The first truly global study of COVID-19’s comparative impact on hospital emergency rooms around the world is being driven by Michigan Medicine.
The survey of 74 emergency rooms across 41 countries was conducted by the network EMERGE (Emergency Medicine Education and Research by Global Experts), formed recently by Professor and Vice Chair of Emergency Medicine Prashant Mahajan, MD, MPH, MBA.
COVID-19 started to take hold this January, the same month that members of the fledgling network formalized a governance structure and elected leaders, creating both a proving ground and stress test for the new research network, Mahajan said.
“We were really just getting started, but if your global network of emergency departments doesn’t react to COVID, what is the point of the network?” he said. “We are all struggling with the same issues, so the core idea is to have everyone share what they are doing so we can be able to help each other.”
He and his team designed a survey and made it available in English, Spanish and Mandarin. They gathered responses from hospitals in Chile, Brazil, Ghana, Pakistan, Israel, Australia, China, Germany and Japan, among many others. Sites included both EMERGE network and non-member institutions, with a response rate of nearly 60%.
“We began this project unsure whether, in the midst of this crisis, people would take the time to participate,” said EMERGE network Manager Apoorva Belle. “Despite being busy, people came forward to share their data. I think there’s a sense of community and purpose, sharing information for the greater good.” Read More
Written by Craig McCool from UM Global REACH