Jina is going to Ukraine

My dear friend and colleague Jina Bai PA-C is traveling to Ukraine to teach advanced ultrasound skills to Ukrainian ICU physicians and emergency providers working on the frontlines of the war.

Jina has many years of experience teaching advanced ultrasound skills, commonly referred to as POCUS (point-of-care ultrasound), to physicians and PAs in NYC.

Since the start of the war in February, Jina has been part of a small group of health care providers in NYC that sought out connections with Ukrainian and Polish physicians to fundraise medical supplies specifically requested by those working directly on the frontlines. This group raised approximately 25K and purchased supplies delivered to Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv and Dnipro hospitals.

This fall, Jina will meet with a Polish physician in Warsaw and then drive across the border to Lviv, where they will teach hands-on POCUS courses to frontline workers.

POCUS is a cutting-edge, portable technology that enables the health care provider to quickly diagnose and resuscitate a critical patient. A diagnosis such as hypovolemia, hemoperitoneum, pneumothorax, cardiac tamponade and pulmonary embolism can be made in minutes. The frontline clinician can obtain images on their own and interpret them in real-time for clinical decision-making in many life-threatening scenarios.

Another advantage of POCUS is that it can reliably be taught in a short time frame, and offer skills for evaluating traumatic injuries to adults and children along with the image-guided procedures that can treat these injuries. The benefits of this life-saving technology cannot be overstated.

All money raised goes directly to fund Jina's travels, and additional funds will be used to send supplies explicitly requested by doctors in Ukraine. The cost of a butterfly ultrasound device that can easily be carried onto a battlefield is $2,000 plus.

While media attention to Ukraine has waned in recent weeks, this war is sadly ongoing, and this cause offers a high-impact opportunity to support the people of Ukraine.