Our inaugural GHEM Fellow Dr. Matthew Douglas-Vail has completed the GHEM Fellowship. Matt has accepted a job as a staff at UBC, where he hopes to build the Global Health department there. We are extremely proud of all that Matt has accomplished in such a short time.

Pictured above: Matt with TAAAC-EM in Ethiopia [left] and Matt’s fieldwork experience in Liberia with PIH [left]

Matt’s Year in Review as our inaugural fellow:

Education, Clinical and Field Work:

Goal: to maintain clinical skills in Emergency Medicine and gain exposure to Global Health (with a focus on POCUS and climate change in low resource settings)
Accomplishments:

  • Clinical shifts as PGY5 / Transition to Practice Resident at NYGH, UHN
  • Moonlight / clinical associate shifts in rural/remote British Columbia (Merritt, Lillooet, 100 Mile House)
  • Completed 12 months Global Health and Humanitarian Medicine Course with Medecins Sans Frontieres- sat for the Diploma in Tropical Medicine
  • Completed 4 months in the echo lab at NYGH – sat for the National Board of Echocardiography Critical Care Echo Exam
  • Completed Parasitology Course at the University of Amsterdam
  • Four-weeks field work with TAAAC in Ethiopia (cut short due to political unrest)
  • Eight-weeks field work with PIH in Harper, Liberia
  • Attended monthly Brown Global Emergency Medicine Rounds
  • Attended monthly Johns Hopkins Global Health Rounds
  • Attended SONO Rounds (Sickkids)
  • Attended Canadian Conference in Global Health

Scholarly Work:

Goal: Affiliate with different projects to gain better understanding of Global Health key concepts (with a focus on POCUS and climate change)
Accomplishments:

  • TAAAC-EM: Data collection for POCUS fellowship study – update virtual vs in-person TAAAC program until departure from Ethiopia.
  • PIH (Partners in Health): – established POCUS programming, completed Liberia emergency care handbook, Joined PIH POCUS working group.
  • Published “Association of air quality during forest fire season with respiratory emergency department visits in Vancouver British Columbia” in the Journal Of Climate Change and Health.
  • Published case reports x 3 “POCUS for optic disc elevation in cerebral malaria” in CJEM and Cureus
  • GEM EM CASE Blog Post: “Climate Change And The Impeding Impact Of Emergency Medicine” (Primary author)
  • GEM EM CASE Blog Post: “So You Want To Become A Humanitarian Doctor” (editor)
  • GEM EM CASE Blog Post: “The Emergency Physician- Global Health’s Missing Piece” (editor)
  • GEM EM CASE Blog Post: “Practicing EM in Bangladesh- Build It And They Will Come” (editor)
  • Hosted GHEM Journal Club: “Climate Change and Health”
  • CAEP 2023 presentation “Global Health and Humanitarian POCUS”
  • Establish Social Emergency Medicine elective at Vancouver General Hospital
  • SONO Rounds Presentation “Global Health and Humanitarian POCUS”
  • British Columbia Department of Emergency Medicine Provincial
  • Grand Rounds presentation “Malnutrition in the Emergency Department”
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