an itinerant observer

The inaugural Global Emergency Medicine Research Symposium at Emory University convened on October 17, 2023. The brainchild of Dr. Anna Yaffee, Director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine (EM) at Emory’s department of EM, and co-chaired by Dr. Ziad Kazzi, another faculty member, the Conference shed light on the practical applications of collaborative innovation, creativity, and research in the field.  Distinguished speakers/panelists from a range of countries, including America, Liberia, Türkiye, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and Pakistan, converged virtually and in-person to discuss the role of novel methodologies shaping EM’s future globally. During the event, I had the opportunity to present an evidence-based approach to the advancements made in EM innovation within Pakistan. My presentation centered on the 'innovatED model,' a meticulously developed framework aimed at implementing affordable and feasible Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship (I|C|E) initiatives and res...

Around the turn of the century, Y2K was ushering in a doomsday scenario. I, on the other hand, as a young physician-scientist, was quite excited. You see, I was quite confident that knowledge of our genetic heritage would be the panacea that the world was seeking. I think the lure of genes and genomes was merely an obsession for me. However, once I realized that, on a global scale, sustainable health for kids was not going to come from the deciphering of genetic codes, I had to switch my trajectory. First came the awareness that I could no longer be an indefinite graduate student. That realization was made all the more potent when Ayesha, my wife, threatened to enroll in graduate school for English Literature in lieu of her relatively better compensated psychiatry residency. In order to determine what I wanted to do, clinically and academically, I remember asking myself a few hard-hitting questions. The most crucial was: “Where can I make the most difference or have the most im...