The Iowa Association of County Medical Examiners
Annual Fall Meeting

Cost:

Following participation in this CME activity, participants should be able to:

• Explore the physical layout and design of the State Medical Examiner facility.
• Recognize the role of the medical examiner in scene investigation.
• Identify the codes and rules governing death certification in Iowa.
• Recognize the common errors that occur when certifying deaths.
• Differentiate between mechanism and cause of death.
• Summarize recent legislation and administrative rules related to medical examiners.
• Review confidentiality of records, particularly those pertaining to releasing records.
• Identify the rights and requirements regarding subpoenas and testimony.
• Explain laws and rules regarding admonition of autopsy by families and religious objections to autopsies.
• Recognize a variety of case types where death is related to medical therapy.
• Describe the steps necessary in investigating medical therapy-related deaths.
• Recognize the utility of baseline mortality statistics and comparison of statewide increases in deaths of unknown etiology.
• Explain the rationale for emphasis on improved and more uniform data collection at time of death.
• Utilize and/or form a partnership between medical examiner and public health resources on a local and state level.
• Discuss the symptoms and findings of the most dangerous household poisons.
• Discuss changes in the Iowa Code which effect death certification in Iowa.
• Identify the types of deaths requiring additional investigation and autopsies.
• Identify the role of the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team (DMORT) in disaster response.
• Explain the DMORT morgue operations.
• Describe how to reconstruct a homicide scene.
• Explain how blood pattern analysis evidence often mirrors the crime scene.