2024 SAEMF/RAMS Resident Research Grant - $5,000

"Implementation of a Multi-Tier Trauma Activation Protocol in Kumasi, Ghana"

Treatment delay in the emergency department was identified as the most common cause of preventable deaths in Ghana, with 50% of treatment delays categorized as definitely preventable and 38% potentially preventable by an expert review panel. Standardized algorithms for the initial evaluation of critically injured patients when carried out with appropriate and timely trauma team activation (TTA) have been demonstrated in high-income countries to reduce delays in care in high-income settings but have yet to be evaluated in West Africa. This project seeks to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a novel trauma activation protocol at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana, to reduce preventable trauma deaths in a 1,200-bed tertiary facility that serves approximately 8.6 million Ghanaians.

Recipient

  • Rebecca A. Leff, MD

    College of Medicine Mayo Clinic (Rochester)

    "Implementation of a Multi-Tier Trauma Activation Protocol in Kumasi, Ghana"

    Dr. Leff is an emergency medicine resident at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. She graduated with an MD from Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva, Israel. Prior to studying medicine, she graduated with a BA in Middle Eastern Studies, Political Science, and Film and Media Studies with a certificate in interdisciplinary human rights from the University of California, Berkeley. She completed a research year with the Yale Emergency Medicine Global Health Section to focus on the non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in humanitarian crises, refugee barriers to care, barriers to care for low English proficiency patients, and humanitarian intervention development for both children and adults, with a particular focus on East Africa. She was the resident representative to the Global Emergency Medicine Academy (GEMA) and has served as co-chair of the humanitarian task force as well as the pediatric emergency medicine task force in GEMA. She received the 2023 GEMA Young Physician Award. She now serves as the chair-elect of the EMRA pediatric emergency medicine committee. She has worked in and around the human rights sector in both the Middle East and the United States for the past decade while completing her education, working with such organizations as Physicians for Human Rights-Israel in the Palestinian West Bank and with African asylum seekers in Israel, the Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, the Center for International Migration and Integration (CIMI) where she served as a medical liaison to connect Sudanese and Eritrean refugees throughout Southern Israel to health care, the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Turkey, Save a Child's Heart, and the Olive Tree Initiative. She served on the Physicians for Human Rights National Student Advisory Board and founded the Israeli medical student chapter of Physicians for Human Rights.