Welcome!
The Global Emergency Medicine Section serves to meet the needs of emergency medicine education and training in partnership with our international collaborating institutions and colleagues. We also are committed to providing clinical care and education within regional rural and indigenous communities. We strive to maintain long-term, mutually beneficial, and ethically responsible collaborations with the goal of improving emergency medical care worldwide.
CURRENT COLLABORATIONS
Diploma of Emergency Medicine
Cho Ray Hospital / University Medical Center
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
The University of Utah has maintained an educational collaboration with Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City for more than a decade. This has taken many forms: conferences, workshops, virtual teaching, and a 12-month EM Diploma with regional participation. The Dept of EM also hosts visiting physicians from Vietnam for observational and educational experiences. Residents have an elective opportunity at Cho Ray, the largest Southern trauma hospital, and UMC both in Ho Chi Minh City, as well as teaching, educational and cultural opportunities.
Emergency Medicine Residency
University of Botswana
Gaborone, Botswana
This collaboration started in 2025, and is multifaceted. The Utah Dept of EM helped support the inaugural Primary Trauma Care course, and our ultrasound team has taught hands-on trainings for the emergency medicine department and hospital. Residents have an opportunity for a clinical elective with the Botswanan residents, and there are additional opportunities for fellows and faculty for participation and support.
Indian Health Services
Northern Navajo Medical Center
Shiprock, New Mexico
Chinle, Arizona
Residents have the opportunity to rotate through the Indian Health Service Hospitals in the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Tribe, with over 300,000 members, is the largest Native American tribe in the United States as of the 2020 census. Approximately 170,000 Navajo individuals live on the Navajo Nation, which spans Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado, covering about 15,000 square miles. Global Emergency Medicine faculty and fellows also take shifts at these two hospitals.
This collaboration started in 2025, and is multifaceted. The Utah Dept of EM helped support the inaugural Primary Trauma Care course, and our ultrasound team has taught hands-on trainings for the emergency medicine department and hospital. Residents have an opportunity for a clinical elective with the Botswanan residents, and there are additional opportunities for fellow and faculty for participating and support.
Global EM Seminars
The GEM Section hosts guests speakers throughout the year, bringing in different viewpoints and backgrounds, to encourage dialogue, create connections, and expand opportunities, not only for the Dept of EM, but for the U of U community as a whole. This is supplemented by a Global EM Journal Club, hosted by the Global EM Fellowship.
The GEM Fellowship provides teaching and leadership opportunities for fellows within all these collaborations and more.
GLOBAL EMERGENCY MEDICINE FACULTY:
Global EM Section Chief
Global EM Fellowship Director
Associate Professor Emergency Medicine
Ryan.Ernst@hsc.utah.edu
Global EM Fellowship Director to Indigenous Health Director Jane Yee, M.D.
Assistant Professor Emergency Medicine
Jane.Yee@hsc.utah.edu