Global Emergency Medicine
Stanford Global Emergency Medicine (SEMI), founded in 2000, focuses on human development through education, research, and establishing and strengthening health systems. SEMI collaborates closely over the long term with in-country organizations to create lasting and sustainable change.
SEMI has developed multi-year projects and complex partnerships in Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Rwanda, Uganda & more. SEMI is also active in communities in the United States.
We collaborate closely with governments, universities, non-profits, NGOs, and other organizations to develop and implement innovative programs. Key criteria include shared values; mutual commitment to specific development challenges; and ability to sustain a long-term impact.
GLOBAL EM FELLOWSHIP
Our two-year Global EM fellowship offers opportunities to collaborate with community partners around the globe to strengthen systems, develop education and training programs, and conduct impactful research.
Health Systems
MEOWS
Every year an estimated 45,000 women die in India from pregnancy-related complications. Many of these women were referred to more than one hospital before dying. Though it's clear that undergoing multiple hospitals delays needed care and leads to worse outcomes, there is no evidence-based method to identify women at high risk for poor outcomes prior to hospital arrival.
We aim first to develop a Maternal Emergency Obstetric Warning Score (MEOWS), a risk score designed to be applied in the prehospital setting to estimate the probability of a pregnant patient requiring higher levels of care, providing the ability to then guide efficient transport of these patients to facilities with adequate care capacity, reduce time to key lifesaving interventions, and thereby improve outcomes for both mothers and newborns, particularly for rural and poor populations, who rely on heavily on EMS for pregnancy-related transport.
Research
MEDEVAC UTILIZATION IN RURAL ALASKA
Over 80% of Alaska has no road system and facility-based emergency care depends entirely on air ambulances, which operate in the most dangerous flying conditions in the US. Researchers focus on understanding clinical decision-making by physicians and non-physician community health workers who deliver front line care in rural Alaska, and providing support using machine learning models.
MENTAL HEALTH IN SAN JOSE
A five-year NIH grant supports "A Promotora-centric Community Collaborative to Improve Connections to Mental Health Services." The research team will collaborate with the QSU, community-engaged researchers from Epidemiology, and Drexel, a leading social network analysis expert, as well as a range of community partners and promotoras from San Jose, California to strengthen use of mental health services in the Latinx community in East San Jose.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change is adversely impacting children living in LMICs. In partnership with EMRI Green Health Services and faculty from IIIT Delhi, SEMI is describing the impact of severe weather patterns on emergency health conditions in children in India. By predicting the impact of climate change on pediatric emergency medicine services we can help health policy officials and healthcare delivery systems better prepare and respond to children’s needs.
Education
ULTRASOUND IN RWANDA
Point-of-care Ultrasound (POCUS) offers the greatest benefit in resource-limited settings where physicians may not have access to advanced forms of imaging. In Rwanda's University Central Hospital of Kigali, EM residents have experienced a decrease in hands-on POCUS teaching from ultrasound trained providers since the COVID-19 pandemic. Our goal is to develop a hybrid curriculum to improve their POCUS skills and implement a quality assurance program to make the initiative sustainable as a means of building emergency medicine capacity in the region.
COVID COURSE
Stanford Emergency Medicine International developed a multi-lingual online training to recognize, stabilize and treat COVID-19. The course has been utilized by more than 200,000 health care providers around the world.
GVK EMRI PARTNERSHIP
GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) is a public-private not-for-profit organization that provides free-of-charge prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) across India. SEMI’s 15-year partnership with GVK EMRI centers on building world-class emergency care education programs and researching innovative uses for emergency care systems. Their collaborative efforts care for millions of patients annually.
Future efforts include designing early alert systems for high-risk populations and identifying the impact of climate change on health systems.
Related Research: Survivor Support Service Characteristics as Drivers of Help-Seeking in India
Global Emergency Medicine Fellowship
Stanford Emergency Medicine International fellows build the skills necessary to work in developing nations and participate in a variety of ongoing international health programs. Learn more