Integrating point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) to enhance diagnostic availability in resource-limited regions in Africa has become a main initiative for global health services in recent years. In this article, we present lessons learned from introducing POCUS as part of the Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP), a collaboration started in 2012 between the U.S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAttempts to define professionalism and humanism suggest that qualities such as compliance to values, patient access, doctor-patient relationship, demeanor, professional management, personal awareness, and motivation are prominent thematic components. In this communication, we present a method for instruction in the values of humanism that may help to overcome the "curricular inertia that plagues medical education." Our approach is structured around a technique of testimonial-commentary as a novel approach to teaching humanism that does not rely upon the traditional role-modeling format.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSmall numbers of graduates from few medical schools, and emigration of graduates to other countries, contribute to low physician presence in sub-Saharan Africa. The Sub-Saharan African Medical School Study examined the challenges, innovations, and emerging trends in medical education in the region. We identified 168 medical schools; of the 146 surveyed, 105 (72%) responded.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: All graduating physicians should be competent with the basic principles of contagious disease outbreak detection and management. In order to educate our students and residents on this important topic, we created a three-hour workshop that included a case-based simulation exercise, and we offered a two-week medical student course in Emerging Infections and Bioterrorism.
Methods: Twenty-two emergency medicine residents and sixty-four senior medical students rotating in the emergency department of an urban university tertiary referral center participated in a three-hour workshop between July 2005 and April 2006.
World Hosp Health Serv
April 2005
The issues of the digital divide and of accessing health information in areas of greatest need has been addressed by many. It has been a key component of the discussion of the World Summit for the Information Society and also the focus of an important new initiative, the Global Review for Health Information. Only approximately 1 in 700 people in Africa have internet access compared to a rate worldwide of approximately 10%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEmerg Med Clin North Am
February 2005
Cost-effective and sustainable ways of continuing to improve emergency medical services and education worldwide must be pursued if the field is to continue to expand globally. Distance-based learning and the use of telecommunications advances present us with an ideal opportunity to improve international medical education. Such technologies can overcome the financial and logistic constraints of travel and can complement existing exchanges.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEM initiatives are gaining global acceptance as a result of emergency physicians; local advocates; national, transnational, and international EM organizations; and governmental leadership, organizations, and agencies involved in international health and an evolving global health agenda. Spanning the spectrum from basic initiatives to improve acute care services to mature EM specialty development, all countries acknowledge the need for emergency care. The level of EM development in a country is fluid and depends on many variables, including status of health development, burden of disease,resources, advocacy, available expertise, and public demand.
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