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Emergency Medical Care Capacity Statement

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Disaster Response.

Medical Teams International’s Emergency Medical Care (EMC) program began in 2001 with a focused training and educational effort to reduce morbidity and mortality resulting from road traffic accidents in the developing world.

The EMC educational program has three goals:

  1. Provide EMC curriculum contextualized in the language(s) of the country.
  2. Employ a train-the-trainer method of adult education to increase local capacity and stimulate sustainability of the training program.
  3. Standardize and integrate the EMC curriculum into the national health education system.

In 2002, the first project began with the goal to upgrade the existing EMC system in Uzbekistan. The primary partners in the program were the Uzbekistan Ministry of Health, Ministry of Emergencies and Internal Affairs. Since the inception of this initial project, Medical Teams International's foreign experts and more than 50 local master trainers have educated more than 9,000 citizens throughout all provinces of Uzbekistan in pre-hospital care practices, instituted 10 regional training centers, developed a model trauma care unit and institutionalized the training curriculum within the Tashkent Pediatric Medical Institute.

In 2005, Medical Teams International's EMC program expanded beyond its original focus on training/education to include a full range of EMC system development and technical assistance. These include the elements contained in the figure below.

Capacity Diagram

The Medical Teams International EMC program in Sri Lanka, active from 2005 to 2011, incorporated all education, system and care elements. We collaborated with the Office of the President, the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Municipal governments, Colombo Fire Brigade, Sarvodaya, WHO, JICA and ICET to develop a full spectrum EMC program–from initial response notification, response, treatment, transport, entrance into the trauma system and discharge from the hospital. The program is proving to be sustainable as the system has been adopted at the National Trauma Secretariat level, endorsed by the Office of the President and implemented throughout the country.

EMC Program Milestones

The EMC program has been successfully replicated in a variety of formats in Cambodia, Moldova, Tajikistan, Peru, Uganda and Vietnam. Project sites include these countries, as well as Belarus, El Salvador, Northern Iraq, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan. More than 200 volunteers have supported the program. The value of the service provided is estimated to be more than $480,400.

Staff and volunteers have provided in-depth technical assistance in the following areas:

  • Treatment protocol development
  • Contextualized curriculum in the local language
  • National legislative design
  • Dispatch development
  • Training of trainers
  • Community outreach
  • Volunteerism
  • Public/private partnerships (dispatch and transport)
  • Trauma management

EMC Class in VietnamMedical Teams International’s Basic Emergency Responder, First Responder and Trauma Nursing curriculum has been translated and contextualized into over nine languages and is readily accessible by more than 20% of the world’s population.

Since 2001, the EMC program has benefited more than 120,000 healthcare providers and community members directly and more than 38,000,000 worldwide indirectly.

The Medical Teams International EMC program offers a full range of medical training at the community level, first responder, basic/advanced life support, nursing and the physician level. Additionally we have acted as the lead coordinating body in the development of comprehensive emergency medical programming.

Comments from our partners

“The EMC program of Medical Teams International sparked the innovative and modern approach in response to acute emergencies among medical and prehospital personnel in Uzbekistan. They are utilizing newer tools and techniques in rescue and patient care as a result of this program.” - Dr. Dj. Sabirov, Postgraduate Medical Institute, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

“Our partnership will provide the support required for the government of Sri Lanka to formally establish, institutionalize, and continue to develop the Trauma Secretariat. We’re making history in the third world.” - Dr. H. A. P. Kahandaliyanage, Secretary Ministry of Healthcare and Nutrition, Colombo, Sri Lanka

“I was really heartened to learn of the success of several pilot, prehospital care projects in Sri Lanka. This reflects the desire and commitment of the American public to reach out to others.” - Mr. James Moore, Deputy U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka

“Finally an international NGO brings me a medical textbook written in my language with my people for my people.” H.E. Professor Heng Tai Kry, Secretary of State Ministry of Health – Kingdom of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Download additional information

For more information on this program, download the EMS Portfolio Overview.