Kamar Tanyan
Marry Begg Clinic, Zambia
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Primary Health Care
Providing healthcare in remote locations means working without the level of medical support that most health professionals are used to have at their disposal. It requires a different mindset to that of an urban medical facility. Illnesses which can be easily managed in the urban setting may initiate a crisis at a remote health facility. Operating in resource-limited primary health care settings presents a multitude of health challenges especially in the third world such African countries. Remote healthcare professionals face major challenges, including a critical shortage of specialized health workers, poor state of health facilities and equipment; add to it the high burden of epidemic disease such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB. Remote medical practitioners require a broad range of competencies in several specialties, including emergency and critical care, primary care mental health, public health, occupational health, pharmacy, dentistry, health management and interpersonal skills. They are forced to utilize more basic physical examination skills, clinical impression and overall clinical experience. Likewise, not having necessary diagnostic testing, remote medical practitioners may feel the need to be more aggressive in treatment and act faster. Not having the luxury of being able to definitively assign a diagnosis to an illness, they may feel the need to cover the patient for the worse potential diagnosis as possible. Not only do these factors increase the risk of worsening illness or injury due to delays in diagnosis and treatment, they also confront remote medical clinicians to the key question â??where responsibility for providing care starts and stopsâ?? These issues have made providing higher standards of care in remote third world countries an infinite complex challenge. This presentation provides an oversight into some of the key issues facing the delivery of primary healthcare and doctorsâ?? challenges in remote medical setting and describes the role remote primary health care professional can play in delivering a lifesaving care.
Kamar Tanyan has worked in a number of Middle Eastern and Arab countries (Tunisia, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq) and therefore has a deep-rooted understanding of the challenges related to the primary healthcare industry in the region. She holds the international diploma in Humanitarian Assistance from Fordham University- New York and a Master’s degree in Disaster Medicine from University of Piedmont Orientale, Italy. In 2003, she actively contributed to the implementation of pre-hospital medical emergency care program in North Lebanon in collaboration with Lebanese Red Cross. She participated several times with military hospital medical team in the response to Hajj mass gathering in Saudi Arabia. In 2014, she joined a humanitarian mission in Iraq, as Health Project Manager in response to the Syrian refugees’ crisis. Managing a WHO and ECHO financed health programs including health programs design, implementation and monitoring, capacity building of local doctors to insure a better health care of this vulnerable population. Currently, she is the Chief Medical officer of remote hospital operated by an international mining company in Zambia, where she is confronted to all aspects and challenges of remote medicine as well as dealing with African epidemic diseases such as malaria, TB, HIV with minimal resources. Her current focus is the development of an emergency response planning guidelines in low setting resources.
Email: Drtnayan@yahoo.fr
