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The Cost of Fear: humanitarian crises in the age of anxiety 

Dr Joanne Liu will give the MSF view from the field. With patients and humanitarians increasingly painted as threats, how can we best respond to medical emergencies?

Dr. Joanne Liu has served as International President of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) / Doctors Without Borders since 2013. The organisation is a world-recognized authority on medical humanitarian crises. During the 2014 Ebola crisis, MSF was given a voice at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, bringing it to a new level of engagement with world leaders. In 2015, the destruction of MSF’s hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, launched the movement’s appeal to the UN Security Council, and its ongoing push for protection of medical missions.

Dr. Liu trained at McGill University School of Medicine in Montreal. She holds a Fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine from New York University School of Medicine and an International Master’s in Health Leadership, also from McGill University.

Since she began MSF field work in 1996, Dr. Liu has undertaken over 20 missions, in Central Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East. Her operational contributions range from introducing comprehensive medical care for survivors of sexual violence, to developing a telemedicine platform connecting doctors in remote areas with medical specialists worldwide. Dr. Liu continues to practice medicine, both in the field with MSF, as well as on hospital shifts in Montreal – reflecting her strong belief in MSF’s unique identity, that is both field-based, but at the same time uncompromising on quality-driven patient care. She believes in bringing this same focus to the general global health arena.

The lecture will be followed by the Society’s Annual General Meeting, to be held at 8pm in the John Snow Public House (at the corner of Broadwick and Lexington Streets, in Soho) to which all Society members are strongly encouraged to attend. 

A recording of the lecture is available on Panopto