Scott & White Healthcare physician makes trip with medical team to Iraq

Team will teach course to Iraqi physicians and nurses on disaster preparedness

TEMPLE, Texas – James Brien, DO, Section Head of Pediatric Infectious Disease and Vice Chairman of Pediatrics for education at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas, has been selected to travel to Iraq on September 30 with a medical team from The University of North Texas Health Science Center. The team will teach a three-day course in Basra, Iraq, on disaster management to a group of Iraqi doctors, nurses and para-professionals, including response to natural and man-made disasters.

The course will cover infectious disease complications of disasters, food and water management, injury management, including triage. The medical team is donating its time to the mission, but is funded by The International Medical Corps, a non-political, non-profit organization that relies on donations, sending physicians on similar missions all over the world. Over a year ago, Dr. Brien traveled on a similar mission to Erbil, Iraq to help conduct a hospital infection control course at a local medical school. Attendees came from all areas of Iraq.

Some of the contributors are U.S. Army pediatricians with significant experience in disaster response. Dr. Brien is a retired Army pediatrician who served during the first Gulf War in Iraq where he worked in a combat support hospital in Iraq.

“In countries where there is so much war-related chaos, it’s hard for them to maintain regular educational activities, let alone medical-related communications that they need for disaster preparedness,” says Dr. Brien. “So we’re taking this course to them. We take it for granted having access to such information here in the U.S., but Iraq is still a risky environment and they’re still no where near where they need to be with regard to their continuing medical education.”

For more information, contact:

Katherine Voss

Media and Public Relations

254-724-4097 or 254-504-319-8427

kvoss@swmail.sw.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 29, 2009

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