title: Emergency medical services capacities in the developing world: preliminary evaluation and training in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
abstract: In December 1999, a group of emergency physicians from the United States, Israel, and Ethiopia met for the Second Annual Symposium on Emergency Medicine and to perform an initial evaluation of the prehospital care system in Addis Ababa. The symposium was structured into a workshop on prehospital care and a clinical seminar for emergency medicine providers. This article describes the current prehospital infrastructure in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This serves as the basis for more specific needs assessments and training interventions, which are ongoing. The authors present a list of priorities for the development of an emergency medical services (EMS) system for Addis Ababa that was generated in partnership with local government and the World Health Organization. The article contrasts these initial recommendations with those found in the literature on the development of EMS systems in developing nations.
authors.affiliation: Institute for International Emergency Medicine and Health, Department of Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. cpozner@partners.org
authors.forename: Charles N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Pozner
authors.forename: Tesfaye M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Bayleygne
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Odeda
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Benin-Goren
authors.forename: Vicki E
authors.initials: VE
authors.lastname: Noble
authors.forename: Pinchas
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Halpern
mesh_terms: D000552:Ambulances; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003906:Developing Countries; D004631:Emergency Medical Service Communication Systems; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D004634:Emergency Medical Technicians / Q000193:education; D005002:Ethiopia; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D007857:Leadership; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care