Global Emergency Medicine Fellowship

The Global Emergency Medicine (GEM) Fellowship at Atrium Health's Carolinas Medical Center operates under the mission of capacity building for resilience and responding to international crisis with a focus on emergency care in low and middle-income countries.

In partnership with healthcare facilities in Tanzania and Guatemala, as well as Team Rubicon in the United States, our fellows:

• Gain experience in emergency settings while responding to complex humanitarian emergencies and international disasters
• Serve a diverse socioeconomic patient population
• Build clinical skills while learning about developing emergency medicine systems
• Have the opportunity to earn a Master of Science in Public Health Degree

To apply or learn more, contact the Fellowship Program Director Adeline Dozois, MD.

Fellowship Partners

Muhimbili National Hospital/Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences

Since 2009, our partnership with the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) and the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) has focused on emergency care and improving the capacity for research.

This collaboration has led to the development of the emergency medicine residency program at MUHAS. The residency program started in 2010 and graduated their first class of emergency medicine trained physicians in 2013. Staffed and run by locally trained emergency physicians and nurses, both the emergency department and the residency program are the first of their kind in Tanzania.

As of 2017, this collaboration has resulted in 21 scientific abstract presentations with 17 of those by a Tanzanian investigator. Research products also included nine full-length peer-reviewed publications, five of those with a Tanzanian first author and all with a Tanzanian second author.

Hospital Regional de Escuintla, Escuintla, Guatemala.  In a unique collaboration with the Department of Pediatrics at CMC, Emergency Medicine Faculty have developed an ultrasound training program for Escuintla's Pediatrics residents. In addition to ongoing ultrasound educational projects including "Train the Trainer" courses for local pediatric attending physicians, CMC EM faculty are researching novel uses of ultrasound in low resource settings. Recent ultrasound trainings have expanded to include general surgery residents in Escuintla.

San Juan de Dios Hospital, Guatemala City, Guatemala. CMC EM Faculty in the Ultrasound Division have secured grant funding for ultrasound machine that was donated to the recently established EM Residency Program at IGSS in Guatemala City and has been conducting Ultrasound training courses there since 2021. 

Team Rubicon

The Department of Emergency Medicine also partners with and provides medical direction to Team Rubicon, a nonprofit disaster response organization. Team Rubicon’s 80,000 volunteers, 70 percent of which are military veterans, respond to disaster areas in the United States and internationally. The combined skills of military veterans, first responders and emergency medical personnel enables Team Rubicon to respond quickly and efficiently.

Fellowship Duration and Curriculum

The GEM Fellowship is a 12- or 24-month fellowship. The 12-month fellowship includes dedicated time for up to three months of field work and courses as below. The 24-month fellowship option offers up to 6 months of field work, plus opportunities to pursue a funded Master of Science in Public Health Degree or a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. (Separate applications to these programs are to be completed after fellowship acceptance).

Clinical Care

The fellow has an average of 12 hours per week of clinical responsibility over the academic year (average of six eight-hour shifts per month) for 49 weeks with two weeks of vacation and one week of continuing medical education. 

Ample internal and external moonlighting opportunities exist for fellows.

Areas of educational focus include:

• Travel and field medicine
• Humanitarian relief
• Disaster management
• Emergency medicine systems and development
• Public health
• Program administration
• Academic skills

Fellow Didactics will be on Tuesday when the Fellow is in Charlotte.

Courses:

• Choice of: Humanitarian Emergencies in Large Populations (HELP) or Harvard Humanitarian Initiative Humanitarian Responsive Intensive Course

• Global Health Intensive course at Atrium Health's Carolinas Medical Center - Charlotte, NC

Electives/International Experience

Electives allow fellows to gain experience in emergency settings, which include:

• Up to three months annually with Muhimbili National Hospital Emergency Department, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
• Up to two weeks/year with Hospital Regional de Escuintla or San Juan de Dios hospital in Guatemala working on projects.
• Disaster response and or capacity building work with Team Rubicon, USA (number and duration of trips vary based on need).
  

