Dr Hussain Gasim Abdelgadir Emergency Medicine specialist from
Transcription
Dr Hussain Gasim Abdelgadir Emergency Medicine specialist from
Dr Hussain Gasim Abdelgadir Emergency Medicine specialist from Sudan, completed the clinical MD of Emergency Medicine in Malaysia at University of Malaysia, returned home in 2011 and immediately started to establish Emergency Medicine services in Sudan with 2 other colleagues being the first Emergency Medicine specialists in Sudan. Unfortunately government in Sudan was not supportive to improve the service as a result, I faced huge challenges in establishing the Service and create the existence of specialized ER doctors in all main government hospitals, I established triage system which was not existed in our government hospital's and I start to train junior doctors handling patients with ABCD approach. Working in Sudan with very limited resources is a great challenge hopefully we can achieve good standard in our Emergency departments. My name is Pablo Aguilera Fuenzalida. I am a Chilean Emergency physician trained at Universidad Católica. Since the last time I went to ACEP Scientific Assembly, I am now three years out of residency and have had an extremely busy year. I am currently the Associate Program Director of the Emergency Medicine residency at Universidad Católica de Chile (one of the two oldest EM training programs in our country), I have already seen the program through some turbulent times struggling with many issues as a new specialty. Fortunately, we have emerged stronger than ever from a time of uncertainty and are now poised to be one of the strongest training programs in Chile. We have recently expanded our program with the addition of three new faculty members and 10 new residents in our PGY‐1 year (of a 3 year training program). Our program is affiliated with one of the largest County hospitals in South America, Hospital Sotero del Rio, which provides emergency care to almost half a million patients each year – an excellent training opportunity for our residents. As a an example of all the above, our National EM Society ( SOCHIMU), has grown, and slowly become the cornerstone of all EM programs in Chile organizing a national EM course for the 8 EM residencies . During the last months, I have been working a part as ACEP´S International section steering commitee for my country, we recently achive the goal of beeing full member of the International Federation of emergency medicine ( IFEM). EM is now a reality in Chile, we are working very hard to train people, and to generate academic opportunities for our specialists and residents, I know for sure that the road is not easy but I am confident that we can make the specialty be recognized the way it should be. Pablo Aguilera Fuenzalida, M.D. Associate Program Director Emergency Medicine Program SOCHIMU´s International Section director and Secretary ACEP´s International Section Member ACEP´s Steering commitee member P. Universidad Católica de Chile + Sótero del Río County Hospital. Mohamed Husain E. Aman, B.Sc., MD, Fellow of SAEM Emergency Physician & Clinical Tutor Member of ACEP · EuSEM · AAEM · BAHRAIN MEDICAL SOCIETY WWW.BahrainER.org American College of Emergency Physicians August 11, 2013 European Society of Emergency Medicine Dear Amy Wynn, American Academy of Emergency Medicine In regard to your email of August 9,2013 this communication serve to provide my ; Self Article Graduated from Arabian Gulf University,Bahrain with a B.Sc.(Medical sciences) & MD-1998 Clinical Emergency Medicine Course Advanced Pre-Hospital Air-way Management Course (APAM) CLINICAL PROCEDURES COURSE for MEDICAL STUDENTS(JR-CPC) EMS & Stroke Patient STEMI / 12 LEADS ECG Comprehensive Medical Review Course CMRC Current Responsibilities Licensed Practicing Emergency Physician at Salmaniya Medical Complex, Accident and Emergency Department since February, 2000, with more than 300,000 annual ED visits. In addition to my clinical duties with a time load of twenty-eight 8 hours shift in monthly cycle, I do attend to the following tasks and assignment(s); A/E Department team member of the Bahrain Excellence Center, Quality representative, Disaster Response Team member, and Triage development initiative. Coined and implemented the first Triage & Clinical Decision Rule for Minor injuries in the Emergency Department. Designed, introduced and implemented the Non-emergency Patient Triage Form (NEPT).The form currently in practice to triage non-emergency patient to primary care facilities in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Adopt and implement a singlebed boarding in emergency department. Development of ED clinical Policies and Guidelines.Sub-speciality Tracks and concentrations; Ultrasound, Education, Quality and Global Health.Tactile medicine & Unique Experience; Field medical rescuer during