International EM Project - Vietnam

Based in Ontario, California (just outside of Los Angeles), a group called Good Samaritans Medical Ministry organizes a yearly summer project, going deep into rural Vietnam to provide clinic-based medical care, as well as identify individuals who need more advanced surgical care. These individuals are then transported to one of the main cities (often Hanoi), where a group will pay for their surgery and aftercare. The group's leader recognized an area of major deficiency in Vietnam's medical system is emergency medicine. Thus, the first annual Vietnam emergency medicine trip was born.

Samuel Cloud, DO, and several other emergency physicians and registered nurses went on this trip in January 2006. During this trip, areas of future needs were accessed, BTLS was taught to the new EMS providers using a trauma mannequin provided by Laerdel; CPR and trauma lectures were also taught at the medical school in Hue.

Future focus will be on teaching ATLS and ACLS courses, as well as more core emergency medicine topics at the medical school. The group also went in 2007, 2008, and 2009. In order to support the growth of emergency medicine in Vietnam, yearly winter trips will continue.

The first Emergency Medicine residency in the country will admit their first class in the Fall of 2006.

Please visit the site below for more information about our work in Vietnam.

vietnamem.org