The Emergency Medicine Society of South Africa (EMSSA) posted a presentation on an ethical model for emergency medicine on their website.
The presentation was from the WCDEM Conference in B.C.
The World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine has posted pictures from the 2009 conference in Victoria, B.C.
Omar Ha-Redeye was one of the speakers this year.
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Omar covered a recent article in the CMAJ on fault/ no fault medical insurance.
The pros and cons of the current system were reviewed, as well as some of the obstacles for reform.
Omar Ha-Redeye and Douglas Elliot
The article quoted Toronto lawyer Douglas Elliot, who indicated that the political impetus for change usually requires a major disaster or public health crisis.
With a background in emergency and disaster management, Omar anticipates that future high profile events will provide an opportunity for him to apply his developing legal skills and analysis.
As a regular attendee of the World Conference on Disaster Management (WCDM) for several years now, Omar was pleased to see the most important annual event in emergency management continue this year.
In previous years Omar had presented at the WCDM on subjects that included the SE Asian tsunami, and ethics in disasters. As part of his private consultancy, he continued training in these areas for private security agencies and governmental organizations.
Pandemic Simulation
This year he participated in a pandemic workshop sponsored by Hoffmann-La Roche Limited:
Experiencing a Pandemic: Managing a Metropolitan Crisis
Effective crisis decision-making will be essential during a pandemic event. An ineffective response will threaten the very survivability of our communities, key industries and critical infrastructure. In this computer-based simulation of a pandemic flu event in Toronto, you will participate in making interdependent crisis-decisions and experience firsthand the cascading intended and unintended consequences of your decisions in near real time.
The exercise was run by Crisis Simulations International (CSI), who describe their programs as,
…designed to build critical leadership and decision-making skills among the senior leaders who direct community resources and in whose hands lie responsibility for the safety and survival of their communities. Those skills apply to virtually any crisis those senior leaders may be called upon to face.
Omar played the role of a hospital CEO of a major health system, with facilities in Toronto and London, Ontario, where he currently resides.
Ontario Association of Emergency Managers
Omar also greeted members of the emergency management community at the Ontario Association for Emergency Managers (OAEM) booth.
The OAEM is the largest organization for interdisciplinary emergency managers in the province.
Emergency Management and the Law
One of the highlights of the conference was a session by Norm Keith, a partner with a Canadian law firm Gowling, Lafleur, Henderson.
Keith is the leader of the Occupational Health and Safety, Workers’ Compensation, and Emergency Management (“OHS”) practice group at Gowlings. He is also the author of a text, Canadian Emergency Management and Response Manual: A Guide to the Law and Practice.
Keith spoke on the importance of emergency management preparedness, and its applicability to Canadian law. He stated that a successful emergency management will
prevent and mitigate:
An effective Emergency Plan should include:
1. Purpose & Policy Statement
2. Scope
3. Definitions
4. Responsibilities
5. Equipment Maintenance & Testing Procedures
6. Employee Training
7. Procedures
8. Crisis Management
9. Testing
10. Debriefing
11. Business Continuity / Recovery
12. Records Management
13. Revision History
14. Appendices of Checklists / Forms, Audit of Building Resources
The importance in addressing all of these areas is the potential civil liability and monetary exposure to those suffering injury or property damage as a result of a disaster or emergency.
A special thanks to Michael Allison of Young Blood PR for assistance with the photos at the conference.
First-Year Law Student Teaches Ethics to Chinese Delegation
TORONTO – Omar Ha-Redeye, a law student at the University of Western Ontario, presented a seminar on ethical behaviour in disasters to a diplomatic delegation on Nov. 9, 2007.
The Chinese dignitaries were from China, and represented the Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND). They were in Canada for one week, on a trip to meet with specialists in disaster management and learn from best practices here.
Mr. Ha-Redeye worked internationally in disaster and emergency management prior to starting law at the University of Western Ontario in September 2007. He shared an ethical model he developed in the review of successes and failures of major environmental and unnatural disasters.
The topics covered included the SARS epidemic in Canada, relief to families of Sept. 11, 2001, and the 2004 Tsunami in South-East Asia.
“In the study of ethics, there is no one single right course of action,” said Mr. Ha-Redeye. “What we try to do is present different ethical approaches, and try to reconcile competing needs in an emergent situation.”
Mr. Ha-Redeye explained that in disasters and emergencies there is little time for extensive ethical analysis, requiring professionals to be at least be familiar with ethical theory. The model he presented could also be used in other fields, or in daily situations in life.
First-year law students study ethics in their Spring semester of law at the University of Western Ontario. Western students begin their first class of ethics on Feb. 13, 2008.
“Although I am familiar with ethical concepts, their application specifically to the field of law is something I look forward to,”said Ha-Redeye.
Discussion around ethical behaviour in the legal profession has increased in recent months following the release of a book by a former Dean of Western Law, Phillip Slayton, entitled Lawyers Gone Bad: Money, Sex and Madness in Canada’s Legal Profession.
The training session was held at the Holiday Inn in downtown Toronto, and was hosted by the Foundation for International Training (FIT).
Below: Omar Ha-Redeye offers a session on ethics in disasters to a diplomatic delegation from China (Photo Credit: Omar Ha-Redeye)
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