104 Matches, Three Countries, One Operation: HMP Global's EMS World Expo Keynote Goes Inside the 2026 FIFA World Cup

2026 EMS World Expo Logo

Dr. Eric Ossmann, Director of Medical Administration for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, will keynote the 2026 EMS World Expo

Dr. Eric Ossmann, 2026 FIFA World Cup Director of Medical Administration, will kick off the 7000-person event in Orlando, Sept 28 to Oct 2,

MALVERN, PA, UNITED STATES, August 6, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The 2026 FIFA World Cup required a medical operation covering more than 600 sites in 16 host cities across three countries. The physician who directed it will keynote EMS World Expo 2026, September 28 through October 2 in Orlando, Florida.

Dr. Eric Ossmann served as Director of Medical Administration for the FIFA World Cup 2026, the largest tournament in the event's history, with 48 teams playing 104 matches before a global audience in the billions. His keynote address, Beyond the Pitch: Building the EMS Response for FIFA World Cup 2026, takes attendees inside the planning, logistics, and operational strategy behind medical coverage at that scale, then translates those decisions into practices EMS leaders can apply within their own systems.

EMS World Expo is the largest EMS conference in the world, drawing more than 7,000 EMS professionals annually.

Key Facts
Keynote speaker: Dr. Eric Ossmann
Keynote title: Beyond the Pitch: Building the EMS Response for FIFA World Cup 2026
Keynote date and time: Wednesday morning Sept. 30 at 9:30 a.m. Orange County Convention Center West, Orlando, FL
Event: EMS World Expo 2026
Dates: September 28 to October 2, 2026
Location: Orlando, Florida
Expected attendance: 7,000+ EMS professionals
Program scope: 200+ sessions across nine learning tracks, 300+ exhibiting companies
Co-located meeting: NAEMT Annual Meeting
Registration: https://www.hmpglobalevents.com/emsworldexpo

Who Is Dr. Eric Ossmann?
Dr. Eric Ossmann is Chief Medical Officer of VIGILINT and Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Prisma Health. He served as Director of Medical Administration for the FIFA World Cup 2026, directing medical planning for a tournament that required coordinated patient care across 16 host cities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

What Will the Keynote Cover?
Beyond the Pitch: Building the EMS Response for FIFA World Cup 2026 covers the planning, logistics, and operational strategy behind medical coverage for the tournament. Ossmann will walk through how the operation was designed to deliver rapid, reliable patient care across 104 matches, then translate those decisions into practices EMS leaders can apply at home.

Attendees will learn:
How EMS medical coverage is planned and staffed for one of the largest sporting events in the world
Strategies for resource allocation, ambulance deployment, and crew positioning at every event size
Best practices for personnel training, equipment planning, and staging
Field-ready lessons that strengthen preparedness within their own systems

Why Mass-Gathering Medicine Matters to Every EMS System
Most EMS agencies will never staff a World Cup. Nearly all of them will staff a county fair, a marathon, a stadium, or a parade. The planning discipline is the same at both ends of the scale: anticipating patient volume, positioning resources against risk, and building command structures that hold when conditions change.

"Nearly all EMS professionals will participate in event medicine during their career; whether it’s a local community festival, a sports game, a music concert or a large-scale mass gathering, said Josh Hartman, NRP, Senior Vice President, Cardiovascular and Emergency & Mobile Medicine, HMP Global. “That's why we're honored to welcome Dr. Ossmann as our 2026 EMS World Expo keynote speaker. Planning medical operations for one of the world's largest sporting events, spanning three countries, millions of attendees, and countless stakeholders, requires extraordinary leadership, collaboration, and innovation. While few attendees will oversee an event of this scale, much of the planning for medical event coverage is transferable to other, smaller events so every attendee will undoubtedly leave the keynote address with lessons they can apply in their own communities, at their own events. This keynote is about more than the World Cup, it's about learning from one of the most complex medical operations ever undertaken and bringing those insights home to improve patient care, preparedness, and resilience."