Bahrain uprising in February and March 2011. Accomplishments In the academic sense, a Clinical Tutor at the AMA-School of MedicineBahrain since 2009.Drafted the Emergency Medicine Rotation educational curriculum and clinical program, March 2013.Founded and authored the BahrainER website(www.BahrainER.org), an emergency medicine momentum on the world wide web, lunched on December 22nd,2010.Developed postgraduate and undergraduate courses in emergency medicine; (CEMC),(CMRC),(APAM), (EMT),(JR-CPC),June 2011.Initiating STROKE Community Awareness outreach Program, February 2013.Authoring Bahrain first Board Review multiple choice questions Book, Aman Board Review-APR (in progress).Promoting the specialty of Emergency Medicine thru the Emergency Medicine Interest Initiative (EMII),January 2011.EMII is targeting medical students and students at high school level to harvest potential talents and market emergency medicine. It provides a mechanism to adopt the growing pros of emergency medicine. Nominated International Fellow, for an Education and Ultrasound post in emergency medicine at University of California, Irvine, Department of Emergency Medicine to start July 2014.Founder of Bahrain Emergency and Family Medicine Association, a non-governmental entity, January 2010,upgrading to IFEM membership(in progress).Initiated A/E Department Data Elements Collection Project,May 2013. Ministry of Health·Salmaniya Medical Complex·Accident & Emergency Department·Kingdom of Bahrain·P.O. Box 32259 T: 973-77039930 F: 77039930 E: [email protected] / [email protected] Tw: @ BahrainnER DR SUNIL KUMAR CHOUDHARY: BRIEF INTRO Dr Sunil Kumar Choudhary graduated from M.G.M Medical College, Jamshedpur, Jhakhand, India affiliated to Ranchi University. He joined his residency program in Emergency Medicine at Max Hospital, Delhi, India, in affiliation with George Washington University, USA and completed his Masters in Emergency Medicine (International) in year 2011. Thereafter he has joined as a Program Director of Masters in Emergency Medicine (International) and Head of Emergency Medicine at The Mission Hospital, Durgapur, and West Bengal, India in affiliation with North Shore Long Island Jewish Healthcare of Hofstra University. He is committed to the highest standards of medical and service excellence, patient care, scientific and medical education. There are at present 20 residents in the Masters program getting trained at The Mission Hospital which is a NABH accredited 400 beds Tertiary Care Hospital to fulfill the huge demand supply gap of EM doctors in India. Apart from Masters in Emergency Medicine residency, he also runs an Emergency care training program for Primary Healthcare Physician of the rural area of West Bengal to develop Emergency Services at the society level. Besides institutional affiliation he is also the Vice President (West Bengal Chapter) of the Society for Emergency Medicine in India. He has represented India in numerous International conferences on development of EM and EMS in India and presently working on various India specific research projects in EM with his enthusiastic team of residents. His keen areas of interest in EM are Academic Emergency Medicine, resuscitation, disaster medicine and Mass gathering Medical care. His thesis ‘Prediction of Clinical Resources based on types, impact and nature of last 15 years of documented Terrorist Bombing In India’ has been accepted by National Disaster Management Authority, Govt. of India as a resource to conduct Emergency Management exercises in the country. CONTACT DETAILS: August, 2013 E: [email protected] M: +91 9800881724 Dr. Ahmed Samy Elagamy My name is Ahmed Samy Elagamy, an Egyptian board certified ER specialist that currently working as a senior ER clinical coordinator of one of the recognizable hospitals in Cairo with the responsibility to lead the ER team to improve Emergency department performance starting from recruiting the staff and training them to advising top management and agreeing with them on our plan to develop Emergency department. One of my major accomplishments in this field was being one of the senior members of Wadi Elneel hospital's ER team. The team was responsible for qualifying Emergency department to obtain Joint Commission International accreditation. Guidelines formulation, Policies and procedures creation, Disaster plan trainings and even redesigning the Emergency department were some of my contributions. It was a memorable day after a long journey to know that we've succeeded to be one of the four JCI accredited hospitals in Egypt! The evolution of an Acute Care System: The story of Uganda. Joseph Kalanzi (MBChB) or (M.D) Uganda currently does not have an acute care system in the ideal sense, however the components necessary to create one are in place. Fortunately, through various collaborative efforts, an