The Johns Hopkins Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) faculty and fellows are heavily involved in international outreach projects, volunteer efforts, and educational endeavors to improve health and clinical care for children and adolescents in the developing world. Faculty welcome fellows (and often residents and medical students) to join them in international outreach efforts, both for educational and research endeavors. For more information on our International Outreach and Education Programs, please contact Nicole Shilkofski, MD.

The Johns Hopkins pediatric cardiac intensive care, pediatric cardiologists and pediatric cardiothoracic surgery faculty, fellows, and nurses have developed an ongoing collaboration with Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital in Siem Reap, Cambodia. On an average 5-day trip, the team performs 10-15 complex cardiac surgeries, 10-20 cardiac catheterizations, and over 100 echocardiograms. Several PICU faculty have participated in similar cardiac clinical care missions in Havana, Cuba.

Several of the PICU fellows have participated in education abroad as part of Ecuador’s first Pediatric Critical Care program called “Laude in Pediatric Critical Care Project Innovation for Humanity.” Each participant plans lectures and simulation scenarios based on pediatric critical care topics to help adult critical care doctors, pediatricians, nurses, and respiratory therapists improve the care of critically ill children in Ecuador.

Patients and their families are the heart and soul of our global mission. Without an on-going need for global medical care and education, our international division would not exist. We strive to put patients at the fore-front of every thought and act, providing the best medical treatments and education. On every obstetric international trip, our goals include local community education about pain relief during labor, epidurals and anesthetic options for cesarean section. On every regional anesthesia international trip our goals include local community education about operative regional anesthesia and post-operative pain control options for surgery. We solicit feedback during every trip as to how to improve our community out-reach programs.

In collaboration with the Johns Hopkins H.O.P.E. office (Hopkins Outreach for Pediatric Education), Johns Hopkins PICU faculty have been involved in training efforts in BLS and PALS in over 20 countries, including Russia, Kosovo, Philippines, China, India, Cambodia, Thailand, Ecuador, Honduras, Malaysia, Kenya, Egypt, and Guyana.

Educational collaborations have been established between Johns Hopkins and University of Medicine 1/Yangon Children’s Hospital in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma), and with Makerere University of Health Sciences/Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, since 2012. In both sites, teams of intensivists have worked with trainees from Johns Hopkins in critical care and emergency medicine to establish local trainer cohorts to teach neonatal and pediatric resuscitation. Project data have shown that the training program can effectively improve care of patients in these settings.

Faculty from the Johns Hopkins PICU have volunteered in humanitarian relief efforts after major disasters both at home (Hurricane Katrina) and abroad (Haiti earthquake missions, Philippine typhoon missions). Recently, in collaboration with Operation Smile Philippines and the Philippine Red Cross, teams of providers have functioned alongside local volunteers after Typhoons Haiyan and Yolanda in December 2012 and December 2013 to provide emergency care for children and adults.