In this 11th WACEM-ACAIM Joint Working Group, we venture into furthering work we have already commenced and introducing the topic of supply chain dynamics in the COVID-19 era. Today we were joined by President-Elect of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM), Dr. Lisa Moreno, with whom we hope to establish a long and fruitful collaborative relationship.
Situation in Greater Mumbai
We learnt of the further worsening situation in Greater Mumbai, particularly focussing on the severely inadequate ventilator to patient ratios. Our leaders are working hard on applying the algorithms we have jointly developed on the ground level, and gathering data derived from the practical application. Our prayers and well wishes go out to the healthcare workers and people of they city and country.
Urban and Rural Pandemic in India
Though it started out an urban disease, as things stand with migration, and the natural course of spread, we will see two very different scenarios playing out - the urban pandemic struggling even with all its amenities and man-power, and the rural pandemic, which will be heavily reliant upon primary care, with very little scope of using tertiary care as their safety net due to an overwhelming of resources already in play.
AAEM Collaboration
We were joined by Dr. Lisa Moreno, President-Elect of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, who gave us a short overview on their excellent democratic model seeking to create a culture of fairness and equality for emergency physicians so they can in turn deliver the highest quality of patient care. We hope to develop a fruitful working relationship between ACAIM/WACEM and AAEM going forward in the realm of global emergency medicine.
Education Design
We hope to develop our work, papers and presentations into a structured educational course to benefit all physicians everywhere. For these purposes, we had an excellent presentation of developing a sound educational model based on successfully applied existing courses.
Developing a Culture of Telemedicine
As discussed in previous meetings, and reiterated with good reason, the joint group is working on developing a paper that will encompass the topic of moving from crisis telemedicine to a culture of telemedicine. The paper will hope to answer the why, what, how and when questions, and hopefully provide a robust system that is practically applicable and medically sound.
Pathophysiology Hypothesis
Extensive work done by the immunologists in our working group is coming to fruition. We hope to soon publish the detailed work on the pathophysiology of the coronavirus infection, rooted in the workings of the immunology system - direct and indirect pathways, hopefully paving the way to a better understanding of the disease, and consequently developing immune-modulating treatments.
Supply Chain Model to Restore the Economy
Understandably, the medical fraternity has been keenly focussing on the medical impact of the disease - either to patients, hospitals or healthcare workers. However, we need to expand this focus to the greater picture and work on reviving the economy as a whole, and medical care dynamics by creating a workable supply chain model. From the well off - focussing on safety, amenities, and the finest private medical care, to the socioeconomically deprived - worried about living hand to mouth, and the food reaching their plate, let alone a high standard of medical care, an operational supply chain is the basis of biosecurity. Again, we are working on developing the model and sharing our accumulative knowledge.
More to come...
It's been 11 weeks since the commencement of these weekly meetings, and from abstract visions and undeveloped ideas, we have now reached the stage of creation, implementation, publications and expanding collaboration. No doubt there is more to come.