ongoing process to bring these components together to form a system has emerged and continues to grow. Two years ago, I embarked on a journey which has allowed me to both witness and actively engage in this Emergency care development process, not only in Uganda, but across Africa. This fascinating experience has me engaged in a wide range of roles, albeit voluntary, but very significant in the grand scheme. I am privileged to be part of a special working group at the Ministry Of Health‐Uganda, tasked with exploring opportunities for providing in‐service training for doctors and nurses at district hospitals, as well as the Uganda National Ambulance Service (UNAS) that is developing a national ambulance service. As an alumnus of the College of health Sciences‐Makerere University Kampala, I am one of many advocates for the EM residency program which is at advanced stages in its development as well as an undergraduate course in Essentials of EM for medical students. Working closely with the ministry of health, through a capacity building partnership, Global Emergency Care Collaborative, a non‐profit organization, trains mid‐level providers (Emergency Care Providers) in rural Uganda. Though still in its infancy, Uganda is at a critical point in time when we can safely say that we are positively progressing toward a system that will come together to form the web, that is an EM system. Dr. Benedict Kolee I am Liberian (West African) Physician whose interest in Emergency Medicine dates as far back as the years of civil war in my country when I met my mentor and Sponsor, Dr. Kathryn Challoner who flew into our war torn cities and villages to offer services. Our Health Sector is still in shambles following two decades of civil war. Emergency services are virtually lacking and or maternal mortality rate is currently place at 770/100,000 live births . I follow this Emergency Physician on muddy roads and in displaced and refugee camps were hundreds of thousands of Liberians were temporarily hosted. We also visited remote villages and provided services in tent clinics. I will never forget one particular event in 2003 when our van came under live bullets! Dr. Challoner had flown into Liberia with needed antibiotics (the hospitals were over flowing with patients with Gunshot wounds at a time when antibiotics had ran out). We got a call from the US embassy on that Sunday morning just as we were getting ready to take off to Phebe Hospital in rural Liberia. The message was not a good one; we were informed by the Embassy staff that renew fighting was taking place in the capital and the road to the suburb where we were had become so dangerous that it was not possible for the US Embassy to evacuate her. We waited for the guns to get silent before heading to the Embassy. What we did not know at the time was that the fighters were on a 30min recess. Our van got shot-at during the trip as we wheel through barricades and road blocks. Dr. Challoner was airlifted by black hawk helicopters (that brought US Marines to protect the embassy) the next day and I relocated to neighboring Ghana to continue medical school. Looking back now, I can say that what we did was risky business but the good news is that we have some many lives to show for it. In the absence of those needed antibiotics and emergency services that were provided, those victims of war (many of them innocent civilians) would have either lost their lives to shock or sepsis or live a life without limbs! I have since completed Medical school and back home as Chief Medical Officer of the Jackson F. Doe Memorial Hospital. Accordingly, my experience did not move me away from Emergency Medicine, it brought me closer to it and love for the specialty was candled in 2005 when I rotated for four weeks at the Los Angeles County Hospital as a medical student during which time I was introduced to the ultrasound. With a donated Sonosite 180, my skills with the ultrasound have proven to be lifesaving. From the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancies usually ruptured (good application for my FAST scan), routine obstetric scans, ruptured intra-abdominal viscus; to ultrasound guided pericardiocentesis or biopsies, the ultrasound has been an indispensable companion. At your last meeting in Denver, I gained additional knowledge with Ultrasound guided regional nerve blocks (I am yet to master these skills). It is because of these and all the great lectures associated with your Scientific Assembly that I would love to come to Seattle. Dr. Xianmin Li Dr. Li is currently the Vice-chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Xiangya Hospital, Central South University in Hunan, China. Xiangya hospital is considered to be one of top tertiary care centers in the nation and was initially established by Yale University. Dr. Li is very active in