Overview

Since 2001, the Department of Emergency Medicine has offered a Fellowship in International Emergency Medicine to recent emergency medicine residency graduates. The specialty of emergency medicine has expanded rapidly over the past thirty years within the United States. Currently, many foreign countries are focused on the creation and development of emergency care systems, and are looking to established emergency care providers for guidance and assistance. The International Emergency Medicine Fellowship is designed to train emergency physicians to gain the cognitive and administrative skills for leadership roles in the development of emergency medical programs. In 2002, the Department established the International Society for Emergency Care, a non-profit group that operates as a funding vehicle for the Department's international efforts.

The International Emergency Medicine Fellowship can be completed as either a one- or two-year program, depending upon whether the fellow elects to pursue a Masters of Public Health degree during the training period.

The fellow has diverse clinical and academic responsibilities. Clinically, the fellow functions as an attending physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Bellevue Hospital. This experience allows the fellow to expand his or her patient-care knowledge base and gain considerable experience as a supervising physician in a busy, urban hospital with a well-established emergency medicine training program. The clinical time commitment is deliberately kept to a minimum, as the fellow is expected to spend the majority of his or her time pursuing academic goals.

The fellow is expected to take an active role in the extensive international projects already established in the Department of Emergency Medicine. These projects include ongoing emergency medicine training programs in Transylvania, Romania and in Mexico City, Mexico, as well as a rural EMS training program in Saint Elizabeth's Parish, Jamaica. These programs are continually developing and expanding, and the fellow has an active leadership role in the administration and direction of these endeavors.

The central experience of the International Emergency Medicine fellowship is the creation of the fellow's own international project. This will allow the fellow to have a sustainable operation as the tangible product of the fellowship experience. The fellowship director will assist the fellow in gaining an understanding of the roles of NGO's, governmental agencies, private foundations, and academic centers in the establishment and maintenance of a successful international program. The fellow will learn how to assess the needs and resources of a given international area and plan an appropriate and sustainable project that can be successfully integrated into the community. By the end of the fellowship, the fellow will have the skills necessary to identify and procure funding for appropriate, productive international efforts and will have the academic experience to be proficient at further design and implementation of successful international research projects.

It is expected that the fellow will complete two research projects during the course of the fellowship and will present the results of this work at an appropriate national or international conference. Additionally, this work will be prepared for publication prior to the end of the fellowship.

Applications

To apply, please submit the following to the address listed below:

• Letter of interest

• Curriculum Vitae

• Letter of support from emergency medicine residency director

• Letter of support of from emergency medicine faculty member

Peter Gordon, MD
Director, Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship
Bellevue Hospital Center, Suite 345A
First Avenue and 27th Street
New York , N.Y. 10016
Phone (212) 263-3743
peg.aao@att.net