International Emergency Medicine

Jeffrey Thompson, MD had a calling to medical missions in Africa. Having previously served in several African countries, Dr. Thompson was invited to Myungsung Christian Medical Center (MCM General Hospital) to teach and work clinically with physicians and medical students. Dr. Thompson left abroad in December 2017 and will be returning December 2018.  

During this time, Dr. Thompson has made it his mission to improve the practice of Emergency Medicine in Ethiopia. Drs. Dennison Gillen and Christopher Schwarz joined Dr. Thompson in August 2018 to educate physicians, residents, and nurses in disaster medicine and mass casualty incident. As part of this training, Drs. Gillen and Schwarz organized and directed a mass casualty incident drill in the Emergency Department.

Future focus will be on development of a mass casualty incident protocol for Myungsung Christian Medical Center. We look forward to continuing our work in Ethiopia!

Samuel Cloud, DO, and several other emergency physicians and registered nurses first went on a mission to Vietnam in January 2006.  Emergency Medicine has been launched as a medical specialty within the country as a direct result of this mission.  During the initial trip, areas of future needs were accessed, BTLS was taught to the new EMS providers using a trauma mannequin provided by Laerdel; CPR and trauma lectures were also taught at the medical school in Hue.

Future focus will be on teaching ATLS and ACLS courses, as well as more core emergency medicine topics at the medical school. The group also went in 2007, 2008, and 2009.  As a result of this developing project, the first Emergency Medicine residency in the country admitted their first class in the Fall of 2006.

In late March 2016, UBMD Emergency Medicine returned to Vietnam.  Faculty, fellows, and residents from the Department of Emergency Medicine traveled to Hanoi to present at the 2016 Scientific Assembly of the Vietnam Society for Emergency Medicine (VSEM).  Topics included spinal motion restriction in trauma, "pit crew" management of cardiac arrest, hypotensive resuscitation in penetrating trauma, and pediatric rapid sequence induction.  Presenters included Dr. Brian Clemency (EMS Fellowship Director, Drs. Johanna Innes & Kaori Tanaka (EMS Fellows 2015-16), and Drs. Jennifer Caldwell and Michael O'Brien (Chief Residents, 2015-16). 

The department returned to Hue, Vietnam in 2017 (Drs. John Kiel and Tom Le).