the field of Emergency Medicine in China. He is a member of several local and nation emergency medicine organization including the Chinese Association of Emergency Medicine. As deputy director of Hunan Provincial Institute of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Li is also very active in EM development at a provincial and a national level. He had chaired and hosted annual provincial-wide conferences in emergency medicine for the past 10 years. Since 2009, Dr. Li has been working in collaboration with the University of Maryland in the development of prehospital system and provider training curriculum. Dr. Benedict Kolee I am Liberian (West African) Physician whose interest in Emergency Medicine dates as far back as the years of civil war in my country when I met my mentor and Sponsor, Dr. Kathryn Challoner who flew into our war torn cities and villages to offer services. Our Health Sector is still in shambles following two decades of civil war. Emergency services are virtually lacking and or maternal mortality rate is currently place at 770/100,000 live births . I follow this Emergency Physician on muddy roads and in displaced and refugee camps were hundreds of thousands of Liberians were temporarily hosted. We also visited remote villages and provided services in tent clinics. I will never forget one particular event in 2003 when our van came under live bullets! Dr. Challoner had flown into Liberia with needed antibiotics (the hospitals were over flowing with patients with Gunshot wounds at a time when antibiotics had ran out). We got a call from the US embassy on that Sunday morning just as we were getting ready to take off to Phebe Hospital in rural Liberia. The message was not a good one; we were informed by the Embassy staff that renew fighting was taking place in the capital and the road to the suburb where we were had become so dangerous that it was not possible for the US Embassy to evacuate her. We waited for the guns to get silent before heading to the Embassy. What we did not know at the time was that the fighters were on a 30min recess. Our van got shot-at during the trip as we wheel through barricades and road blocks. Dr. Challoner was airlifted by black hawk helicopters (that brought US Marines to protect the embassy) the next day and I relocated to neighboring Ghana to continue medical school. Looking back now, I can say that what we did was risky business but the good news is that we have some many lives to show for it. In the absence of those needed antibiotics and emergency services that were provided, those victims of war (many of them innocent civilians) would have either lost their lives to shock or sepsis or live a life without limbs! I have since completed Medical school and back home as Chief Medical Officer of the Jackson F. Doe Memorial Hospital. Accordingly, my experience did not move me away from Emergency Medicine, it brought me closer to it and love for the specialty was candled in 2005 when I rotated for four weeks at the Los Angeles County Hospital as a medical student during which time I was introduced to the ultrasound. With a donated Sonosite 180, my skills with the ultrasound have proven to be lifesaving. From the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancies usually ruptured (good application for my FAST scan), routine obstetric scans, ruptured intra-abdominal viscus; to ultrasound guided pericardiocentesis or biopsies, the ultrasound has been an indispensable companion. At your last meeting in Denver, I gained additional knowledge with Ultrasound guided regional nerve blocks (I am yet to master these skills). It is because of these and all the great lectures associated with your Scientific Assembly that I would love to come to Seattle. On a regional front, the process of EM development is amply spear headed by the African Federation for Emergency Medicine (AFEM) with which I am currently serving on the scientific committee as well as representing Uganda on the East Africa chapter. AFEM provides an amazing platform for regional integration and shared experiences among the countries that are at various stages of EM development yet with one vision of providing acute care to our people. With all these engagements, significant contributions towards the overall process are being made. What stands out as a major accomplishment, to date, is the attention that has been directed towards the process of Emergency Care development in Uganda as well as the wonderful opportunity to be part of a network of amazing people providing emergency care across the globe. I believe that with each passing day, the pieces of this puzzle are definitely coming together to form an acute care system that will provide that crucial critical care required when a delay could mean loss of a life in Uganda and Africa as a continent. Dr. Gyanendra Bahadur