MEDICINE
Harvard Answers Call for Emergency Care in Middle East
Mark Davis
Emergency medicine as a specialty has only existed for the past 20 years in the U.S., and in many parts of the world it is nearly nonexistent. The Harvard Medical International Center for Emergency Medicine, composed of faculty members from the Departments of Emergency Medicine at six Harvard-affiliated hospitals, is attempting to bridge that gap by helping international leaders in emergency care develop regional programs. As part of its most recent initiative, HMS faculty members spent ten days in Jordan, Israel, and Palestine to promote regional collaboration, despite the political conflicts.
According to Mark Davis, director of the center and HMS instructor in medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess, participants at conferences in Israel and Jordan saw medicine as a natural vehicle for cooperation. "In the area of medicine, they've been working together for years," Davis says. "There's now a framework in place that allows them to take their natural inclination to work together on behalf of patients and put it into practice."
The group found potential for collaboration even in the Palestinian town of Hebron, a site of violent conflict between Palestinians and Israelis in the past. The Palestinians lack a tertiary care center and rely on Israel's Hadassah Medical Center for specialized care and medical training. The doctors in Hebron were eager to establish more formal relationships with Hadassah and the hospitals of Jordan.
There was a similar desire for cooperation among physicians at a conference in Aqaba, Jordan, which lies less than a mile from the Israeli city of Eilat. Physicians from the two cities did not even know each other's phone numbers if they needed help in an emergency. At the conference they were able to talk about regional disaster response and sharing medical resources for the first time.
Ethiopian health care workers participate in a demonstration of airway techniques on a dummy. The session was part of a visit to Ethiopia by members of the HMI Center for Emergency Medicine in December of last year, which focused on working with local health practitioners and policy-makers to improve pre-hospital care.
The center, a collaborative effort between Harvard Medical International and the Division of Emergency Medicine at HMS, has led conferences and education programs in Ethiopia, and has worked with groups from Colombia, China, India, and Japan. It also provides a one-year fellowship for future international leaders in emergency medicine to gain research and clinical experience at the Harvard teaching hospitals.
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