Emergency Medical Teams Global Meeting in Abu Dhabi - a venue for networking and knowledge-sharing

The WHO’s Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) initiative can be described as a sort of global emergency service, a 112-emergency number that countries can call for clinical surge capacity support when faced with a disaster or health emergency. The WHO states that the purpose of the initiative is to “improve the timeliness and quality of health services provided by national and international EMTs and enhance the capacity of national health systems in leading the activation and coordination of rapid clinical response capacities in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, outbreak and/or other emergency”. 

KI was part of establishing the initiative in 2010 and since then a global classification with standards has been developed and implemented. To date more than 50 EMTs have been classified and more than 100 are in the process.  The global community of national and international EMT organisations is getting larger and more professional. All actors including WHO member states and partners regularly gathered for Global Meetings, with the intention of advancing the initiative, and to foster mutual collaboration and support. From the 5^th to 7^th of November, it was time for another one, this time in Abu Dhabi.  

Presentation on assessment and continued involvement with the initiative 

Hannah von Reding, Nieves Amat Camacho and Johan von Schreeb from the research group Global Disaster Medicine – Health Needs and Response, attended the conference and made presentations as well as presented three posters about their work based on an WHO EMT investment case analysing EMT deployments as surge capacity from 2010-2023, a project where the group has used its experience from policy, research and field work within global disaster medicine Nieves Amat Camacho presented during a session focusing on Emergency Response & Capacity Building  and Johan von Schreeb presented during the session on how to EMTs can operate in insecure, conflict environments. Moreover, the KI team met with EMTs from Ukraine, Armenia, Italy, Albania and Bosnia that they are mentoring towards EMT classification  

– It has been a brilliant opportunity to meet and share knowledge and experience with other people who also work with the EMT initiative. Our involvement with the initiative is an opportunity for us to make use of what we know through our research and our experience of working in disasters and health emergencies, so to be able to present it here at the Global Meeting feels very worthwhile, says Hannah von Reding.  

The research group is a WHO Collaborating Centre and in addition to the research they presented at the Global Meeting, they have worked with training of EMTs, they have written guidelines and handbooks and Johan von Schreeb, the research group leader, is a mentor and assessor of several prospective EMTs. Their involvement will continue, focusing in particular on assessment and mentorship of new EMTs.