Malla I am Head, Additional Professor, in the department of General practice and Emergency Medicine at B.P Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal. B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) was established on Jan 18, 1993 and subsequently upgraded as an autonomous Health Sciences University on Oct 28, 1998 with a mandate to work towards developing socially responsible and competent health workforce, providing health care & involving in innovative health research. Bachelor in dental surgery and postgraduate programs (MD, MS, and MSc) were started in 1999 while the school of public health was established in 2005. I completed my medical school from USSR in 1992. I worked as a medical officer in various hospitals in Kathmandu. I have four years of anaesthetics experience. Following the completion of Masters in General Practice in 2003, I have been involved in Emergency department at BPKIHS. Prof. Owen Lewis from South Australia initiated the activities towards specialist training in Emergency Medicine in Nepal. He was able to arrange for me to spend a year (2004-2005) of training in the ED at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH), Australia. At the time the director at RAH was Chris Baggoley, now Australia’s Government Chief Medical officer. On my return, Owen Lewis and I pursued the establishment of a Fellowship in EM program at BKIHS. In 2006, he convened a Workshop at BPKIHS to discuss EM development. Attendees included leading general practice and emergency medicine figures from Kathmandu, Prof. Pratap Prasad and Dr. Bharat Yadav. International contributors were Dr. Suresh David from Vellor, India, and Dr. V Anantharaman from Singapore General Hospital. Over the last ten years, I have been committed and persistence in pursuing Fellowship in Emergency Medicine. I have continued to work at BPKIHS while my wife, Dr. Sumati Joshi, is an Anaesthetist in Australia with my children. One of the dynamics alleged to have delayed the launch of Fellowship in EM at BPKIHS was the expectation that I would join my family in Australia. However, the authorisation to proceed by the new Vice Chancellor and the Academic Committee has provided me with renewed incentive to stay. Recently, the Academic Committee of BPKIHS has approved the launching of a new Emergency Medicine training program. We expect to commence Fellowship in Emergency Medicine Program from October 2013. This will be a program of 18 months with the support of Dr. Chris Curry, International Emergency Medicine Special Interest Group (IEMSIG) of Australian College of Emergency Medicine (ACEM). I am the instructor for Primary Trauma Care (PTC) and Coordinator for disaster management since 2005. I have been conducting PTC and Basic life Support courses for the doctors, medical students and other staffs in and out of BPKIHS on yearly basis. Beside clinical services, I actively participate in supervision and bedside teaching of postgraduate and undergraduate students and research and publishing articles. There are more than 17 medical colleges in Nepal and BPKIHS is the only institute that has General Practice and Emergency Medicine involved in their 4th year curriculum. I now invite the international delegates to assist me in this endeavour. Thank you. Dr. Gyanendra Malla Dr. Tamer Montaser I've accomplished my Egyptian board in Emergency medicine in December 2012, Master degree in April 2012, Royal College Membership of EM (MCEM, UK) in 2013, preparing nowadays for PhD in Emergency medicine and the fellowship of the Royal College in UK. I am working as an ER specialist now in Egypt with lots of dreams. I have special interest in injury prevention and academic research with couple of internationally published articles. I am involved in teaching and training young EM physicians as a coordinator in the Egyptian board of Emergency medicine and European Resuscitation Council Instructor. I have the honor to participate in establishing our Egyptian society of Emergency medicine. I am delighted to have this golden opportunity of being granted a Scholarship Grant from the International Section to attend ACEP Scientific Assembly 2013 in Seattle. Attending this event will be a great opportunity for me to meet health care providers in the field of Emergency Medicine from all over the world, as well as learn from exchanging ideas with them. Finally, I would like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to attend such a great event, which promotes collegiality and cooperation among health care providers in the field of Emergency Medicine globally. Dr. Nithershini Periyasamy is a visiting research scholar at Duke Global Health Institute for her Post MD training on a scholarship awarded by the Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka for the period of January 2013 to January 2014. She