About BioTel
The History of BioTel
48 Years of Exemplary Service
to the EMS Community and to Our Patients
1975 - 2024
The name “BioTel” joins the words "biomedical telemetry": "biomedical” referring to life, and "telemetry" referring to the transmission of data by electronic communication. The BioTel of today has many modes of communication, but the basic premise upon which it was founded remains the same: to be an immediate resource supporting the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center/Parkland Health BioTel EMS agencies’ providers, our receiving hospital partners, and the area’s air medical providers in serving the needs of our prehospital emergency medical patients.
BioTel began operations at Parkland Memorial Hospital on January 3, 1975, when UT Southwestern cardiologist James Atkins, MD, and Parkland Trauma Surgeon Erwin Thal, MD, in partnership with the leadership of the Dallas Fire-Rescue Department, developed and implemented a new EMS training program for the City of Dallas. Parkland’s resident physicians and staff nurses provided newly minted, UTSW-trained Dallas Fire-Rescue paramedics rapid access to physicians and nurses for medical consultation and direction through the BioTel Radio Room. This collaboration between UTSW, Parkland, and Dallas Fire-Rescue lives on today and has expanded to now include EMS agencies from many other cities in Dallas County, forming the heart of the UT Southwestern/Parkland BioTel EMS system.