Medical education in the era of climate change

In the days after Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico, four Yale physicians began an ambitious effort to send thousands of pounds of medical supplies to the storm-ravaged island. Despite having had no prior experience with disaster response, these doctors worked with contacts in Puerto Rico to generate a detailed needs-assessment, determining exactly which medical supplies were needed on the island. Using social media, traditional media, and professional connections, they solicited large-scale donations of medications and supplies, coordinated airplanes to the island, and remotely managed ground transport of specific supplies to the sites where they were needed. Their efforts were noticed by medical centers in over twenty states, who drew from this organizational model to initiate their own grassroots humanitarian efforts across the nation. Two of the central figures in these efforts, Dr. Marietta Vázquez and Dr. David de Angel Sola, described the steep learning curve that they had to overcome as they figured out in real-time how to organize a disaster response. The success of their relief effort was largely the result of resourcefulness, passion, and weeks of 20-hour workdays, but their achievements are not typical. Without formal training in disaster response practices, physicians may struggle to provide the best possible care in the low-resource settings following major incidents. “Most of the physicians who showed up initially when there wasn’t a plan we...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Policy Medical school Public Health & Source Type: blogs