Episode Description:
In this episode of High Impact Medicine, we speak with Dr. Carl Otto Schell, a senior consultant physician, global health researcher, and co-inventor of the Essential Emergency and Critical Care (EECC) movement. With extensive experience across emergency medicine, internal medicine, cardiology, and critical care, Dr. Schell brings a rare blend of clinical insight, systems thinking, and policy leadership to this conversation.
We explore how Dr. Schell’s work-from Sweden to Tanzania, Malawi, and Sri Lanka, has led to a global reimagining of critical care: not high-tech ICUs, but low-cost, life-saving basics delivered system-wide. Through EECC, he’s helping shift the global health agenda toward universal access to vital emergency interventions, no matter the setting or resources.
This conversation is essential listening for anyone interested in health system transformation, global health equity, and how data-driven clinical work can save lives at scale.
What We Cover:
✅ The origins of EECC and why it's revolutionizing critical care
✅ How misconceptions about ICU care undermine global health
✅ Why vital signs, oxygen, and fluids save more lives than most realize
✅ The challenge of getting leaders to prioritize low-cost interventions
✅ Advice for medics seeking to combine clinical work and global systems change
Key Takeaways:
Most critically ill patients never reach an ICU, and many die without basic care.
EECC focuses on simple, cost-effective actions that can be implemented anywhere.
Impact requires systems change, not just individual brilliance.
Progress happens when clinicians use data to challenge assumptions.
A fulfilling career can combine clinical work, research, and advocacy, but not all at once.
Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction: From Sweden to Global Health
03:12 – What Sparked Dr. Schell’s Interest in Medicine
07:20 – Early Research in Ethiopia and Global Health Exposure
11:46 – Founding the EECC Movement
17:32 – What Is EECC and Why Does It Matter?
22:51 – Misconceptions About Critical Care Globally
28:43 – The Tanzania Implementation Project
33:05 – Balancing Research, Clinical Work & Systems Thinking
38:21 – Key Challenges in Global Health Delivery
44:50 – Advice for Future Medical Changemakers
49:00 – Books & Resources That Inspired the Journey
Referenced Resources:
🌐 Essential Emergency and Critical Care (EECC)
📚 How I Learned to Understand the World – Hans Rosling
📈 Gapminder – Global Health Visualizations
📄 Dr. Schell’s Peer-Reviewed Research
Dr Michael Greger is a physician and internationally recognized speaker on nutrition. His science-based nonprofit, NutritionFacts.org, offers a free online portal hosting more than 2,000 videos and articles on myriad health topics. Dr. Greger is a sought-after lecturer and has presented at the Conference on World Affairs and the World Bank.
A graduate of Cornell University School of Agriculture and Tufts University School of Medicine, Dr. Greger is also an acclaimed author with more than a million copies of How Not to Die have been sold.
In this conversation, we discuss:
Dr Greger’s personal story behind his path into lifestyle medicine
The effects of lifestyle on health - with his recommendations to enhance health
Multiplying his impact through books, lectures, and audio format
Links
Nutrition Facts.org (Dr Greger’s website)
How Not to Die book
*Recorded Talk*
Dr. Akhil Bansal is a UK-based medical doctor and global health researcher. He is a research advisor for the Help Women and Girls Fund at The Life You Can Save. In this podcast, Dr. Bansal discusses his journey from treating victims of violence in emergency rooms to advocating for cost-effective, impactful interventions that aim to prevent violence against women and girls.
In this episode, we listen to a recording of Dr. Bansal covering the following:
Dr. Bansal’s early career and exposure to violence against women during his medical training
His involvement and with work with Charity Entrepreneurship and involvement in Effective Altruism
The global burden of violence against women and girls, and why it’s a neglected problem
Effective interventions and the role of community-based activism in reducing violence
His contributions to the Help Women and Girls Fund and the importance of philanthropic support in this area
Links:
https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/cause-funds/women-and-girls-fund/
https://www.charityentrepreneurship.com/
Dr Keyur Doolabh is an Australian doctor, with a background in Emergency Medicine. He has interests in philosophy and making positive social change. He is the co-founder of a global health charity, Healthy Futures Global, that works to end congenital syphilis.
