Rwanda’s Emergency Medicine Trainee Program Addresses Gaps In Response To Injuries

“As in most of the developing world, [road accidents] now represent a large and growing cause of death and disability in Rwanda,” Adam Levine, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Brown Medical School, writes in the Huffington Post’s “Impact” blog. “According to the [WHO], nearly one in 10 deaths worldwide are due to injuries,” he notes, adding, “Yet until now, few resources have been put into training physicians, nurses, and pre-hospital providers in low-income countries to manage injuries correctly and develop the types of trauma systems that have so drastically reduced mortality in North America and Europe over the past several decades.” Levine highlights “emergency medicine faculty from Brown and Columbia Universities, who have been working to develop [a] new emergency medicine training program in Rwanda.” Graduates of the program will “improve to the point where they are prepared to not only provide high-quality care for individual emergency cases on their own, but also to run an entire emergency care system for this rapidly developing country.” He concludes, “And given the expected increase in need for emergency and trauma care in Rwanda and other developing countries over the next several decades, it will be none too soon” (11/4).

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