obtained her Masters in Community Medicine and Doctorate in Community Medicine from the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She is a public health specialist employed permanently in the Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka. She is a researcher, and her research interests are in the field of Road Traffic Injuries (RTI) and prevention. She is currently developing manuscripts from her thesis on RTIs (under the mentorship of Prof. Truls Ostbye, Professor of Community and Family Medicine, and Catherine A Lynch, Emergency Physician, Assistant Professor in Department of the Emergency Medicine) to have the international experience and to acquire skill and knowledge to be an efficient future administrator to serve her country following this one year training requirement. She would be actively involved in advocacy, policy planning, infrastructure development, promoting and conducting educational, and research activities in the hospitals to keep them update of current advancement in all fields of medicine, including the emergency medicine. Dear All, My name is Patima Puttaphaisan. I am working as Attending Staff of Emergency Medicine, Emergency Unit at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Thai Red Cross Council which is the 1 of 18 training center of emergency medicine residents in Thailand. We are during developing our career path and strengthening emergency care system in our country, coordinate with our co-worker and Ministry of Public Health in Thailand. We just have emergency physician for only 7 years and this year is 10th year for residency training. We had Asian Conference of Emergency Medicine “ACEM” in Thailand 2 years ago. We had 1st Conference of Thai Emergency Medicine “CTEM” last year and plan to have our CTEM conference every year. We still developing and hoping for our emergency medical service system to be better and better. Patima Puttaphaisan Experience of an African Women Doctor in the Emergency Medicine I am one of the first female Emergency Physician in Sudan. I am married for 13 years with four kids. I graduated in 1998 from Ahfad University for Women, obtained Yousif Badri Prize for the best Student (1998). Attending Ahfad University liberated me and allowed me to not only explore a wider array of subjects, including women, and gender issues studies in addition to medical sciences, but also explore myself. I grew into a strong woman, questioning the status quo and doing all I can to change injustices I find especially in an eastern Society. In 2005, I got an MD in Clinical Medicine. I was appointed as Emergency Physician in March 2006. Since that time, I entered the fascinating world of Emergency Medicine. I believe my chosen profession will enable me to fulfill all of my desires to help others, to continuously expand my knowledge base and skills and to travel the world. I contributed in the first disaster simulation exercise in Sudan Omdurman A&E hospital 2009. This helped me in handling tenths of patients with methanol intoxication and lately hundred suffering chlorine gas suffocation, in-addition to a daily spectrum of cases with hair dye poisoning, herbal intoxication and various forms of tablets abuse. I hope, one day, I will be specialized in Clinical toxicology. Now involved in teaching post grade students, and appointed as General Secretary of Emergency Medicine residency board, carried a great responsibility. We designed and conducted our first part of the Program with great success. My great dream is the incorporation of my proposed curriculum for teaching undergraduate Emergency Medicine in the main Faculty curriculum. I started teaching them, the fundamentals and waiting for more time to be allocated for practical sessions. Research is another beloved area, already published 23 papers and a chapter in a book. I am a member of AFEM, and wish to contribute greatly in the field of international EM in the future. Managing the ED as a technical director in low resource setting, with no infrastructure, needs commitments from national and international Bodies. ED is the primary health care unit in disaster. Minimal requirements of what ED should contain should be discussed at an international level, and a commitment from an international body such as WHO to support its establishments. Philosophy has taught me to evaluate life and my experience. It’s through that, I hope to become an instrumental member of society, using all of my energies to bring about constructive change and create a path to the “good life,” not only for myself but also for others. Dr Nada Hassan Ahmed A-Rahman, MD Assistant Professor, University of Bahri, Sudan Technical Director of Omdurman Accident and Emergency Hospital, Khartoum, Sudan General Secretary of Sudanese Emergency Medicine Residency Programme. Phone Number: 0024912290488 Email