Palestine Anesthesia Teaching Mission (PATM) Update 2012/13

The above mission is now in its second year of operation thanks to a new donor from Canada who wishes to remain anonymous. Two volunteers have completed assignments in Palestine in the months of April and May 2012. The residency program in East Jerusalem and the West Bank has now expanded to 33 residents. A new program opened in Ramallah this year and they have 8 residents. We plan to extend an invitation to them to participate in our current arrangement with Makkased, Rafidia and Al-Ahli hospitals. A total of 19 new residents have signed up for residency training in Palestine this past year. This represents a major increase in interest in anesthesia in Palestine.  Rafidia Hospital now has 8 residents and 6 of them are first year.  Four residents were successful in the Palestine Board Exams last December. At least two more volunteers have agreed to volunteer in 2012 and three more volunteers have signed up for 2013 so far.  The Dean of Al-Quds Medical School in Palestine has recently been appointed Minister of Health in Palestine. Dean Abdeen has been a strong advocate of the PATM from the beginning

 Two residents and one consultant anesthesiologist from Palestine presented papers at the recent World Congress of Anesthesiologists in Buenos Aires. All three papers were well received and excellently presented. This was the first time that Palestinian anesthesiologists presented papers at an international convention.

 The PATM has recently established a liaison with Egyptian Society of Anesthesiologists (EgSA) who has pledged to advance our program in a number of ways. They have offered scholarships to anesthesiologists in Palestine to attend the All Africa conference scheduled for April 2013 and the Pan Arab conference scheduled for September 2013 in Beirut. They have also offered fellowship training for 2 candidates to complete fellowship training in subspecialty areas in Assuit University. We anticipate that members of EgSA will volunteer in PATM in the near future.

PATM has now almost completed two years of operation. We have two additional volunteers scheduled for Palestine this year and three more scheduled so far for 2013. We still have openings for volunteers in March, April, May, September and October of 2013. So far we have volunteers from 5 different countries including Canada, USA, Sweden, Chile and Australia and we have scheduled a volunteer from the UK in February 2013. If you are interested in volunteering please contact to Ms. Ruth Hooper at WFSA and ask her to forward an application. The e-mail address is: wfsahq@anesthesiologists.org

 A special thanks to all those individuals who have already volunteered and have enhanced the education of many young Palestinian anesthesiology trainees. These are Hafez Sami MD. USA, Franco Carli MD Canada, Haydn Perndt MD. Australia, Danielle Kietzmann MD Sweden, JF Asenjo MD Chile/Canada, Bobby Lee MD Canada

Respectfully submitted

BT Finucane MB FRCPC

Coordinator
PATM
CASIEF/WFSA