A new study published in the Journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries evaluated current access to burn care services for Brazilian people, in the event of a disaster.
HIPRC Core Faculty member, Dr. Barclay Stewart, alongside Drs. Brianna Mills and Emma Gause worked with Drs. Ricardo Daher and Alfredo Gragnani, burn care experts and disaster stakeholders based at the Universidade Federal de São Paulo in Brazil, to model the current access to burn care services for Brazilian people in the event of a disaster. Additionally, they identified facilities that would most increase population-level access to burn care should their capacity be strengthened ahead of or during a surge or mass casualty incident. The team also demonstrated differences between utilitarian (i.e., greatest number of people) and egalitarian access (i.e., similar access for all people), which highlights the importance of doing these preparatory exercises and need for focused health system strengthening initiatives in remote and rural areas (e.g., Amazonia). Such initiatives include strengthening prevention efforts, lay first response, prehospital care models that include functional transport (e.g., speed boat, sea plane), and disaster planning and practice in remote hospitals.
This work highlights the potential of collaboration between expert stakeholders globally with UW Program for Global and Rural Surgery (PROGRESS) and Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center’s Global Injury Section.