Dr. Oren Wacht of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev will be in Vancouver this month, giving a public lecture May 25 and promoting Heartbeat of Education, a project geared to helping more Israeli paramedics further their education in emergency medical services. <\/i>(photo from BGU Canada BC & Alberta Region)<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/i>Dr. Oren Wacht, who heads the department of emergency medicine and is the academic director of the Field Family Medical Simulation Centre at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, will be in Vancouver May 23 to 25. As part of his visit, he will speak to the community on May 25, 7 p.m., at an event titled Emergency Medicine in Action: Healing the Negev Post-Oct. 7.<\/p>\n
An experienced emergency medical technician and the first paramedic in Israel to receive his PhD, Wacht serves, too, as a volunteer paramedic for Magen David Adom, Israel\u2019s national emergency service.\u00a0 <\/span>Since Oct. 7, 2023, he has seen months of active service between his teaching and training responsibilities.\u00a0 <\/span>Thousands of BGU faculty, staff and students were called to serve after the Hamas attacks.<\/p>\n Wacht said his May 25 talk will be about his department, which trains paramedics, and will briefly touch upon his own experiences as a paramedic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSince the war, I have spent most of the time in the military, in the infantry, as a paramedic,\u201d he told the Independent<\/i>. \u201cI am trying to combine this with my work at BGU as a head of department and researcher, and, of course, my personal life and family. It is very challenging, but there is no other choice.\u201d<\/p>\n Wacht\u2019s visit to Vancouver will promote Heartbeat of Education, a project geared to helping more Israeli paramedics from all walks of life access and earn a bachelor\u2019s degree in emergency medical services (EMS).<\/p>\n As the national EMS system,\u00a0 <\/span>Magen David Adom (MDA) has very close ties with the program. In February 2022, MDA and BGU signed an affiliation agreement as part of an academic initiative designed to improve training for paramedics and EMTs. The affiliation, believed to be the first between a national EMS service and a university, strives to bolster the quality of pre-hospital emergency care in Israel and elsewhere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe want Israel to have the best paramedics and, with the program\u2019s support, we can help our students go through our very intense program with less financial stress,\u201d Wacht said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOur program is unique,\u201d he added, \u201cbecause students do EMS shifts at MDA from the first year of studies. We are incredibly excited about this opportunity \u2013 and being able to support our students, especially since the war, is one of the most important things we need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n In Israel, MDA paramedics are among the first on the scene in emergencies to provide critical care.\u00a0 <\/span>However, many paramedics lack the financial means to pursue higher education. The purpose of the Heartbeat of Education program is to enable paramedics to take on more specialized roles within the health-care system, bring enhanced expertise to emergencies and thereby save more lives and improve outcomes, drive innovation and support a diverse, inclusive environment that can provide life-saving services to everyone who lives in Israel.<\/p>\n Wacht also has created a summer program, in English, in emergency medicine at BGU. It will open this year, from July 20 to 30, and is geared towards laypeople and professionals alike. The program uses the extensive experience of tactical medicine \u2013 the delivery of care in hostile or high-risk situations that integrates medical and tactical operations to preserve life \u2013 at BGU and brings it to people in the course in a realistic environment at the school\u2019s medical simulation centre. In addition to offering graduates a certificate from BGU, the program hopes to provide participants with the confidence to handle demanding medical challenges.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Field Family Medical Simulation Centre occupies four floors of the Rachel and Max Javit Medical Simulation and Classroom Building at BGU.\u00a0 <\/span>It includes classrooms equipped with medical devices, advanced simulators and research laboratories, and features state-of-the-art medical simulation rooms to train doctors, nurses and paramedics.\u00a0 <\/span>The rooms are designed to reflect real-life medical situations, such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, procedures for trauma victims and emergency surgeries.<\/p>\n Since Oct. 7, many medical teams, from army and civilian organizations, have asked for guidance at the centre, and the centre has helped prepare many Israel Defence Forces teams.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDespite the challenges we face, and despite the fact that a significant part of the team has been called up for reserve duty, hospitals and MDA, this is our small contribution, and we stand united with the medical community in these difficult times,\u201d Wacht said in October 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe support of Jewish people from around the world gives all of us, and me personally, a lot of strength in these challenging times,\u201d Wacht told the Independent<\/i>. \u201cWe invite readers to visit BGU and see the fantastic work in many fields of research.\u201d<\/p>\n