Capacity building for emergency care: Training the first emergency specialists in Myanmar.

OBJECTIVES: The Myanmar Ministry of Health has formed a partnership with Australasian professional colleges and international medical specialists to deliver a comprehensive programme for emergency care training and development. We describe this programme, emphasising the training of the first emergency specialists for Myanmar.

METHODS: Eighteen junior specialists (EM18) joined a new postgraduate diploma in emergency medicine (Dip EM) through the University of Medicine (1) (UM1), Yangon. Diploma content included an introductory course, clinical rotations, 2 months in the emergency receiving centre (ERC) of the Yangon General Hospital (YGH) supervised by a volunteer Australasian emergency physician (FACEM), several short courses and an educational visit to Hong Kong. Curriculum and assessments comprising written and oral exams were devised and delivered by volunteer FACEMs and Hong Kong specialists.

RESULTS: All EM18 completed the 18 month programme and passed the final assessments to graduate in February 2014. Course strengths included the supervised clinical rotation to the ERC and short course teaching on emergency medical, surgical, trauma, paediatric and disaster topics. The educational visit to Hong Kong enabled the EM18 to visualise more advanced EM systems that could be adapted to the Myanmar context. The participating international clinicians provided expert strategic advice on ED design, staffing, equipment, nursing and pre-hospital systems to leaders within universities, hospitals and the Ministry of Health.

CONCLUSION: The first Myanmar postgraduate diploma in EM provides an example of collaborative and responsive clinical health capacity building in a context of very limited resources.