint, Dr Simon Carter, Dr Manj Brom, Dr Elsie Cotterell, Dr Tanvi Karnik, Dr Colin Mak and Dr Phil Wheeler in helping Queenslanders access critical care from the sky on board the Brisbane-based helicopter and air ambulance jet.
He is one of 29 doctors supporting communities across the state from the southeast to northern Queensland.
LifeFlight HUET Manager Mick Dowling said the rigorous training doctors experienced was part of what attracted doctors to LifeFlight.
“The doctor training that we provide is very competitive, so we get a lot of doctors applying because of the standard of training that they’re receiving from industry experts,” he said.
He said the HUET training was particularly challenging for doctors but was a test many relished.
“When we get the doctors first in for this training, they’re all a little bit nervous and anxious because it’s a situation they haven’t been put into previously,” he said.
“But we’ve got a softly, softly approach that we take to get them through this training and it can be quite challenging.
“It’s great watching them build confidence. They are always willing to jump in and get it done and then they’re moving on to help us out in the community with regard to their doctor skillsets.”
The intensive aeromedical academic and practical training program also included rescue winching and challenging clinical scenarios to ensure the doctors are fully prepared.
LifeFlight Medical Director Dr Jeff Hooper said doctors were prepared for a range of situations they may face in the field such as treating people injured by animals in a paddock or roadside following a motor vehicle crash.
“These are austere environments and are very different to what they are used to in the hospital system,” Dr Hooper said.
“We find the training that we do is really intense, it’s very realistic and it means that the doctors are really ready to go for any challenge they may face in the job.”
LifeFlight is the largest employer of aeromedical doctors in the country with more than 180 medical professionals.
All doctors go through simulated scenarios at the Queensland Combined Emergency Services Academy where they put their clinical skills into practice.
LifeFlight helped 8,497 Queenslanders in the past financial year – 3.9 per cent higher than the previous year.
The Brisbane-based aeromedical team helped 1,502 people in FY25 across fixed and rotary wings.
The majority of LifeFlight critical care doctors’ work is performed on behalf of Queensland Health, tasked by Retrieval Services Queensland, within Queensland Ambulance Service.
