Lifebox
In October, 2015, Emma Lillie was the lead Anesthesiologist to schedule Lifebox workshops and complete the distribution of Pulse Oximeter’s (41) in needed areas in the Can Tho, Vietnam area. The hospitals that received the training and devices, they were so appreciative of this effort that will truly make a difference in their provision of care to patients throughout the Mekong Delta.
The workshops successfully taught basic Physiology, operation and care of Pulse Oximeters, and surgical use and safety. There was a workshop conducted in Vietnamese as well as English, that included a Train the Trainers course that will allow independent teaching by selected faculty.
Their training included the principles of adult learning, as well as the delivery of material pertaining to the use of Oximeters.
Lifebox has officially commissioned three members of the Vietnamese Lifebox workshop that underwent the Train the Trainers course as Lifebox representatives. They have already represented Lifebox at the Mekong Delta Anaesthesia Conference. Through this they have been able to advocate Lifebox surgical safety principles and establish the pulse Oximetry needs of multiple hospitals in the Mekong area-that may be difficult to reach. From the conference feedback there will be a proposal to Lifebox to donate additional equipment to better serve all the hospitals in the area. The leadership will soon be transferred to Emma’s Vietnamese partner Dr. Long, from CTUMP, head of Anesthesiology.
Emma Lillie is a paediatric anaesthetist at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital in Brighton with a desire to improve global healthcare. She has spent 5 years working in under resourced hospitals in Zambia, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Vietnam. This experience highlighted the importance of effective resource management, mutual collaboration, cultural sensitivity, local engagement, innovation and adaptability. She advocates improved global healthcare through international partnerships that promote co-development in which all partners are equal, demonstrate mutual respect and equally benefit from the collaboration. She is co-director of a successful and growing international healthcare partnership between the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI) and University Teaching Hospital in Zambia called the Zambian Anaesthesia Development Project (ZADP), which educates both Zambian and UK anaesthetic trainees in clinical and non-clinical skills needed to provide an optimal anaesthetic service.
