The majority of patients who seek treatment at Black Lion Hospital’s emergency room present with internal
conditions related to HIV, including respiratory distress related to TB, pneumocystis pneumonia, and other
opportunistic infections. Because of this, improved organization of emergency medical services and related
training opportunities at Addis Ababa University School of Medicine is an important component of the provision of quality care and services for PLWH.
In response, AIHA launched in 2009 a partnership linking the School of Medicine with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the
Kentucky-based NGO People to People with the goal of strengthening local urgent care capacity and expanding pre- and in-service education and training opportunities.
In February 2010, partners opened Ethiopia’s first Emergency Medicine Training Center. Since then, they have trained more than 1,075 healthcare workers, medical and nursing students, and other individuals in basic life support and CPR; pre-hospital service; advanced life support obstetrics; emergency triage assessment and treatment (ETAT); advanced life support in infectious diseases (ALSID); and a broad range of quality improvement topics.
To date, some key accomplishments of this alliance include the graduation of four Ethiopian physicians and a like number of nurses from a Wisconsin-hosted fellowship in Emergency Medicine and the development of a database for tracking adult urgent care patients, as well as the launch of an Emergency Medicine Department at Addis Ababa University, which has recently accepted five residents into this new program.
In keeping with the Ministry of Health’s priority to improve the health status of children, AIHA supported the
formation of a second partnership between these two institutions in mid-2010. With the addition of Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, this new partnership focuses on improving pediatric urgent care through targeted training and education, as well as organizational development and capacity building.
The results of their collaboration include the development of a pediatric emergency medicine fellows curriculum based on guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics and a wide range of clinical trainings on pediatric urgent care topics including respiratory emergencies, acute respiratory failure assessment and management, ETAT, and pediatric advance life support (PALS), as well as an in-service training course on basic life skills and intensive care unit management in pediatrics for nurses from Tikur Anbessa and AIHA hospital partners from Ambo and Debre Berhan.
In addition, the Wisconsin partners conducted a six-week condensed competency-based emergency medicine fellowship curriculum for two pediatricians and a similar four-week course for two nurses. They also conducted
a distance course on advances clinical and translational research for five pediatric physicians and developed a number of quality improvement projects to improve pediatric emergency medical care and services at
Tikur Anbessa.
Updated November 14, 2011
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