GEMA Grand Rounds: Lessons from Building Emergency Care Systems in Pakistan

Emergency care systems in resource-constrained settings cannot be strengthened through the emergency department alone. Using Pakistan as a case study, this GEMA Grand Rounds presentation will examine efforts to build emergency care across the continuum, from community response and prehospital care to facility-based services, disaster preparedness, workforce development, data systems, and research. Drawing on experiences from multiple initiatives in Pakistan, the talk will explore practical lessons about moving from individual projects toward a more integrated approach to emergency care systems strengthening. It will also consider how global emergency medicine can support locally led, evidence-generating emergency care systems that are designed for long-term sustainability and scale.

Objectives

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Identify at least three key components of emergency care systems beyond hospital-based emergency departments that can be targeted for systems strengthening in resource-constrained settings.
2. Describe how community response, prehospital care, facility-based care, workforce development, and research can be integrated within a broader emergency care systems strategy.
3. Apply three lessons from the Pakistan experience when designing or evaluating emergency care systems-strengthening initiatives in other global settings.