First item on the agenda: Coordinate efforts with medical leaders around the globe to mitigate the imminent H1N1 pandemic.

 

Second item: Write guidelines for treatment and research initiatives for the pandemic in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO).

 

From the moment Edgar Jimenez, MD, medical critical care director at Orlando Regional Medical Center (ORMC), was elected president of the World Federation of Societies of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine at the 10th World Congress held in Florence, Italy, he’s been moving full speed ahead.

 

Leading the international critical care organization, which has more than 136,000 members via Critical Care Societies in 56 countries, with more on the waiting list, is challenging yet exhilarating, Jimenez said 45 days after the start of his 4-year term. His leadership tenure is particularly important to the federation, which recently added to its traditional scientific forum focus, a call-to-action group worldwide.

 

“We’re also taking a very active role in developing and supporting critical care in areas of the world that need it the most, such as Asia, the Middle East and Africa, by coordinating the efforts and resources of the largest societies in the federation,” said Jimenez. “It’s important, for example, to achieve a basic minimum standard of performance in ICUs and establish strategic centers in regions around the globe. Obviously, addressing the H1N1 pandemic is top priority, with the mandate of gathering accurate information for emergency medicine physicians to precisely assess critical care situations.”

 

Because sepsis represents the most common cause of death in ICUs, and a major burden for societies around the world, an accurate, timely database is needed for baseline information.

 

“Most ICUs in different countries know their baseline prevalence for infections based on the seasons of the year,” Jimenez explained. “For example, in Orlando, we usually see 5 to 10 percent of primary respiratory failures during the early fall, but if we encounter an increase to 60 percent this year in the same time period, that becomes a surrogate marker of what’s happening locally with the pandemic. By obtaining similar information in this global database network, it’s a telltale sign of what’s going on in the world.”

 

Jimenez predicted the outcome of a mid-October meeting with WHO leaders in Washington, DC, would result in establishing this adequate global monitoring system, writing guidelines on how to better manage ICU patients, and establishing a network to coordinate with research groups throughout the world—all before Thanksgiving.

 

“The southern hemisphere, where the winter season ended a few months ago, was hit very hard with the H1N1 pandemic, almost to the point of depleting resources,” he said. “Based on that information, we can better prepare for the brunt of the pandemic this winter in the United States, and also help other countries in the northern hemisphere.”

 

Also on Jimenez’s agenda: addressing issues related to patient deaths resulting from common ICU infections—pneumonias and bloodstream infections—that are primarily device-related.

 

“We must determine how many patients admitted to ICUs around the world die from complications related to mechanical failure,” he said. “We must have a database of accurate information, regardless of outcomes. Some countries want to say, ‘everything’s fine here’ when it’s not. That won’t help us address the problem.”

 

Jimenez said the World Federation began collaborating with the WHO as the Surviving Sepsis Campaign ended in 2008. The successful 5-year global campaign to decrease the mortality from sepsis by 25 percent was a partnership of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, International Sepsis Forum, and Society of Critical Care Medicine.

 

“We’ve worked with the World Health Organization on a one-on-one basis for about a year now, which coincided with the change of our focus,” said Jimenez. “We plan to continue collaborating on global issues impacting emergency medicine.”

 

Jimenez, who joined ORMC in 2004 and speaks fluent English, Spanish and Portuguese, and understands German, Italian and other languages, became involved in the World Federation as a representative from the United States Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM). There, he chaired two important groups—the Fundamental Critical Care Support Steering Committee and the Education and Training Steering Committee—and co-developed the group’s Fundamental Disaster Management course that focuses on the communication, decontamination procedures and dynamic case management during a mass casualty crisis.

 

Before relocating to Central Florida, Jimenez, who earned a medical degree from the University of Costa Rica School of Medicine, completed an internal medicine and pediatrics residency at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and a critical care fellowship at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center and St. Louis University Hospital, had directed the ICU at Corpus Christi Medical

 

Center in Texas, and served as medical director of the U.S. Embassy and the National Red Cross in Costa Rica.

 

 

Editor’s Note: For a closer look at the man behind the title, look for a Physician Spotlight on Edgar Jimenez, MD, in an early 2010 edition of Orlando Medical News.