Peter Acker
Clinical Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Bio
Peter Acker is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Acker holds an MD and an MPH from the Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He completed his emergency medicine training at the University of Chicago, where he served as chief resident. He completed a fellowship in International Emergency Medicine at Stanford University. He currently holds the rank of Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and was named a Faculty Fellow with the Center for Innovation in Global Health (CIGH) at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Dr. Acker’s academic work in global health has focused on strengthening health systems, particularly emergency referral systems, to increase access to emergency care for vulnerable populations, including mothers and newborns. From July 2015 to July 2016, Dr. Acker played the role of Long Term Technical Advisor for the USAID funded Quality Health Services Project in Cambodia. As part of this role he lived and worked in country, helping design and implement efficient and effective triage and emergency referral systems throughout nine Cambodian provinces. He has also worked extensively with the GVK EMRI ambulance service in India, currently the world’s largest prehospital care system, and the Nepal Ambulance Service to increase the quality and reach of prehospital care and effective emergency referral systems in both of these regions.
Clinical Focus
- Emergency Medicine
- Global Health
- Health System Strengthening
- Maternal and Child Health
- Emergency Referral Systems
- Maternal and Obstetric Emergencies
- Medical Education
- Prehospital Emergency Care
- Emergency Ultrasonography
Administrative Appointments
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Management Committee Member, USAID Health Care Seeking Behavior and Referrals Community of Practice (2021 - Present)
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Member, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Rural Obstetric Readiness Workgroup (2020 - 2021)
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EMED 313A Medical Student Coach, Stanford University School of Medicine (2020 - Present)
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Faculty Senator, Stanford University School of Medicine (2019 - Present)
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Affiliated Faculty, Stanford Medicine Center for Asian Health Research and Education (2018 - Present)
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Co-Clerkship Director, EMED 313 Emergency Medicine Student Clerkship (2017 - 2018)
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Faculty Fellow, Center for Innovation in Global Health (CIGH) at Stanford University School of Medicine (2015 - Present)
Honors & Awards
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MD Program Teaching Award-Nominee, Stanford University School of Medicine (2020)
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Humanitarian Award, American College of Emergency Physicians - California Chapter (2019)
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Outstanding Interdepartmental Faculty Professor, Resident Staff of the Stanford Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (2017-2018)
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Stanford Emergency Medicine Residency Faculty of the Year, Honorable Mention, Stanford Emergency Medicine Residency (2014-2015)
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Chief Resident, Emergency Medicine, University of Chicago Emergency Medicine Residency (2012-2013)
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Emergency Medicine Ambassador Award, University of Chicago Emergency Medicine Residency (2012-2013)
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PGY-3 Resident of the Year, University of Chicago Emergency Medicine Residency (2012-2013)
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Professionalism in Emergency Medicine Award, University of Chicago Emergency Medicine Residency (2012-2013)
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PGY-2 Resident of the Year, University of Chicago Emergency Medicine Residency (2011-2012)
Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations
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Member, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Rural Obstetric Readiness Workgroup (2020 - Present)
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Member, USAID Healthcare Seeking Behaviors and Referrals Community of Practice (2019 - Present)
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Fellow, American College of Emergency Physicians (2017 - Present)
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Deputy Ambassador to Cambodia, American College of Emergency Physicians (2015 - Present)
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Technical Advisor for Emergency Medicine and Referrals, USAID Quality Health Services Project-Cambodia (2014 - 2019)
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Member, American College of Emergency Physicians (2010 - Present)
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Member, Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (2010 - Present)
Professional Education
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Medical Education: Tufts University School of Medicine (2010) MA
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Masters in Public Health, Tufts University School of Medicine, Public Health and Global Health (2010)
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Residency: University of Chicago Medical Center Internal Medicine Residency (2013) IL
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Fellowship, Stanford University School of Medicine, International Emergency Medicine (2014)
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Board Certification: American Board of Emergency Medicine, Emergency Medicine (2014)
Community and International Work
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Improving Newborn and Maternal Outcomes by Strengthening Emergency Care Gujarat, Gujarat, India
Topic
Emergency Referral Systems
Partnering Organization(s)
GVK EMRI India
Location
International
Ongoing Project
No
Opportunities for Student Involvement
No
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Assessing and Strengthening the Indian Neonatal Care and Referral System, Gujarat, India
Topic
Evaluation of neonatal care resources and referral systems
Partnering Organization(s)
Stanford Department of Pediatrics
Ongoing Project
No
Opportunities for Student Involvement
No
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Diploma Course in Emergency Medicine, Yangon, Myanmar
Topic
Emergency Medicine
Partnering Organization(s)
Parami Hospital
Location
International
Ongoing Project
No
Opportunities for Student Involvement
No
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Digital Medic Emergency Medicine Content Development, India, South Africa, Philippines, Rwanda and others
