American College of Emergency Physicians
From the Chair
As I look back at this past year, I want to take this opportunity to reflect on what we have accomplished together. First, I want to start with one of the main concerns that we kept hearing from our international members – that the ACEP dues were too high and didn’t take into account the different countries that our members come from, making it prohibitively expensive for many. The section leadership worked hard to develop a proposal that was vetted through several ACEP committees and I am happy to report that the Board of Directors (BOD) will vote on it during ACEP19. If approved, it will make ACEP and its resources more accessible, helping us advance emergency care in our members’ countries.
Together, we were able to elevate the attention of international needs internally and externally. Within ACEP, through our consistent, deliberate, and intentional programmatic development and growth, we have raised awareness. The ACEP leadership responded by creating the ACEP International Committee with the aim of bringing the international needs to the forefront of the organization by executing Board-level strategic objectives and tactics. The International Section will continue as an interest group with overlap in the leadership team to ensure collaboration and synergy. The Ambassador Program continues to grow and this year at the Ambassador Conference, we have over 100 members registered to attend. The Ambassador Mentorship Program is starting its 2nd year and promises to continue to expand with the number of medical students who are interested in Global Health. The Educational Session will prove to be another successful and highly attended event with hands-on training and skills development. Our Councillors were also busy drafting a joint resolution on Violence in the ED with the Social Medicine Section. The International Section won yet another Section Grant which will fund the Global Story initiative, allowing us to capture 18 compelling stories about Emergency Medicine from around the world. As this launches, we are nearing completion of our last Section Grant, which created our interactive Ambassador Program World Map. Visit our website to check out what is happening in your country and region. If you have an idea that you would like to submit as a Section Grant, please reach out to us during ACEP19.
Outwardly, we developed several global engagement initiatives and partnerships. Our main collaboration with ACES will bring the WHO/ICRC BEC Facilitator Training of Trainer Course to ACEP19 with 150 individuals registered to attend. Thanks to funding from the BOD, we were able to provide 16 ACEP19 travel grants to global leaders. We are excited for the opportunities to collaborate with these colleagues. This year, we also partnered with the EMRAP:GO Fellows; with them, we will have over 25 of the world’s most influential emergency physicians. We hope that you will join us as we welcome and host our delegation, as they network, learn, and share during our events at ACEP19. We have created a Global Village area in the Exhibition Hall where you can stop by and mingle throughout your time at ACEP19.
As I reflect on this year, I am thankful for all of the many individual members who stepped up; the section leaders who advanced our mission; the partnerships we have created to move the needed conversations forward; and the ACEP staff, Bobby Heard, Faeeza Faruq, and many others, who did so much behind the scenes work for us. I want to personally recognize Hani Mowafi for his tremendous leadership these past two years. I am excited to pass the torch to Janis Tupesis, our Chair-Elect, whose ideas have already shaped our activities and whose vision will take the ACEP International Section to a whole new level. Lastly, to you, all of the Section members, thank you for giving me this opportunity to lead our group. I look forward to joining you in the ranks in order to continue our global efforts and goals. Let’s work together towards our collective goal - to make an impact around the world by advancing emergency medicine and improving emergency care.
Christian Arbelaez, MD, MPH
International Section Chair
Vice Chair of Academic Affairs | Department of Emergency Medicine Associate Professor | Alpert Medical School, Brown University
