My first global health activity was in 2008 when I flew to Tanzania to evaluate the anesthesia/ICU component of a neurosurgery training program. I had absolutely no experience in global health – apart from having grown up and trained in medicine in Europe. Since that time I’ve had the privilege of working in various other locations and settings, and it sometimes feels like much of that time has been spent in realizing all the errors I made along the way. The issues and solutions looked so clear when I started; everything has become so much more complicated to me since then!
Despite the clear disadvantages of coming to global health untrained, it did give me the opportunity to think things through for myself rather than approaching the field with some standard narrative as departure point. I’ve come to see capacity building and development as the approaches that I can wholeheartedly support. My only service work has been with Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders, in settings where I could feel confident I was not unbeknownst keeping a local person from being trained.
Over time, my efforts have focused largely on Rwanda. My main job is to help students and residents with clinical teaching and research rotations in the country, and in assisting the Department of Anesthesiology there with academic development.
Global Health Field Work:
- Canadian Anesthesiologist’s Society International Education Foundation/American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Global Humanitarian Outreach Rwanda education program
- Medecins sans Frontieres/Doctors without Borders
- 2 months cumulative work in Central African Republic
- Health Volunteers Overseas
- 1 month cumulative work in Malawi
- Madaktari Africa
- 3 months cumulative work in Tanzania
- A blog of a 2011 trip with Diana Lobo can be found here
Global Health Leadership:
- Judge: University of Virginia Global Health Case Competition, 2018
- Global Health Leadership Track (Anesthesiology):
- Director, 2016-2017
- Co-director, 2018-present
- Coordinator, Rwanda Case Teleconferences, 2013-2017
- Health Volunteers Overseas, Anesthesiology Steering Committee, 2015-present
- University of Virginia International Programs Council, 2015-present
- Program Director for Rwanda initiatives, 2017-present
- Human Resources of Health in Rwanda, Anesthesiology Coordinator, 2012-present
- American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Committee on Global Humanitarian Outreach, 2011-2013
Global Health Lectures:
Institutional:
- “The learner’s experience”, Center for Global Health, 2018
- “Take Heed Of Your Health: Essential travel health”, Center for Global Health, 2018
- “Medical information technology in low-income countries”, Global Health Leadership Track journal club, 2017
- “Global surgery and anesthesia: policy and practice”, Global Health Leadership Track health policy course, 2017 (voted best presentation of the course)
- “If we operate, we’ll kill her”, Cabell Society (School of Medicine Surgical Interest Group), 2017
- “Controlled substances in a global context”, Global Health Leadership Track journal club, 2017
- “The road to Bossangoa”, School of Medicine Global Health Interest Group, 2016
- “Non-technical skills in Rwanda”, Global Health Leadership Track journal club, 2016
- “The learner’s experience”, Center for Global Health, 2016
- “Staying healthy and safe”, Center for Global Health, 2016
- “Anesthesia and global health: the resident’s experience”, Global Health Leadership Track, 2015
- “Teaching perioperative care in Tanzania”, Perioperative Services, 2011
National/International:
- “Educational benefits of international anesthesia experiences”, panel on “International Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Management: How to Pay it Forward”, American Society of Anesthesiology annual meeting, San Diego, 2015
- “From ‘appropriate technology’ to ‘balanced beekeeping’: the curious history of the versatile top-bar hive”:
- New River Valley Beekeepers Association, Christiansburg, VA, 2016
- Central Virginia Beekeepers Association, Charlottesville, 2015
- “Honey and wound healing”, First Apimondia Congress on African bees and beekeeping, Arusha, Tanzania, 2014
- “Resident participation in global health”, American Society of Regional Anesthesia annual regional anesthesia meeting, Boston, 2013
- “The bees of Nyungwe forest”:
- Botetourt Beekeepers Association, Fincastle, VA, 2015
- Shenandoah Valley Beekeepers Association, Waynesboro, VA, 2013
- Central Virginia Beekeepers Association, Charlottesville, 2013
- “Resident participation in global health: importance, challenges, opportunities”, Panel on “Anesthesia Education: Impact on Global Health”, Association of University Anesthesiologists annual meeting, Cleveland, 2012
Global Health Publications:
Coburger J, Leng LZ, Rubin DR, Mayaya G, Medel R, Ngayomela I, Ellegala D, Durieux ME, Nicholas J, Härtl R: Multi-institutional neurosurgical training initiative at a tertiary referral center in Mwanza, Tanzania: where we are after 2 years. World Neurosurg 2012 (Epub)
Durieux ME: Wall building. Anesth Analg 2012; 114: 912-913 [The Open Mind]
Wilson IH, Walker I, McQueen KA, Durieux ME: LifeBox: Promoting patient safety around the world. APSF Newsletter 2012: 26: 51 [Announcement]
O’Flaherty JE, McClain CD, Durieux ME: Patient safety through education: the Human Resources for Health in Rwanda program. APSF Newsletter 2012; 27: 24 [Announcement]
Durieux ME, McClain CD, O’Flaherty: The Human Resources For Health In Rwanda program. American Society of Anesthesiologists Newsletter 2012; 76: 24-25 [Newsletter article]
Durieux ME, Rose K, Lobo D: Resident participation in global health: a worthwhile challenge. American Society of Anesthesiologists Newsletter 2012; 76: 30-32 [Newsletter article]
McClain CD, Durieux ME, O’Flaherty JE: The Human Resources for Health Program in Rwanda. Society for Pediatric Anesthesia News 2013; 26 [Announcement]
Durieux ME: But what if there are no teachers…? Anesthesiology 2014; 120: 15-17 [Editorial]
Livingston P, Durieux ME: Improving anesthetic safety in low/middle income countries: a different challenge. Anesthesia Patient Safety Newsletter, February 2015 [Newsletter article]
Livingston P, Durieux ME: SAFE: Safer Anesthesia Through Education – An anesthesia safety improvement project in Rwanda. American Society of Anesthesiologists Newsletter, January 2015 [Newsletter article]
Durieux ME: The goose and the gander. Anesth Analg 2016; 122: 583-585 [Editorial]
Durieux ME, Weinkauf JL, Runnels ST, Baer CA, Lewis CA, Ngenzi JL, Twagirumugabe T: An anesthesiology case conference series between the United States and Rwanda. American Society of Anesthesiologists Annual Meeting, New Orleans, 2014
Weinkauf J, Durieux ME, Dohlman L: The role of the visiting anesthesiologist in in-country education. In: The Role of Anesthesiology in Global Health. Edited by: Roth R, Frost EAM, Gevirtz C, Atcheson CLH. Springer Science Media, 2015