Populations Served
Medical Students
Location
International
Ongoing Project
Yes
Opportunities for Student Involvement
Yes
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Medical student curriculum development in Emergency Medicine, Uganda
Partnering Organization(s)
Makerere University
Populations Served
Medical Students
Location
International
Ongoing Project
Yes
Opportunities for Student Involvement
Yes
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Prehospital Care Guideline Development and Dissemination, Nepal
Partnering Organization(s)
Nepal Ambulance Service
Populations Served
Urban and Rural Nepalis suffering from emergency conditions
Location
International
Ongoing Project
Yes
Opportunities for Student Involvement
Yes
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Prehospital Care Provide Mobile Application Decision Aid Creation, Nepal
Topic
Pre-hospital care in resource limited settings
Partnering Organization(s)
Nepal Ambulance Service
Populations Served
Emergently ill and injured Nepalese
Location
International
Ongoing Project
Yes
Opportunities for Student Involvement
Yes
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Emergency Medicine Education and Development, Myanmar
Topic
Assessing baseline EM knowledge and designing educational internvetions
Populations Served
All levels of healthcare professionals
Location
International
Ongoing Project
Yes
Opportunities for Student Involvement
No
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2014 Nepal Ambulance Service EMT Refresher Training, Nepal
Topic
Critical EMT refresher course
Partnering Organization(s)
Nepal Ambulance Service
Populations Served
EMT's
Location
International
Ongoing Project
No
Opportunities for Student Involvement
No
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2014 VPOL Course: Managing Emergencies: What Every Doctor Needs to Know, Uganda
Topic
Online emergency medicine skills course
Partnering Organization(s)
Makerere University
Populations Served
Medical Students
Location
International
Ongoing Project
Yes
Opportunities for Student Involvement
Yes
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2013-2016 Stanford Essential Prehospital Care Course, India
Topic
EMT refresher training courses
Partnering Organization(s)
GVK-EMRI
Location
International
Ongoing Project
Yes
Opportunities for Student Involvement
Yes
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2014-2019 USAID Quality Health Services Project, Cambodia
Topic
Improving access to emergency care services
Partnering Organization(s)
URC, MTI
Location
International
Ongoing Project
Yes
Opportunities for Student Involvement
No
Current Research and Scholarly Interests
My research and work focus on optimizing the use of health system data to create intelligent and accurate emergency referral systems to ensure vulnerable populations receive the care they require as efficiently as possible. I am interested in increasing our understanding of currently available health infrastructure in resource limited settings, and pairing that knowledge with technology tools to help identify patient's true needs and match those needs with health system capacity in real-time.
Projects
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USAID Quality Health ServIces project in Cambodia, Stanford University, University Research Consortium (8/1/2013 - Present)
A multifaceted project working to improve maternal and neonatal health throughout Cambodia. Our area of concentration involves creation of an integrated system for efficient identification, initial assessment and immediate care, referral and transfer of ill neonates and mothers.
Location
Cambodia
Collaborators
- Matthew Strehlow, Associate Professor, Stanford University Department of Emergency Medicine
- S. Mahadevan, Stanford University Department of Emergency Medicine
- Ayesha Khan, Clinical Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
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Stanford Essential Prehospital Care Course, Stanford University, University Research Consortium
Designing and implementing a series of novel, focused EMT refresher training courses with our Indian partner GVK EMRI. These training programs are being utilized to provided updated, evidence based care training to their group of over 10,000 EMTs.
Location
India
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Prehospital Care Provider Training and Mobile Decision Aid Application Creation
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Saving Mother's and Infant's Lives via Emergency Care (SMILE), Stanford University Department of Emergency Medicine and GVK Emergency Research and Management Institute, India (8/15/2019)
Location
Gujarat, India
Collaborators
- Matthew Strehlow, Associate Professor, Stanford University Department of Emergency Medicine
- S. Mahadevan, Stanford University Department of Emergency Medicine
- Jennifer Newberry, Emergency Medicine
- Benjamin Lindquist, Clinical Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
All Publications
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Strengthening the Emergency Referral System in Cambodia for Women and Children Under Five: A Description of Interventions and Impact Analysis.
Journal of Global Health Reports
2020
View details for DOI 10.29392/joghr.3.e2019079
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Developing Emergency Triage Systems in Cambodia.
Cureus
2020; 12 (10): e11233
Abstract
As Cambodia works to rebuild its public health system, an area of focus has been improving the quality of emergency services. After a needs assessment in 2011, project partners identified the implementation of a patient triage system as the first target for development efforts. A context-specific triage system was created using the input of a spectrum of local stakeholders. It was tailored to fit the needs and resources available within the Cambodian health system. The system was implemented through a series of educational interventions at 35 public hospitals throughout nine Cambodian provinces. Follow-up quality improvement visits occurred on a quarterly basis between February 2016 and September 2018, during which feedback on the system was gathered using both quantitative and qualitative methods, and additional system updates were implemented. In this technical report we aim to describe the triage system design, implementation and quality improvement processes utilized with the hope of informing and supporting colleagues working to address similar challenges in other areas of the world. Through this assessment process a number of key observations were made: 1) Establishment of context-specific emergency triage systems is feasible in low resource settings; 2) Development of new triage processes requires an iterative approach; 3) Successful uptake of new practice systems requires flexibility from both the implementers and end-users in the development relationship; 4) Process improvement requires consistent retraining and reinforcement.
