Emergency Medicine

• Establish an EMS Training Center using the AIHA model curriculum established by the EMS Task Force.
• Develop and implement a "first responder" course for lay responders and EMS courses for health care professionals, including training Russian EMS instructors for the Training Center.
• Develop a methodology for conveying the importance of emergency response to the public.
• Develop a methodology to enable the NIS Partners to establish relationships with private industry, government and local emergency care providers to enhance sustainability of the Center.
• Translate EMS educational material into Russian Powerpoint presentations.
• Establish an Internet connection between the Moscow EMS Training Center and Austin EMS for timely communication of information and data.
  
  

  In 1999 the partnership received funding to focus on the following additional objectives:
  

• Replicate the Moscow EMS model in Novosibirsk Oblast by selecting, training and monitoring Russian instructors; establishing administrative and financial structures; and making plans for the center to serve as the training hub for Western Siberia.
• Develop a satellite EMS training center in Zelenogorsk by providing additional training for instructors, establishing guidelines for training fire and police personnel, and developing an on-scene incident command structure to improve working relationships between police and fire departments and EMS.

• The Moscow EMS Training Center opened on October 23 at the Institute of Continuing Education of the Federal Directorate for Biomedical Problems and Disaster Medicine. A seven-member team from Austin, Texas, including the Mayor, participated in the opening ceremony for the Center. In conjunction with the opening ceremony, the US and Russian partners conducted the first 100-hour course in pre-hospital care for thirty nurses and feldshers.

• The Medical Director of Travis County/Austin Emergency Medical Services participated in the AIHA-organized EMS Conference for NIS and CEE Training Centers which was held September 30-October 2 in Vladivostok, Russia. The US Director outlined the EMS Training Center concept for EMS Center directors and instructors from eight existing EMS Training Centers in the NIS and CEE.

• The EMS Center inaugurated in March the 48-hour radiation response course. This course was presented in locations throughout Russia during the fall.
• The Moscow EMS Center hosted a management training course for two delegates from each of the nine NIS EMS Centers in May. The Executive Director of the Richmond, Virginia Ambulance Authority and AIHA's Regional Director for West NIS, facilitated the course. The course focused on management techniques and enabled the participants to look toward their Centers' future. The attendees also received computer training in Power Point programming.
• The Head of the Federal Bureau of Medical-Biological Problems and Disasters, two delegates from the Regional EMS Training Center in Moscow, and two delegates from Travis County/Austin EMS traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to participate in AIHA's Fifth Annual Partnership Conference for the NIS in October. Following the conference, the NIS partners traveled to Austin for partnership planning efforts.
• Following AIHA's Conference in Atlanta, four delegates from the Moscow EMS Training Center traveled to Oak Ridge, Tennessee for a two-week Medical Education and Inter-regional Harmonization Program for Nuclear Accident Preparedness. The course was hosted by the Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site (REAC/TS) and funded by AIHA and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

• In January, the Moscow EMS Center hosted the "Echo I" training-of-trainers course - a replication of the Nuclear Accident Preparedness course that took place in October 1997 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Instructors from Boston University, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and the Moscow, Kiev and Tallinn Regional EMS Training Centers collaborated with three CEE specialists to conduct the course. 36 specialists from various Russian Federation Federal Administration for Biological and Medical Problems and Disasters institutions and the Institute of Biophysics participated in the training.
• The partners created a public service video, to be aired on national television, aimed at educating citizens to properly respond to medical situations they might encounter.
• In the formerly "closed" city of Zelenogorsk, US and Russian instructors from the Partnership conducted a pre-hospital training course for medical professionals and first responders; there were 38 participants (including 10 physicians, 10 firefighters, 10 policemen, and 8 school teachers). In March, an agreement was signed to establish an EMS Training Center in Zelenogorsk.
• Twenty students from Moscow State University attended the 40-hour EMS training course in June designed for non-medical first responders.
• In July, ten physicians from hospitals in Stavropol, Novosibirsk, and Chelyabinsk were trained in emergency medical care in nuclear disaster situations at the Moscow EMS Training Center.

