Where in the World is Ken?

May 23, 2018

Only two trips, so far, this year, but both involved emergency medicine teaching.

In February, my destination was Reykjavik, Iceland, a long-delayed visit with another University of Cincinnati emergency medicine residency graduate to speak at their EM program. Based at one of their two university hospitals (they’re in the process of combining them), this may be the northernmost EM program in the world! The day I went to talk with the residents, the weather was so bad that the government issued a public warning not to travel in Reykjavik. No sweat; we just went a little slower and tried not to run into the tourists.

Lest you imagine that Iceland’s only EM program has a less-than-awesome facility, some of my photos (1-3) show the level of their medical sophistication. The huge computerized tracking boards are for ambulance patients! They have similar tracking for ED patients. The scruffy guy in the photo is Hjalti Már Björnsson, MD, FACEP (Photo 4), Iceland’s EM residency director and an active member of their death-defying national search and rescue team.

Of course, my wife and I took time to see the country. This being winter, there were far fewer tourists than in in the summer, and the scenery, including the Northern Lights and frequent gales, were breathtaking (Photo 5).

After returning, I was asked to speak to the U.S. Navy’s EM residency program in Norfolk, Virginia. I learned that I would be returning to the USNS Comfort hospital ship, this time to give my talk. The day’s program was designed around global medicine, and my talk was supplemented by EM faculty and residents, who spoke about their roles aboard the Comfort after the hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico.

Being aboard the ship was a sort of homecoming for me, since I served as the Project HOPE physician/team leader in Central America for three months in 2009. Some of my photos (6-7) are from that journey (my younger self), as well as one that my host took before the military police stopped us (Photo 8). Before I left, as is Navy tradition, my host, a Russian-born senior EM resident/officer, gave me two coins (Photos 9 & 10), representing the Comfort and the U.S. Navy’s EM residency.

The rest of the year will be spent working and teaching in Guyana (2 months), Central Mexico (teaching workshops and lecturing in Spanish at a large national meeting), giving some talks in the U.S., and then traveling (hopefully, non-medical) around the world with my wife. But, more about that in future missives.

Best wishes and travels to all — especially our new graduates,

Ken Iserson, MD, MBA, FACEP, FAAEM, FIFEM
Professor Emeritus, UA Department of Emergency Medicine