Address: [email protected] Name: Dr Lavinesh Raj I am currently employed by the Ministry of Health in Fiji. I am based at Labasa Divisional Hospital in Vanua Levu. I graduated with Post Graduate Diploma in Emergency Medicine in 2012 from the Fiji National University. Currently, I am doing Masters in Emergency Medicine My clinical position is Chief Resident and my work involves looking after patients at ED at Labasa Hospital. It also involves coordinating lectures and seminars with visiting physicians for the rest of the residents in the program. As Emergency Medicine is a very new specialty in my country, I am looking forward to being part of the great opportunities and advancements in the field. I am Dr. Hend Mahmood Sayaly, the first emergency physician in Iraq and the only Board Certified by the Arab Board of emergency medicine in Iraq. I finished my residency program in the Medical City in Baghdad in February 2012 and since that time I have been the manager of the emergency department in my hospital (Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Medical City) and the program director of the Arab Board of Emergency Medicine Residency Program in Iraq… I have been training the emergency resident in our program, and I begin the simulation lab. And the in-service exam as well as oral board simulation among many other things. Started protocols for the ED. In my hospital (we didn’t have such treatment protocols previously) and now there are continuous courses in advanced life support for both the doctors and nurses in my department. I am very interested in academic work and I am trying hard to make this specialty the wish and the dream of every doctor. Esteemed Members of the ACEP Scholarship Selection Committee, My name is Pedro Véliz Martinez and I am the leader of organized emergency medicine in Cuba. Our organization, The Cuban Society of Intensive and Emergency Medicine, is honored this year by being accepted as full members of the International Federation of Emergency Medicine. We wish to take this opportunity to attend the IFEM meetings and to and to come to know once and for all, the oldest and most established Emergency Medicine organization in the world. Aside from English, Spanish is the language spoken by more EM physicians than any other. Although Mexico has a larger absolute number of emergency physicians (about 3,000), Cuba has the highest per capita number of emergency specialists in the Spanish speaking world. Over the years, we have developed a highly integrated system of emergency and critical care and have focused on effective EM in low resource settings. This has great implications in the development of EM worldwide. Unfortunately, without this scholarship, we will not be able to attend the ACEP SA or the IFEM meetings. There have been significant political and bureaucratic barriers to our collaboration in the past. We all anticipate that this will soon be coming to an end. In the spirit of EM collegiality and good will, we hope that you can extend the scholarship to myself and another senior member of our Board of Directors, Dr. Ricardo Pereda. Sincerely, Dr. Pedro Luis Véliz Martinez President, The Cuban Society of Intensive and Emergency Medicine Dr.BenjaminW.WachiraDipPEC(SA),MMed(EM),FCEM(SA) Dr. Benjamin W. Wachira is a full time faculty emergency physician at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi. He obtained a Diploma in Primary Emergency Care (Dip PEC) from the College of Emergency Medicine of South Africa in 2007 and subsequently pursued his Masters in Medicine specialising in Emergency Medicine at the University of Cape town, South Africa in 2008. He was admitted as a Fellow of the College of Emergency Medicine of South Africa in October 2011. Dr. Wachira is currently involved in the teaching and training of emergency medicine both at the university, and through short courses e.g. basic and advanced life support as an American Heart Association instructor and also point of care ultrasonography. As the speciality of emergency medicine does not exist in Kenya, his research interests have focused on the development of emergency care in Kenya. He has published several peerreviewed journal articles looking at the clinical practice of emergency medicine in Kenya, major incidents in Kenya and the state of the pre-hospital care system in Kenya. He is also currently involved in the development of curricula that will see the training of both doctors and mid-level health care providers in a Diploma in Emergency and Critical care medicine. Dr. Wachira also serves as the medical director for the Kenya Council of Emergency Medical Technicians (KCEMT). KCEMT has been involved in the training and development of over 500 pre-hospital care providers for the last eight years and the advocacy for the development of a legislated pre-hospital care