LIVES operates alongside the East Midlands Ambulance Service to provide clinical and critical care skills as well as immediate medical responses in the form of community first responders.

The original objective of the scheme was to provide expert emergency medical assistance for road traffic accident victims and other trauma cases throughout Lincolnshire.

In the following years several companies and institutes gave money which was spent on establishing a radio-communication system to improve the efficiency of call-out.

During the 1990s Lincoln County Hospital declared that as a result of a modernisation programme it was not possible to continue letting LIVES have a room at the accident and emergency department.

This move greatly improved the efficiency of LIVES call-out and still operates to this day as part of the computerised automatic dispatch (CAD) system.

[citation needed] In 1999 the Chief Executive of the Ambulance Trust invited LIVES to establish a community first responder service for suspected victims of cardiac arrest.

These doctors come from a variety of backgrounds but are typically from General Practice or specialties aligned with critical care medicine.

There are currently three levels of trained first responder: The 2004 School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield published a report investigating the utility of the service:[11] The NHS Improvement network recognises the significant contributions made by LIVES volunteers:[12] "This has been an innovative way of using locally available resources, at minimal cost, to improve patient outcomes for life threatening conditions in an environment where continued annual increases in demand for emergency ambulance services produce further pressure on already stretched resources" A 2011 independent review by the University of Sheffield speaks highly of the service:[13] LIVES training is the external training arm of the LIVES charity.

In addition to regular meetings and sessions, LIVES personnel are involved in multiple educational activities, including the promotion of pre-hospital care amongst medical and nursing students.