This year marks 40 years of service for STARS, the air ambulance service that provides life-saving care in Western Canada.
Saskatoon and Regina have had a STARS base since 2012.
STARS CEO Dr. John Froh was appointed to the role this year and is leading critical care services. Froh was born and raised in Saskatchewan and grew up in Fort Qu’Appelle. He has 24 years of frontline health-care experience as an emergency medicine physician.
Froh says that before STARS, geography would dictate a patient’s outcome.
“My job now as CEO is to make sure we’re here for the next 40 years and that we continually push the boundaries of what’s possible in clinical care and aviation, and helping as many people in these jurisdictions that we can. That’s really our mission,” he says.
In 2012, Froh joined STARS to help open the Saskatoon base when STARS expanded into the province.
Get weekly health news
Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.
“I have been a transport physician with STARS, I have been deployed on missions,” Froh says. “I have seen firsthand the effect that we have in really challenging circumstances and situations, and I am 100 per cent convinced we have saved many, many lives. Growing up in rural Saskatchewan, I think this would have been a great service to have prior to 2012.”
In 2024, there were 921 STARS missions in Saskatchewan alone.
STARS began with one base 40 years ago and now has six bases. Over that time, crews have flown more than 63,000 missions to support the ill and injured in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta.
The Emergency Link Centre (ELC) is another important part of response. The ELC is a high-tech communication centre based in Calgary.
Froh says the ELC fields around 37,000 calls a year, including online medical control for Alberta paramedics and STARS calls. From that, STARS in Western Canada responds to about 3,700 missions a year. In Saskatchewan, that equates to 900 to 1,000 missions each year.
STARS has a long history of innovation and looks for ways to improve patient’s chance of survival and recovery.
“Whether that’s the use of ultrasound in-flight or at the destination, which we do across all of our bases or carrying blood on board, which was a national first here in Saskatchewan, we are looking for new ways where we can really change the outcomes,” Froh adds.
According to Froh, STARS has been built by the community.
“Because we are a charity, we operate on a combination of funding from the government and charitable donations. We are owned by the community, we serve the community.”
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