system as stipulated in the current Kenyan constitution but which is still not in place. He is also a Section Editor of the African Journal of Emergency Medicine and writes the quarterly article, Uchunguzi, which provides a summary of some of the most recent international literature as presented in other leading journals, but with an emphasis on what is relevant to Africa. Dr. Aimin Wang Dr. Wang is currently an attending physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Xiangya Hospital, Central South University in Hunan, China. She received her PhD in Endocrinology and was recently awarded a research grant from the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation for her research in glucose metabolism in the critically ill patient. Dr. Wang is interested in furthering research in the area of emergency medicine as well as the development of critical care in China. Monika Priyadarshani Wijeratne MBBS, MSc, MD Monika Wijeratne is a medical professional from Sri Lanka who has been worked for fourteen years. She has been involved in managing paediatric emergencies during her work at Lady Ridgeway Hospital, the leading children’s hospital in Sri Lanka. She has contributed managing gynaecological and obstetric emergencies at Castle Street Hospital for women in Sri Lanka. Monika has managed surgical, medical, paediatric, gynaecological and obstetric emergencies at District Hospital Merigama, Sri Lanka. During this period, she has identified, managed and reported medico-legal emergencies which were presented to the hospital. She has carried out emergency radiological diagnostic procedures; ultra sound scans, barium /other contrast studies, and CT scans during her work at Radiology unit in Lady Ridgeway Children’s hospital, Sri Lanka. Monika has taken the leadership of primary health care teams to coordinate and carryout maternal and child health care services at peripheries. During this period, she has assured health of the communities in the district of Gampaha, Sri Lanka by prompt identification, appropriate management and referrals of paediatric, obstetric and gynaecological emergencies. She has conducted immunization clinics in the field and has competency in identifying, appropriately managing adverse reactions to vaccines including anaphylaxis. She has played the role of the epidemiologist to promptly identify and to attend disease out breaks in the area. Also she was able mange the disasters occurred in the area successfully. She has voluntarily worked at internally displaced camps at Cheddikulum in order to provide health care services for displaced people due to the civil war. She has involved in training of newly appointed medical officers to the camp for provision of emergency and primary health care service. During her work at Cheddikulum, she was able to identify shortcomings of service provision and helped to take necessary actions to address issues in provision of health care services. During her post graduate training period at Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka she has been involved in training medical students for identifying and managing emergencies in the field, and peripheral care centres. While her work at Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka, she has been involved in administrative and coordinative process of health care provision in the country. She has participated policy making process for child, adolescent and school health, child protection in crisis, mental health and prevention of violence. Further, she has participated in technical working group on management and prevention of injury. Her areas of research interests are violence, injury, child/adolescent health, mental health and occupational health. Presently she is a visiting scholar at Duke Global Health Institute and working in Global Injury Research Collaboration to contribute global research on health emergencies in related to injury and violence. Her contribution in global research further extends to other collaborative studies carried out by DGHI with Sri Lanka, Brazil, Pakistan and China. Following completion of her one year training at DGHI, she is looking forward to contribute for health system development in Sri Lanka, by preparation of guidelines; making recommendations for policy making and other infra structure development, with special focus on emergency medicine. Dr. Juan Zhang Dr. Zhang is also currently serving as Vice-chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Xiangya Hospital, Central South University in Hunan, China. She has been practicing emergency medicine for 15 years with a primary focus in emergency cardiology and critical care. She is very active in education and research in her department and is interested in the development of clinical practice guidelines and national standards in training and clinical practice.