Dr Lavinesh Raj

An academic has become the first Emergency Doctor from Fiji to have his research paper published in the Emergency Medicine Australasia (EMA) Journal.

The EMA is the official journal of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine.

Fiji National University’s College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences’ Dr. Lavinesh Raj says his paper is about the implementation of the trauma team system at the CWM (Colonial War Memorial) Hospital.

This concept he highlights utilizes a team based approach to manage patients with major trauma where surgeons, anesthetists and emergency doctors and nurses work together as a team to take care of a severely injured patient.

He says it also speeds up access to blood products and to CT scan imaging as well as speeding up patients transfer to the Operating Theatre if emergency surgery is needed.

Dr Raj’s findings state that the trauma team system was successfully implemented at the CWM Hospital and has become the standard of care for the severely injured.

His findings also suggested that there was is a deficit in pre-hospital provision for the severely injured in the Central Division which needs to be improved.

The academic from Labasa, says he will continue to work on improving trauma and pre-hospital care in Fiji.