In this podcast episode, we chat about:
Keyur’s experience of the Charity Entrepreneurship programme
Why congenital syphilis is an important, tractable and neglected problem
Links
Healthy Futures Global Website
Charity Entrepreneurship Programme
Poor Economics by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo
80,000 hours article on impact of a medical career
Dr Anemone is a German doctor with a background in global health and infectious diseases. At the time of recording this podcast, she was working as an advisor at the nonprofit organisation 80,000 Hours. She is now pursuing a Masters in Public Health. Prior to all this, she was a clinical trial physician at Alvea, a start-up company aiming to accelerate medical countermeasure development and deployment for pandemic prevention.
Our discussion today covers:
Leaving behind a clinical career
Her experience of working at a start-up
80,000 hours
Resources for biosecurity enthusiasts
Articles, books and other media discussed in the show:
80,000 hours Website and Career Guide
80,000 hours Podcast Dr Tom Inglesby on how to prevent global catastrophic biological risks
Doing Good Better by William MacAskill
Biosecurity Dilemmas by Christian Enemark
Dr Benjamin Alba is an Emergency Medicine doctor with experience in Expedition Medicine, having recently worked a whole season at Mount Everest. He is now transitioning into humanitarian medicine. He graduated from Cardiff University in 2018 and has gone on to pursue a career path well beyond UK hospitals. He is the founder of ‘Ubuntu Network’ - a space for expedition medical professionals to share experiences from expeditions, collaborate with others working in the field and connect with the wider expedition community.
We discuss:
- How the field of Expedition Medicine is organised
- The highs and lows of his season on Mount Everest
- The Ubuntu Network
- Shifting to a career in Humanitarian Medicine
Links:
For More from Dr Benjamin Alba, check out the World Expedition Podcast episodes.
The Ubuntu Network
Dr Yassen Tcholakov is a Canadian doctor and the Clinical Lead in Infectious Disease at the Nunavik Department of Public Health in Canada. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global and Public Health at McGill University, and he also currently serves on the Steering Committee of the WHO Youth Council. He has varied advocacy experience in representing organisations like the WHO, World Medical Association, and the International Federation of Medical Students Associations in front of the United Nations.
In this episode we discuss:
What health advocacy and diplomacy means
The diverse nature of a career in public health
Skills/ prerequisites for public health careers
Yassen’s recommendations:
Dr Ian Nesbitt is a consultant in anaesthesia and critical care. He has carried out life-saving treatments in some of the most challenging conditions with none of the resources typically available in a UK hospital. Having completed medical school at Newcastle Upon Tyne University, he then trained in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. He has volunteered in some of the world’s most dangerous war zones, deployed to the Middle East in 2003 and carried out two tours of duty in Afghanistan in 2007 and 2010.
We discuss:
How to get into humanitarian medicine as a medical student - how to fund and make time for this
The realities of working in war zones and the varied nature of the work
Managing the perceptions of the local populations and working towards sustainability
And much more!
Links mentioned:
Dr Aakash Ganju is a healthcare entrepreneur from India, after completing his medical degree he went on to co-found Saathhealth, an impact-focused digital health company that leverages evidence-based preventive health and financial literacy content to generate awareness, engage with users and drive demand for health products and services. To date, Saathealth has already engaged more than 50 million people in India and in several other countries across southeast and central Asia. He is the author of ‘A Glass Half Full: Stirring Healthcare Conversations for a Better Future’
We discussed some interesting points:
Note: unfortunately the audio quality of our guest is not ideal (virtual interviewing challenges) nonetheless, I hope you find the content of the discussion as insightful and valuable as I did!
Show notes:
The Citadel - Book by A. J. Cronin
First published in 1937, this book was groundbreaking in its treatment of the contentious theme of medical ethics. It has been credited with laying the foundation in Britain for the introduction of the NHS a decade later.
Annapurna: The First Conquest of an 8000-Metre Peak Book by Maurice Herzog
Book by a French climber about the first expedition to summit and return Annapurna, a mountain in the Himalayas - a classic of mountaineering literature.
Dr Adrian Boyle is an Emergency Medicine Consultant at Addenbrooke’s Hospital Cambridge, UK. His research interests are about using health data to prevent intentional injury and reducing the harm of Emergency Department crowding. He is also President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and a member of the Q community.
Resources mentioned in the interview:
1) Professor Jonathan Shepherd - who's field experiments and advocacy on glass injury resulted in a switch to toughened glassware and polycarbonate and plasticware in the UK licensed trade. His information sharing "Cardiff Model" for violence prevention inspired Dr Boyle's own work in Cambridge.