View details for DOI 10.7759/cureus.11233
View details for PubMedID 33269161
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC7706145
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Continuing Education for Prehospital Healthcare Providers in India - A Novel Course and Concept.
Open access emergency medicine : OAEM
2020; 12: 201–10
Abstract
Emergency medical services (EMS) in India face enormous challenges in providing care to a geographically expansive and diverse patient population. Over the last decade, the public-private-partnership GVK EMRI (Emergency Management and Research Institute) has trained over 100,000 emergency medical technicians (EMTs), with greater than 21,000 currently practicing, to address this critical gap in the healthcare workforce. With the rapid development and expansion of EMS, certain aspects of specialty development have lagged behind, including continuing education requirements. To date, there have been no substantial continuing education EMT skills and training efforts. We report lessons learned during development and implementation of a continuing education course (CEC) for EMTs in India.From 2014 to 2017, we employed an iterative process to design and launch a novel CEC focused on five core emergency competency areas (medicine and cardiology, obstetrics, trauma, pediatrics, and leadership and communication). Indian EMT instructors and providers partnered in design and content, and instructors were trained to independently deliver the CEC. Many challenges had to be overcome: scale (>21,000 EMTs), standardization (highly variable skill levels among providers and instructors), culture (educational emphasis on rote memorization rather than practical application), and translation (22 major languages and a few hundred local dialects spoken nationwide).During the assessment and development phases, we identified five key strategies for success: (1) use icon-based video instruction to ensure consistent quality and allow voice-over for easy translation; (2) incorporate workbooks during didactic videos and (3) employ low-cost simulation and case discussions to emphasize active learning; (4) focus on non-technical skills; (5) integrate a formal training-of-trainers prior to delivery of materials.These key strategies can be combined with innovation and flexibility to address unique challenges of language, system resources, and cultural differences when developing impactful continuing educational initiatives in bourgeoning prehospital care systems in low- and middle-income countries.
View details for DOI 10.2147/OAEM.S249447
View details for PubMedID 32982494
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC7505709
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Comparing Teaching Methods in Resource-Limited Countries.
AEM education and training
2018; 2 (3): 238
View details for PubMedID 30051096
- Anaphylaxis Progressive Cases in Emergency Medicine McGraw-Hill Education. 2018; 1
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Comparison of Online and Classroom-based Formats for Teaching Emergency Medicine to Medical Students in Uganda.
AEM education and training
2018; 2 (1): 5–9
Abstract
Severe global shortages in the health care workforce sector have made improving access to essential emergency care challenging. The paucity of trained specialists in low- and middle-income countries translates to large swathes of the population receiving inadequate care. Efforts to expand emergency medicine (EM) education are similarly impeded by a lack of available and appropriate teaching faculty. The development of comprehensive, online medical education courses offers a potentially economical, scalable, and lasting solution for universities experiencing professional shortages.An EM course addressing core concepts and patient management was developed for medical students enrolled at Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Kampala, Uganda. Material was presented to students in two comparable formats: online video modules and traditional classroom-based lectures. Following completion of the course, students were assessed for knowledge gains.Forty-two and 48 students enrolled and completed all testing in the online and classroom courses, respectively. Student knowledge gains were equivalent (classroom 25 ± 8.7% vs. online 23 ± 6.5%, p = 0.18), regardless of the method of course delivery.A summative evaluation of Ugandan medical students demonstrated that online teaching modules are effectively equivalent and offer a viable alternative to traditional classroom-based lectures delivered by on-site, visiting faculty in their efficacy to teach expertise in EM. Web-based curriculum can help alleviate the burden on universities in developing nations struggling with a critical shortage of health care educators while simultaneously satisfying the growing community demand for access to emergency medical care. Future studies assessing the long-term retention of course material could gauge its incorporation into clinical practice.
View details for PubMedID 30051058
- Procedural Sedation in Resource Limited Settings Critical Decisions in Emergency Medicine 2017; 31 (4): 3-13
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Implementing an Innovative Prehospital Care Provider Training Course in Nine Cambodian Provinces
Cureus
2016; 8 (6)
View details for DOI 10.7759/cureus.656
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Efficacy of a novel two-day EMT refresher training program focused on essential EMS knowledge and skills
International Summit on Emergency Medicine and Trauma
2014
View details for DOI 10.1186/1865-1380-7-S1-P5