Boyd is with the Indian Health Service and was involved in the Federal Interagency Committee on Emergency Medical Services. In the 1970s Boyd developed the Illinois Statewide Trauma Center Plan, which later became a model throughout the US. The approach was to categorize all hospitals and to specifically designate some 40 new trauma centers in a "Three Echelon System," (i.e., regional, areawide, and local).
From the guide to the David R. Boyd papers, (History of Medicine Division. National Library of Medicine)