News Releases from Department of Health

From the time Alvin C. Bronstein, MD, FACEP joined the Hawaii State Department of Health as the new chief of the Emergency Medical Services and Injury Prevention System Branch on Aug. 31, he has been fully immersed in carrying on the branch’s goal of reducing trauma-related deaths, injuries, and permanent long-term disability and improving trauma response capabilities statewide.

“I am honored to join the Hawaii State Department of Health as the new EMS Injury Prevention System Branch chief. The branch has a history of excellence and service, and building on the branch’s achievements is very important to me. My top priority as described in the Governor’s vision statement is to be “pono” – always do the right thing for the people of Hawaii.”

In his new role, Dr. Bronstein is responsible for the overall statewide coordination of the delivery of health care services under emergency conditions. This includes optimizing medical and surgical treatment for all seriously injured individuals in Hawaii.  He will work with hospitals and health care providers to identify problems and collaboratively develop and implement solutions to improve patient treatment and outcomes.

He will also support the Statewide Trauma Advisory Committee and Regional Trauma Committees, and serve as a resource to hospitals to develop and maintain their trauma centers. He will develop procedures for the designation and periodic re-verification of hospitals as trauma centers, and ensure a statewide trauma registry is used to drive improvements in trauma care at hospitals at the state and county levels.

Dr. Bronstein has extensive experience in emergency medical services. He served as the medical director of the Rocky Mountain Poison Center (RMPC), a unit of Denver Health and Hospital Authority, which is considered to be Denver’s safety-net hospital. RMPC has served as Hawaii’s poison center for the past 15 years.

Along with the leadership team at RMPC, Dr. Bronstein made poison care management recommendations to the public and health care professionals. He participated in RMPC’s medical toxicology training program and oversaw the toxicology training for the Center’s poison information specialists, providers, and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel.

Prior to relocating to Hawaii, he was also an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado, School of Medicine.

Dr. Bronstein is board certified in medical toxicology and emergency medicine and has authored a number of articles and book chapters in the field of medical toxicology, and has written several textbooks on EMS response to hazardous material emergencies.

He is a member of the board of directors of the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC).  He works closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on a variety of regional and national public health surveillance issues. Dr. Bronstein was an appointed member of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Retail Marijuana Public Health Advisory Committee.

Dr. Bronstein received an AB degree from Washington University in St. Louis and attended medical school at the University of Kentucky. He completed a family medicine residency at the University of Alabama and a medical toxicology fellowship at the RMPC and the University of Colorado School of Medicine.