Thanks to the internet this project survives!

My last day of providing ultrasound training to the critical care team of Dhaka Medical college Hospital has come and gone. It was a light day, reviewing some new topics in advanced cardiac ultrasound, a primer into what’s coming down the pipeline. The session today was small, mostly to focus on my “champions”, defined as the group I have been training more closely so that they too can provide the same teaching sessions to their trainees. The final step was to pass on modified versions of the lectures as well as discuss how we can measure the success or failure of the “trickle down effect” or the “train the trainer” method. I am incredibly hopeful as the first batch of trainees has already been receiving some hands on training! In all honesty I believe that the end date of this project, meaning the time when I can fully hand it over, may be sooner than expected. This is thrilling as I am already thinking and planning about the next few educational sessions for the future. 

Above are my trainers, practicing some more advanced echo with our willing volunteer! 

But what is the key to success here? The use of social media and web-based teaching has been immensely helpful. But, even in this day and age, the age of technology, it can sometimes be difficult to stay in touch. On top of that there is an 11 hour time difference between the east coast and Dhaka. Regardless, we have been able to bridge time and distance to keep this project going, sharing ideas and scholarly activity and more importantly educational tools. I learn from them as much as they learn from me and this trip has been incredibly eye-opening!

What is coming down the road you may ask?

The use of non-invasive ventilation is a gap that we have identified and admittedly it seems that it is because of the lack of awareness of its uses and that it is not part of the hospital culture so-to-speak. The goal will be to involve the existing emergency department services so that patients who are identified early as potential candidates for non-invasive ventilation can be triagedappropriately if they show improvement. A resource-limited ICU May be very different from a resource-rich ICU in many ways but one way that it is not is in the constantly full census. Proper utilization of resources is crucial here as is sustainable interventions. Excited to see what the future will bring, a teaser is that we are planning a large ultrasound training session for Dhaka City critical care physicians in the next year with hopes to being a few US trainers along with me! Stay tuned and thanks for following along !