What is Triage? What is the fundamental purpose of triage? Is to do the “most for the most” by making the best use of available resources for the most people, or is it to identify and prioritize the sickest patient at your doorstep so that you can “save those with the most time-sensitive illness”. I … [Read more…]
Don’t be shy! An introduction via a mutual colleague or friend is always a plus, but it is not the only way. Offer a handshake at a conference, or drop a sincere email expressing interest in working together. Global emergency physicians are a small, tightly-knit community always looking to help usher in the new era … [Read more…]
Background There are currently over 30 International Emergency Medicine (IEM) and Global Emergency Medicine (GEM) Fellowship programs, with more being added every year. IEM is young enough that it is not yet a board-certified fellowship; there is no set-in-stone curriculum that governs all fellowships. Fellowship tracks are as varied as the programs that offer them. … [Read more…]
An insider perspective on residency training in the UK versus the USA. The first patient history I ever took was from a wee Scottish man while studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh. Moving from whiskey to tea, I drifted south to the bright lights of London and completed my first two years of training. … [Read more…]
International medical ventures, from providing humanitarian crisis relief missions to delivering conference lectures, all entail interactions at least between persons of two different societal cultures, and often multiple persons from multiple different societies with different primary languages. Even in health care providers’ home settings, mis-communications and mis-understandings occur; problems that have only a greater chance … [Read more…]
Two thirds of the world’s population live in the developing world, most of which are on the African continent, and suffer from a lack of access to primary health care. In 2001, injuries accounted for about 5.1 million deaths (about 20% of which are preventable by simple surgical intervention). Africa has the highest road traffic … [Read more…]