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COMMUNITY CASE STUDY article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Disaster and Emergency Medicine
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1441322
This article is part of the Research Topic Learning Interventions and Training: Providing Support during Health Emergencies View all 12 articles

Healthcare Capacity Strengthening in Complex Emergencies Through Virtual Emergency Medical Training and Outreach: Ukraine and Sudan Case Studies

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Faculty of Medicine, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana
  • 2 University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, United States
  • 3 Swiss Foundation for Innovation CH, Wollerau, Switzerland
  • 4 Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, United States
  • 5 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The use of digital learning in healthcare is expanding in a range of contexts including for settings of armed conflict. Humanitarian emergencies and war often lead to a surge of traumatic injuries, emotional distress, and disruption to health systems risking neglect and exacerbations of chronic illness, and acute infectious disease outbreaks, often requiring an international response. On the ground humanitarian response is often essential though logistical and security challenges can delay these responses, and the reliance on an international workforce unfamiliar with local cultures can create challenges in response efforts. In crises where local healthcare workers have limited training, or experience in emergency care, digital health care education can augment in-person response and training efforts. In recent years digital emergency care education programs have been deployed to both Ukraine and Sudan. A review of each of these programs demonstrates successes in and potential utility of remote healthcare capacity strengthening through digital education in settings of war. These programs provide important lessons in strengths of and challenges in developing and delivering just in time learning programs to settings of active armed conflict suggesting similar potential utility in a variety of humanitarian emergency contexts.

    Keywords: Health emergencies, Digital learning, War, Humanitarian response, Capacity strengthening

    Received: 30 May 2024; Accepted: 16 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 D'Andrea, Fadul, Dery, Brim, Israel and Struminger. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Shawn M. D'Andrea, Faculty of Medicine, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana
    Bruce Struminger, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 87131, New Mexico, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.