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| navigate: home: magazine: winter 2000: article | |
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The Master of Disaster Head of the Center for International Emergency Medicine is on a mission to improve the discipline in the new century By Harry Zimbler | ||||||
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“We’re dealing with a bit of a mess right now in the emergency department,” said Dr. James Holliman, as he rushed off to his office in the Penn State Geisinger Health System at The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center Emergency Department. The associate professor of surgery is one of the world’s leading experts in the delivery of urgent medical care. It was a busy afternoon, with 17 of 19 consultation rooms filled with people coping with a medical crisis. Young interns were busy ordering treatments, completing forms and darting to and fro in the spacious control room, medical charts in hand. “I hope you won’t mind sitting here for a few minutes,” the affable Holliman said. “And when I get back, would you mind if I ate my lunch while we talked?” The calm at the center of an ER vortex, Holliman is an energetic man who appears much younger than his 45 years. As a full-time emergency physician, he practices what he preaches. As the director of international emergency medicine, he preaches what he practices to medical professionals worldwide. A sign on his door provided insight into his personal style and temperament. It read: “I am lost. I have gone to look for me. If I should return before I get back, please ask me to wait.” “Emergency care is an important part of our health care system in the United States,” he said, finally settled behind his desk, sandwich in hand. “The same kind of system would be good for all countries.” Emergency care includes dealing with trauma—caused by automobile accidents for example—but is mainly concerned with the resuscitation of a patient who is not breathing or whose heart has stopped beating. The field encompasses all the decision making and action necessary to prevent death or any further disability for patients in health crises. “In the United States, we are light years ahead of the rest of the world,” Holliman continued. “Here, emergency medicine is a relatively mature medical discipline. I knew if I was going to make a difference in the field, I would have to work on education projects that would involve international travel.” His passion for emergency care began when he worked in Guatemala while still in medical school. “It struck me that emergency medicine was barely a specialty outside this country. I knew that one person could have a very profound, positive effect worldwide and felt I could help bring care where it was needed.” To do that, he established the Center for International Emergency Medicine at Penn State in 1994. “I wanted to have an organizational entity within our academic department that would encourage educational activities in emergency medicine.” Housed in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Penn State College of Medicine at The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, the Center for International Emergency Medicine has four primary outreach goals:
“As soon as their visas come through, we will be hosting doctors from Turkey, China, Jordan and Italy,” Holliman said. World travel has become second nature for Holliman. He has presented papers and taught classes in Argentina, Brazil, Slovenia, Croatia, Israel, Jordan, Great Britain, China and many other nations. “This year, after several years of hard work, we convinced the Israeli Association of Emergency Medicine to invite a group of physicians from Jordan to participate in Israel’s annual Scientific Assembly,” Holliman said. “And we have also gotten the Jordanians to agree to invite the Israelis to Jordan. We were very happy that the physicians from both countries got along. In a small way, I feel like we have contributed to the peace process.” This year, the chief emergency physicians from both Israel and Jordan will visit a medical meeting in Las Vegas, Nev. Holliman also has met with British physicians at Oxford University to convince them to get together with American EM specialists. “In addition, one of our goals is to foster academic collaboration between British and American physicians. We want to stimulate conjoined research projects, too.” In Slovenia, he noticed a great tension in the air, many people fearing an attack by the Croatians. “I was at the home of the deputy health minister when a fireworks display went off. A number of us thought we were under attack. It was funny when we realized what had really happened.” It turns out, Holliman said, that developing countries need to improve their emergency medicine, not only their immunization and general care practices. “Car wrecks and heart attacks are killing people in developing countries just as they are here. So working on emergency medicine is critical.” All of these activities are bringing great notoriety and prestige to Penn State. Holliman, who is proud to be at Penn State, hardly ever misses working on Beaver Stadium’s emergency staff during Nittany Lion football games. “The academic activities we are doing worldwide are always done with Penn State featured prominently on the materials,” he said. His mission is to change the world’s approach to emergency medicine. He plans to continue to travel internationally to make that happen. He’s getting used to the many different customs and cuisines he encounters on his journeys. “I remember one meal in China. They served boiled duck’s feet, dog stomach and a bowl full of eels. It was different.” Contrary to some popular television shows, a lot of what happens in an emergency room is not dramatic. “We care about patients and want to put their needs first,” Holliman said. “Now we want to get other countries to improve their emergency medical practices, show them that the best thing they can do is to have hospital-based emergency departments.” | |||||
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