GECCo: UK global health projects, programmes & research – who does what in emergency care?

6th July 2023 GECCo face-to-face event, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

Edinburgh? In July?” I can hear you thinking, “That’s it, I’m there”

For those of you who need a little more convincing…

Emergency care and global health are two areas of healthcare in rather unfortunate harmony.  Around half of the global burden of disease would derive benefit from emergency care.  Our broad speciality, equipping practitioners with not only an array of clinical skills but also a range of management and leadership tools, lends itself quite naturally to supporting health systems in a variety of capacities. Equally, our shop-floors face endless challenges which leave us open to adaptation and learning from other environments and to innovation passing back and forth between higher and lower resource settings.

Some of you will have a career’s worth of global health experience, others only a passing interest, either way the Global Emergency Care Collaborative’s (GECCo) event in July brings together an exceptional list of speakers and facilitators to illuminate different aspects of global health projects, programmes & research in emergency care. Even more importantly it creates an opportunity for you to both share your emergency care global health work and find common ground for more collaborative working with colleagues from across the UK and beyond. For the global health-naïve I’d liken it to never having tasted chocolate and finding yourself in Mr Wonka’s chocolate factory – something for everyone.

Here’s a quick look at some of the gargantuan talent and experience on offer if you find yourself free on 6th July and plan to get tickets:

Dr Ellen Weber

Ellen specialises in emergency medicine based at University of San Francisco California. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Emergency Medicine Journal. Ellen was visiting faculty to support the development of Tanzania’s first residency program in emergency medicine, at Muhimbili National Hospital in 2013. She has returned twice each year since then to mentor emergency medicine residents and junior faculty members conducting research in the field. @emjeditor

Prof Tony Redmond

Tony is a world-leading specialist in emergency medicine: founder of UK-Med, past president of WADEM and Emeritus Professor of International Emergency Medicine at the HCRI. His recently published memoirs ‘Frontline‘ captures his extensive experience in emergency response and his ‘retirement’ has seen him busier than most find themselves in their early careers. @anthonydredmond

Dr Taj Hassan

Taj is a consultant in Emergency Medicine at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, past President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (2016 – 2019) and Board Chair for Europe on the International Federation for Emergency Medicine. He has recently led initiatives to help develop Emergency Medicine in his country of birth, Pakistan and is Chair of the International Committee of PSEM . @tajekbhassan

Prof Michael Eddleston

Michael’s research focuses on stopping people dying from poisoning, incorporating hospital based RCTs and community based intervention trials, in combination with policy and advocacy work. He directs the Centre for Pesticide Suicide Prevention and co-directs NIHR RIGHT4: Preventing deaths from acute poisoning in LMICs at the University of Edinburgh. @CentrePSP

Mr Jihoon Yoo

Jihoon is a strategist and programmes officer at the Tropical Health Education Trust (THET) THET supports health partnerships between UK and overseas health institutions such as hospitals, universities and research centres to deliver health worker training programmes based on the needs of the overseas partner institution. @THETlinks

Ms Michelle Hanegård

Michelle is Director of Learning & Capacity Building of UK-Med, a Manchester based NGO and WHO verified EMT. She has led preparation training of UK-Med Register Members and designed, developed, delivered, and supported capacity building activities for global partners since 2020. Previously, Michelle has built and led capacity building and training programmes in Denmark, Ghana, Kenya and Sri Lanka @UKMed

Mr Colin Macalindin

Colin trained as a paramedic and then an advanced clinical practitioner, currently based in Bristol. He undertaken humanitarian work in Sri Lanka and Sierra Leone and spent time working with a Kenyan hospital via the Dharura Global Emergency Care Bristol-Nanyuki partnership. @EDBRIGlobal

Prof Justine Davies

Justine’s focus is on research to inform development of health systems that deliver quality care in LMICs. Her career spans a multitude of roles: from editing a Lancet journal, freelancing for the BBC and obtaining high profile grants through to an honorary position at Wits School of Public Health and Stellenbosch University in South Africa and developing the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery @drjackoids

Dr Ram Vadi

Ram is the Health Director of UK-Med. He has been the Health technical lead on more than 30 UK-Med and UK EMT deployments globally since 2021. He was Team Lead and Medical Coordinator for the eight month long UK EMT Beirut Port Blast response and has worked for the ICRC in Syria, Somalia and South Sudan. @UKMed

Mr Andrew Fryer

Andrew is the International Manager for the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM). He, along with the Global Emergency Medicine committee, co-ordinates and delivers RCEM’s vision to be a world-leader in the development of global emergency medicine that is clinically excellent, evidence-based, compassionate and equitable. @RCEMGlobal

Mr Kevin Miles

Kevin is a health development specialist with senior  management experience extending across the public, academic, corporate, NGO and consultancy sectors. He leads the NHSE Global Fellowship Programme. His experience spans work in the Gambia, Botswana, Sierra Leone, Yemen, and the South Atlantic British Overseas Territories & Papua New Guinea @NHSEngland

To find out more about the full programme (and how you can contribute your work) check out the ticketing site.  As event days go it’s cheap as chips (ok it’s as cheap as it goes, with lunch included, probably no chips either so we should probably move on from the food analogies in case that’s all you take away from this blog), it’s in a great location courtesy of the massive support from the Faculty of Remote, Rural and Humanitarian Healthcare, the RCSEd are providing CPD points, and did I mention the speakers…?

There’s strength in collaborative sustainable working, something GECCo has been working on for a few years now. Let’s grow the UK emergency care global health critical mass a bit further, starting on 6th July!

Cite this article as: Anisa Jafar, "GECCo: UK global health projects, programmes & research – who does what in emergency care?," in St.Emlyn's, May 30, 2023, https://www.stemlynsblog.org/gecco-uk-global-health-projects-programmes-research-who-does-what-in-emergency-care/.

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