Our initiative marks a groundbreaking collaboration between Emergency Medicine (EM) trained physicians, nurses and paramedics in the United States and Tanzania to envision and implement an EMS System in Arusha that serves everybody.
Our Mission
Transforming Emergency Medical Services in Tanzania
Led by Dr. Peter Mabula, a trailblazer in Tanzanian EM, our project addresses the critical necessity for a robust Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system. We are creating not a standalone transport ambulance, but a comprehensive EMS system of training, facilities, ambulances, EMS nurses and doctors capable to providing life-saving prehospital care, as well as a dispatch system to coordinate care between patients, medics and hospitals.
Once implemented, this project will serve as an example, inspiration and incubator for the creation of a national public EMS System within Tanzania.
Our Challenge
Transforming Emergency Medical Services in Tanzania
Traumatic injuries are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in low- and middle-income countries worldwide. In Tanzania, mortality from road traffic crashes is estimated to be roughly double the global rate, with the majority of them occurring in the prehospital setting before patients are able to reach stabilization or definitive treatment.
Tanzania has no public emergency medical system, with only a patchwork of private ambulance services that are prohibitively expensive for average Tanzanians. Currently, most patients are transported to local hospitals by family, taxis or good Samaritans. This need has become readily apparent in the recent years after a series of catastrophic bus accidents in Arusha that killed dozens of children.
Emergency medicine as a hospital subspecialty is only a recent development in Tanzania, and has already resulted in significant improvements in patient outcomes. The lack of a prehospital emergency medical system inhibits the magnitude of this success by delaying access to definitive care.