• The Austin partners hosted the Director of the Moscow EMS Center and an EMS instructor immediately following the AIHA 1999 Partnership Conference in November. The Moscow partners observed the Travis County/ City of Austin EMS system at work, and also participated in an EMS Conference, which the City of Austin sponsored.
  

Emergency Medicine

• The partnership established an EMS Training Center in Moscow in 1995. The Center has offered 77 courses and trained nearly 2,437 persons as of January 2001. Four main types of courses are offered: 1) a 144-hour course for physicians in pre-hospital emergency care; 2) a 100-hour course on emergency care for general health care workers; 3) a 48-hour basic pre-hospital course for non-health care professionals; and 4) a 48-hour radiation response course.
• The Moscow EMS Training Center made great strides in marketing EMS training courses. In 1999 the Center provided training for 100 Transaero flight attendants and marketed courses to firefighters, police officers, transportation workers, power industry employees, and civil defense personnel.
• The EMS Training Center in Moscow expanded its reach by training first responders in "closed cities" in Russia that were off-limits to foreigners and domestic travel for security reasons. Subsequently, in March 1998, an agreement was signed to establish a satellite EMS Training Center in one of those cities, Zelenogorsk. The center is sponsored jointly by the Zelenogorsk City Administration and the Federal Administration for Medical and Biological Problems and Disasters. Three instructors selected to run the Zelenogorsk EMS Training Center received advanced training at the Moscow Center in April 1998. From opening to December 2000, 438 persons have been trained ( in 1998, 140; in 1999, 150, and in 2000, 148 persons).
• The Moscow Center staff worked closely with US partners and the Russian Federal Bureau of Biomedical Problems and Emergencies to develop an EMS system similar to Austin's. The system will link EMS personnel with police and fire departments to achieve more effective emergency response.
• The Moscow partners successfully modified the Russian-language curriculum to more accurately reflect the cultural and practical environment of Russian medicine. The Moscow EMS Center has also exceeded the expectations of a training center by bridging the cultural gap of allowing non-physician feldshers to teach physicians.
• After development of a Russian-language public education video on emergency care, the Moscow EMS Center Director established a working relationship with Moscow television and developed several additional public education-emergency health care programs.
• During the first visit of US partners to Moscow, a local Austin television station (K-EYE) sent a reporter and photographer (at the station's expense) to document some of the challenges in Russian healthcare. The program became a weeklong series highlighting the Russian health care system and focused on emergency care and orphanages. In addition to a heightened awareness by the Austin community about the Russian partners' challenges and needs, the series resulted in donations for medical and support equipment.
• The development and translation of lectures on personal safety and stress management were completed. Education materials on advanced pediatrics are being developed to send to the Moscow EMS Training Center.
• 144-hour and 80-hour EMS curriculums were developed based on an earlier EMS curriculum. Emphasis was placed on how to insure Moscow teaching staff were competent and self-sufficient.
• Plans were developed and implemented to insure the future sustainability of the Moscow Center through the use of specialized courses. A framework was also developed for the future establishment of a Russian pre-hospital association, certification process and network avenues. Since January 1999 the Moscow EMS Training center has offered the MOH certificate courses for emergency care professionals. In 2000, together with the Human Ecology Department of the Continuous Education Institute of the Russian Federal Bureau of Biomedical Problems and Emergencies, the Moscow Center held 4 outreach courses on First Aid in Emergency Situations at Chemical Weapons Sites; 192 participants. During the last two years, over 400 students of the Moscow International Ecology and Economics Institute received training at the Moscow Center.
• A satellite EMS Training Center has been opened in Tver as an affiliate of the Moscow Center. The instructors from Tver have received training in Moscow and have been certified by the Institute for Postgraduate Education of the Russian MOH's Federal Administration for Biomedical and Extreme Problems. The funding for the EMS Center operation were secured by the World Bank as part of the Health Reform Project in Tver. Since opening in May 1998, 9 courses have been conducted and 124 persons trained.