Chandler Anderson, who is opening a new private medical clinic in Columbia, TN, is unable to join us this trip, as he must open up his clinic shortly after our return February 5th. Thus, the two travelers will be Dr. Mark McLean and Dr. Brian McMurray. The itinerary will be much the same....and we are working with Delta Airlines to see if we can merge our itineraries to travel together.
Clarus Medical of Minneapolis is donating Optical intubating stylets for us to demonstrate and leave with EMS in Ukraine....and the Vanderbilt Resuscitation Program has donated an intubation manikin for us to use and leave.
Departure is January 24th. More to follow......
Friday, December 18, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Trip preview January 24 to February 5, 2010
This trip will be focused on Emergency Medicine collaboration. Accompanying me will be first time to Ukraine travelers Dr. Mark McLean and Nurse Practitioner Chandler Anderson. We all work together in the Emergency Department at Maury Regional Medical Center in columbia, Tennessee.
Our primary task will be to collaborate with EM doctors and EMS workers in Vinnitsa, Kyiv and Kharkov. I have not been to Kharkov before, so this will be a first for us all. We will be riding on ambulances in these three cities. In Ukraine, as in much of Europe, the EM doctors ride on board the ambulances and provide site care. The ER in the Hospitals is a small station to transition patients to inpatient status. Only about 30% of EMS ambulance runs result in a patient being brought back to the Hospital. Outpatient care is mostly at Polyclinics. Not so much the ER as we know it in the USA. There are such, but only at larger Hospitals in larger cities.
As Ambassador to Ukraine for the American College of Emergency Physicians, I work to establish all aspects of collaboration. It will be a great joy to have Mark and Chandler helping in all aspects, and learning for themselves how we might best work with EMS in Ukraine in the future as well.
One focus on this trip will be to lecture and demonstrate our emergency airway techniques. Clarus Medical of Minnesota is donating refurbished Shikani Optical Stylets...and Vanderbilt's Resuscitation Program has donated an airway mannikin for demonstrating advanced techniques in difficult airway settings. We will not only teach, but leave behind precious items such as these and pulse oximeters, esophageal detector devices, and other adjuncts such as Bougies (used for difficult airway access).
We have shipped over in advance about 20 valuable medical texts for our Ukraine Emergency Medicine colleagues and others.
There will also be time set aside for me to continue with a Prison Ministry in Lityen, lead by the Vinnitsa Nazarene Church, which has a special mission to serve those with Drug and Alcohol addiction. They have 5 mens detox and recovery homes and one for women.
Mark and Chandler will also visit the Foster Home of my dear friends Archana and Ruslan Tkachuk in Nemiya, Ukraine on the Moldovan border. Ruslan will be with us most of the trip providing transportation and translation services. Time in Kyiv will also include visits with cardiovascular surgery specialists Drs. Vitaliy Maximenko and Vitaliy Demyanchuk. Dr. Gennadii Kirzhner will be our host with Kyiv EMS and is helping to arrange the time in Kharkov.
It will be a busy trip....and I am certain fulfilling as we are able to share and collaborate in many ways, some foreseen, some unforeseen.
We will try to periodically post Blog Journal updatres as the trip unfolds, with photos.
Brian R. McMurray, MD on behalf of myself and Dr. Mark McLean and NP Chandler Anderson
Our primary task will be to collaborate with EM doctors and EMS workers in Vinnitsa, Kyiv and Kharkov. I have not been to Kharkov before, so this will be a first for us all. We will be riding on ambulances in these three cities. In Ukraine, as in much of Europe, the EM doctors ride on board the ambulances and provide site care. The ER in the Hospitals is a small station to transition patients to inpatient status. Only about 30% of EMS ambulance runs result in a patient being brought back to the Hospital. Outpatient care is mostly at Polyclinics. Not so much the ER as we know it in the USA. There are such, but only at larger Hospitals in larger cities.
As Ambassador to Ukraine for the American College of Emergency Physicians, I work to establish all aspects of collaboration. It will be a great joy to have Mark and Chandler helping in all aspects, and learning for themselves how we might best work with EMS in Ukraine in the future as well.
One focus on this trip will be to lecture and demonstrate our emergency airway techniques. Clarus Medical of Minnesota is donating refurbished Shikani Optical Stylets...and Vanderbilt's Resuscitation Program has donated an airway mannikin for demonstrating advanced techniques in difficult airway settings. We will not only teach, but leave behind precious items such as these and pulse oximeters, esophageal detector devices, and other adjuncts such as Bougies (used for difficult airway access).
We have shipped over in advance about 20 valuable medical texts for our Ukraine Emergency Medicine colleagues and others.
There will also be time set aside for me to continue with a Prison Ministry in Lityen, lead by the Vinnitsa Nazarene Church, which has a special mission to serve those with Drug and Alcohol addiction. They have 5 mens detox and recovery homes and one for women.
Mark and Chandler will also visit the Foster Home of my dear friends Archana and Ruslan Tkachuk in Nemiya, Ukraine on the Moldovan border. Ruslan will be with us most of the trip providing transportation and translation services. Time in Kyiv will also include visits with cardiovascular surgery specialists Drs. Vitaliy Maximenko and Vitaliy Demyanchuk. Dr. Gennadii Kirzhner will be our host with Kyiv EMS and is helping to arrange the time in Kharkov.
It will be a busy trip....and I am certain fulfilling as we are able to share and collaborate in many ways, some foreseen, some unforeseen.
We will try to periodically post Blog Journal updatres as the trip unfolds, with photos.
Brian R. McMurray, MD on behalf of myself and Dr. Mark McLean and NP Chandler Anderson
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)