Greetings from Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok, and welcome to the Coastal Maine Global Health Fellowship blog! I am waiting for my afternoon flight to Mae Sot, where the second phase of this fellowship will officially commence. I have never written a blog before, so please bear with me as I get the hang of it. As my profile states, I recently graduated from the emergency medicine residency program at Brown University and am now a fellow with the Coastal Maine Global Health Fellowship (CMGHF). I just finished three months of working at the Pen Bay Medical Center Emergency Department in Rockport, ME, during their busy summer season. I had a wonderful time caring for patients and getting to know the incredible staff at the Pen Bay ED. The Pen Bay ED provided an ideal setting for my first attending physician job, as it is a busy community hospital with a breadth of patient presentations and excellent colleagues. I could write an entire blog on that experience alone; however, that is not why we have gathered on this site. Thankfully, I am fortunate to be returning there next spring.
But for now, I will spend the next seven months living in Mae Sot, Thailand, along the Thai/Burma border, collaborating with the Mae Tao Clinic (MTC) to help expand their emergency medicine capacity. The MTC team is embarking on a three-year project to develop a comprehensive Emergency Care Unit (ECU). Dr. Tiah Ling and Dr. Phillip have created a development plan highlighting four key areas: processes, infrastructure, knowledge/skills, and staffing. During my time at MTC, we will work together on a combination of educational training programs, triage system implementation, treatment algorithms, trauma protocols, ultrasound training, and design/layout of the ECU physical space to advance the ECU goals.
In addition to posts discussing the ECU development, I will share interesting medical cases, de-identified, of course, and perhaps some personal thoughts about my experience living and working along the Thailand/Myanmar border. For more information about MTC and their incredible work, visit their website (https://maetaoclinic.org/).
Please share this blog with anyone who may be interested. If anyone reading has any questions, please leave a reply to one of my posts, and I will be sure to answer.
I look forward to sharing this experience as it unfolds. Thanks for joining, and stay tuned!
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