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Increasing temperatures negatively impact health and increases demands on healthcare systems. However, this has been poorly studied in Rhode Island (RI). Here we characterize the impact of heat on emergency medical services (EMS) utilization in RI.The Rhode Island National Emergency Services Information System V3 dataset was merged with data from the National Center for Environmental Information of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from the summers of 2018 and 2019. The outcome of daily mean EMS runs were compared against the exposure increasing daily temperatures, measured as daily maximum, minimum and daily average °F, using Poisson regressions. Patient characteristics were included across temperature models.Increasing daily temperatures were associated with increasing EMS encounters. The adjusted incident rate ratio (IRR) for mean daily EMS encounters by increasing maximum daily temperature was 1.006 (95% CI 1.004-1.007, Table 3). This resulted in a projected 17.2% increase in EMS runs on days with a maximum temperature of 65°F compared to days with a maximum temperature of 95°F. The adjusted IRR for mean daily EMS encounters by the daily minimum temperature was 1.004 (1.003-1.006) and the adjusted IRR for the mean daily EMS encounters by the daily average temperature was 1.006 (1.005-1.008).Increasing minimum, maximum, and average daily temperatures were associated with increasing EMS utilization across Rhode Island in the summers of 2018 and 2019. Further research into these trends may help with planning and resource allocation as summer temperatures continue to rise.

Colombia represents a country in transition, from decades of devastating civil war to a post-conflict era of peace building, to the recent management of the influx of thousands of Venezuelan migrants. Brown University, along with Colombian partners, are leading the way in an international, multi-institutional consortium with the goal of emergency medicine capacitation across Colombia. Program Implementations: Through these collaborative efforts, exchange programs for residents and faculty alike have been successfully established. A baseline assessment of emergency medicine education for medical students is underway. By the end of 2019, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) will launch an online tool in multiple languages, including Spanish, to help medical and nursing educators conduct systematic needs assessments of the way in which conflict has impacted medical and nursing schools.Successful avenues for collaboration and partnership are described between Brown Emergency physicians and Colombian collaborating universities. These programs help to build capacity in Colombia and also provide education and support for residents and faculty at Brown University. Current work will see these programs grow into the future.