What Else Is Happening at EMS World Expo 2026?
EMS World Expo 2026 offers more than 200 continuing education opportunities across nine learning tracks, immersive preconference programming, and the largest EMS-focused exhibit hall in the industry, with more than 300 exhibiting companies. Program highlights include:

ASHER Symposium: Planning for the Unplanned. A full-day preconference program hosted by Orange County Fire Rescue, using multidisciplinary simulations that train fire, EMS, law enforcement, and healthcare professionals together for active threats and other high-consequence incidents.

Specialty preconference workshops. World Trauma Symposium, Advanced Burn Life Support (ABLS), Emergency Pediatric Care (EPC) 5th Edition, Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC), the FlightBridgeED Field Training & Evaluation Program, STEMI Master Class, and Mental Health Resilience Officer training.

EMS World Clinical Challenge. ALS and BLS teams compete through realistic patient scenarios before expert judges, testing clinical judgment, teamwork, and critical thinking.

International Scientific Symposium and Simulation Lab. The year's most significant EMS research from around the world, plus hands-on practice with current simulation technology.

NAEMT Annual Meeting. The co-located meeting includes the Federal Advocacy Briefing, General Membership Meeting and Awards Reception, international committee meetings, and networking receptions.

Who Should Attend EMS World Expo?
EMS World Expo serves paramedics, EMTs and AEMTs, military medics, physicians, EMS medical directors, first responders, EMS educators and instructors, EMS and fire chiefs, emergency managers, tactical EMS providers, and nursing and advanced practice clinicians.

Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the EMS World Expo 2026 keynote speaker?
Dr. Eric Ossmann, who served as Director of Medical Administration for the FIFA World Cup 2026. He is Chief Medical Officer of VIGILINT and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Prisma Health.

What is the keynote address about?
Beyond the Pitch: Building the EMS Response for FIFA World Cup 2026 details the EMS planning, logistics, and operational strategy behind medical coverage for the FIFA World Cup 2026, and how mass-gathering medicine principles apply to EMS systems of any size.

How large was the FIFA World Cup 2026 medical operation?
The tournament spanned 48 teams and 104 matches across 16 host cities in three countries, supported by a medical and emergency management network covering more than 600 sites.

When and where is EMS World Expo 2026?
September 28 through October 2, 2026, in Orlando, Florida.

When is the Keynote?
Wednesday morning Sept. 30 at 9:30 a.m. Orange County Convention Center West, Orlando, FL

How do I register for EMS World Expo 2026?
Registration is open at https://www.hmpglobalevents.com/emsworldexpo/rates-0

Are continuing education credits available?
Yes. EMS World Expo 2026 offers more than 200 continuing education opportunities. CE details are available at https://www.hmpglobalevents.com/emsworldexpo/ce-information.

About EMS World Expo
EMS World Expo is the premier education event for emergency medical services, bringing together clinical and operational experts from around the globe to share innovative research, demonstrate cutting-edge procedures, and advance the field of paramedicine and emergency medical care. Held in conjunction with the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT) Annual Meeting, EMS World Expo provides the highest-quality education, hands-on training, and networking opportunities for the entire EMS community. Attendees include paramedics, emergency medical technicians, firefighters, military medics, physicians, nurses, EMS medical directors, physician assistants, first responders, educators, and EMS managers, officers, administrators, and chiefs, all coming together to shape the future of prehospital care.

About HMP Global
HMP Global is the trusted leader in healthcare events, education, and omnichannel engagement, with a mission to improve patient care by bringing the healthcare community together. For more than 40 years, the company has built trusted brands that healthcare professionals rely on throughout their careers, including Psych Congress, the nation's leading conference on practical psychopharmacology; the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care (SAWC), the world's largest wound care meeting; EMS World Expo; NEI; LINC; and Advances in IBD. Today, HMP Global's portfolio includes 27 brands and 83 events that connect more than 2 million healthcare professionals with more than 6,000 leading experts through live experiences, accredited education, year-round engagement through HMP Collective, and first-party clinician intelligence powered by Viia, creating one of healthcare's largest healthcare engagement ecosystems. Together, these capabilities help clinicians stay at the forefront of medicine while enabling healthcare organizations to engage the audiences shaping patient care. Learn more at hmpglobal.com or follow the company on LinkedIn.

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