Clinical Sites 

CMC GEM Fellows will be classified as junior emergency medicine faculty and will work clinical shifts in the CMC Emergency Department as the attending physician. They will be responsible for the delivery of clinical patient care, including the supervision and education of CMC residents and advanced care providers as well as visiting and Wake Forest School of Medicine medical students.

Atrium Health's Carolinas Medical Center Main, Charlotte, North Carolina

Atrium Health's Carolinas Medical Center (CMC) is an 874-bed, community-based, tertiary care teaching hospital that serves as the only regional Level I trauma center, the state poison control center and is a tertiary referral center for Mecklenburg County and 16 surrounding counties in North and South Carolina.

Learn more about Atrium Health's Carolinas Medical Center.

Levine Children's Hospital, Charlotte, North Carolina

Located on the same campus as CMC Main, this is a tertiary care hospital and the region’s only Pediatric Level I trauma center. 

Learn more about Levine Children's Hospital.

Emergency Department

The Emergency Department at Atrium Health's Carolinas Medical Center manages over 115,000 patients each year, or about 300 to 320 patients per day. We serve a diverse socioeconomic patient population while providing a wide range of patient care opportunities, including medical, surgical/traumatic, pediatric, obstetrical-gynecological, psychiatric and toxicological.

Patients are triaged to one of these four areas based on the acuity of illness:

• Major treatment
• Diagnostic center
• Ambulatory emergency center
• Children’s emergency department

The children's emergency department is the first in the region to offer 24-hour emergency care for children in a family-centered environment.

Three to four board-certified emergency medicine faculty members are present in the open areas 24 hours a day.

International Sites: 

Emergency Medicine Department, Muhimbili National Hospital, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

MNH opened the first public, full service ED in Tanzania in 2009, and now sees a volume of 150-200 patients (20% pediatrics). Specialty clinics attend to about 1,000 patients a day, and the hospital has a bed capacity of 1,500 patients. All specialties are available at the MNH campus, including medical, surgical, cardiovascular, trauma, pediatrics and psychiatry. A new pediatric emergency care unit opened at MNH in 2021.

Fellows wishing to treat patients will become licensed to practice medicine in Tanzania, provided by the Medical Council of Tanzania. The Emergency Medicine Department at MNH has 10 faculty members specializing in emergency medicine who are available to provide mentorship.

Team Rubicon, USA

David Callaway, MD, serves as the Chief Medical Officer and Medical Director for Team Rubicon (TR). In June 2018, Team Rubicon became the first US-based NGO to become certified as an Emergency Medical Team, Type I Mobile by the World Health Organization (WHO). Previous CMC fellows have been deployed to sudden on-set and complex humanitarian crises in the following countries: Uganda, Papau New Guinea, The Bahamas, Mozambique, Mariana Islands, Greece.    

Current Fellow: 

Erica Scott, MD  2023-2024

  Medical School:  Texas Tech University

  Residency:  Eastern Carolina University Brody School of Medicine (Emergency Medicine)

  Fellowship #1: Pediatric EM Fellowship at Carolinas Medical Center

Recruitment Process:

We have filled our fellowship position for the 2024-2025 academic year. Please check back in the Summer of 2024 for more information about recruiting for 2025.

Similar to other international Emergency Medicine fellowships, the CMC Global EM Fellowship participates in the NRMP Match.

Applications should be submitted through the Global EM Fellowship Consortium webpage at https://www.saem.org/GEMFC.

Required Application Materials:

• CV

• Personal Statement including interest in our program, experience and goals

• Two letters of reference (including one from your Residency Program Director)

Global Emergency Medicine Contact Information

Department of Emergency Medicine
1000 Blythe Boulevard
Medicine Education Building, Third Floor
Charlotte, NC 28203
Phone: 704-355-9360
Fax: 704-355-7047
Email: Adeline Dozois (Fellowship Director)
CC: Claudette Batton (Fellowship Administrator)