A small group of well trained physicians are planning a trip to Santo Domingo, DR from 10/10-10/12 2023. The site will be Hospital Infantil Dr. Robert Reid Cabral. We hope to train and continue a long-standing relationship with several pediatric emergency and pediatricians that are staff at this hospital. The primary contact on the ground is Dr. Cesar Mota.
I currently work at Yale as a pediatric emergency physician. I am director of the pediatric emergency ultrasound program and fellowship director for our pediatric emergency POCUS fellowship. I also serve in the executive committee for the P2 Network as an education chair
https://p2network.com/
I am native of Puerto Rico and a bilingual physician fluent in Spanish. There are very few in our community that speaks Spanish fluently with expertise in pediatric point of care ultrasound.
We hope to develop curricula and ongoing “teach the teacher” modules for the physicians on the ground so they may apply POCUS to improvise the care of there sick and injured pediatric patients.
The Hospital Infantil Dr. Robert Reid Cabral is the country’s primary children’s hospital. With over 350 beds, almost all pediatric specialties are available.
We hope to impact physicians, nurses, medical students that would utilize POCUS to enhance the accuracy, timeliness, and safety of care provide to pediatric patients.
Our goal is to develop experts on the ground so they may build POCUS programs for future physicians to expand their capacity. The following applications will be taught during this medical mission: focused assessment with sonography in trauma, focused cardiac ultrasound, skin and soft tissue ultrasound, musculoskeletal ultrasound of joints and tendons, ocular ultrasound, abdominal ultrasound for surgical conditions like appendicitis, intussusception and pyloric stenosis, lung ultrasound for pneumonia and other emergencies, bladder ultrasound, orthopedic ultrasound for long bone fractures and dislocations, and procedural ultrasound (nerve blocks, arthrocentesis, etc).
We anticipate the impact to be measured over time. We are committed to a long standing and longitudinal relationship
with the clinical staff. After this workshop - we hope to conduct ongoing reviews, teaching modules, quality assurance case reviews, and other supports as necessary to help build infrastructure and expertise on the ground.
Our group of 5 PEM physicians with pediatric POCUS expertise from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Yale University were hosted by an inspiring group of PEM and PICU physicians at Robert Reid Cabral Children’s Hospital. Through didactic and hands-on teaching, we integrated POCUS to the emergency and resuscitative care of critically ill children with sepsis, pneumonia, acute abdomen, cardiomyopathy, dehydration, and dengue. It was an incredible experience and we realized the power of POCUS together with some great catches, serial patient reassessments, and the ability to evaluate life saving interventions in a matter of seconds. We are hopeful to return to help develop a sustainable program at this site where POCUS has already shown to be a game changer innovation for the diagnosis and treatment of many sick and injured pediatric patients!
