You may have noticed some new faces around the ADHS the past few months as we have been hosting visiting Professors from Korea, Japan, and this coming year from Singapore.  The two Professors who are currently working with us are Dr. Sungwoo Moon from Korea University and Dr. Taro Irisawa from Osaka University in Japan.  They’re Emergency Physicians who have funding from their Universities to come here and work with us.  They’re both interested pre-hospital care and the work we have been doing here at the ADHS the past several years with the SHARE and EPIC programs.

 Dr. Moon has been studying placement and usage of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in Arizona.  As you know, AEDs are incredibly effective at saving lives from cardiac arrest but are infrequently used.  He’s working to understand where AEDs are located in the community, where cardiac events are occurring and trying to link the two together.

 Dr. Taro Irisawa is here for the next 2 years and is studying new ways to improve bystander response to cardiac arrest.  He’s been implementing an effective, large scale public CPR campaign in Osaka, Japan and is now interested in learning about our Telephone CPR program with the goal of bringing that back to Japan.  It’s great to have them here with us, to see this international collaboration, and to know that our public health work is having such incredibly far reaching impact!

 Please continue to welcome our visiting public health colleagues and learn about their fascinating cultures.