Max Schons is a clinician-scientist, developer, and entrepreneur. He currently leads the clinical team at the biotechnology startup Alvea. We discuss:
-The importance of showing a proactive mindset and building rapport.
-The value of a computer engineering mindset in your mental toolbox.
- Max's "buffet of hacks" for young professional, which includes finding kick-ass leadership & utilising our beloved Anki!
Dan Epstein is a Medical Doctor and an academic with a PhD from Monash University’s faculty of public health. His areas of expertise include Decision Making | Behavior Change | Tabletop Game Design | Behavioral Economics | Pandemic Prevention | Forecasting | Philanthropy.
His previous lives included being an academic consultant across public and private sectors, a medical educator, amateur forecaster and a high performance athlete.
Dan has been designing tabletop games for 10 years and has been playing Dungeons and Dragons since he was 11. At Long Game Project, he is the Director of the core team strategy and game design.
1) Check out: https://www.longgameproject.org/
Get in touch with Dan on twitter
Anna Christina is an ambitious and impact-driven entrepreneur with a commitment to evidence-based decision-making and a passion for improving health and well-being. She first became aware of the impact misinformation has on agency and maternal health in 2016 while researching the socio-cultural barriers to family planning uptake in rural Tanzania and has dedicated her work to solving this problem since. Before starting FEM, she co-founded a health-tech startup developing VR-based phobia treatment and worked as Head of PR at a startup incubator for for-profits aiming to achieve SDGs. Anna Christina studied Industrial Economics and Technology Management at NTNU, where she specialised in computer science, AI, and applied optimisation.
Dr Anju Goel is an experienced board-certified internist and public health specialist with MPH. Over 2 years at CDC on COVID-19 response and 10+ years in California public health system addressing communicable disease, health policy, health promotion, disaster preparedness, and correctional health. She's has a strong interest in public health and is an advocate for designing your life to suit your strengths and values.
Some resources from our conversation:
1) The Life for a Child Programme is an international aid program which supports children and young people with diabetes in under-resourced communities by providing them with essential life-saving support and supplies. https://lifeforachild.org/
2) DAFNE is an educational course for managing type 1 diabetes, giving diabetic patients the necessary skills to administer the right amount of insulin for the amount of carbohydrate you choose to eat. DAFNE stands for Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating. https://dafne.nhs.uk/
3) Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). https://www.cdc.gov/
4) Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders. https://www.msf.org/
5) PeaceCorps - Advancing Health Professionals (AHP) program. https://www.peacecorps.gov/volunteer/peace-corps-response/advancing-health-professionals/
6) Operation Smile. https://www.operationsmile.org.uk/
7) "Designing Your Life" by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans - https://designingyour.life/
8) "Designing Your Work Life: How to Thrive and Change and Find Happiness at Work " book by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
Today’s conversation is with Nadia Montazeri, who completed her medical school in Bonn, after which she worked as a psychiatry resident in Bern, Switzerland. Subsequently, she held the role of program director at Effective Altruism Switzerland. Effective Altruism (EA) is an organisation that uses evidence and reason to figure out how to most effectively make the world a better place. As part of her role, she coordinated the strategy for EA movement building in Switzerland.
We discuss:
- the transferable skills she got from her medical training;
- the intricacies of community building; and
- the importance of finding a topic area (or aptitude) about which you develop shower thoughts.
I really enjoyed this conversation, so I hope you do too.
Show notes:
1) Scott Alexander - "SHOULD YOU REVERSE ANY ADVICE YOU HEAR?"
2) Holden Karnofsky - "My current impression on career choice for longtermists"
After finishing medical school in New Zealand, David Basset shifted his career towards consulting, with roles at EY and BCG, before returning to train in radiology.
He shares some advice that would be useful for doctors and medical students, who are trying to figure out whether consulting would be a good fit for them. We discuss the benefits of combining business experience with clinic expertise.
Resources
Recommendations
Today’s conversation is with Hunter Lau, who is an emergency medicine resident at Strong Memorial Hospital, and the group founder for Effective Altruism Medicine. We discuss some interesting points; for example, how focusing on impact can lead to unhappiness, the consequences of sub-optimal incentives in the medical education and the ways in which the typical medical student can stay resilient in working towards their long term goals. I hope you enjoy.
Resources
Recommendations
Dr Akhil Bansal is a doctor who has worked with mental health NGOs, as a research fellow at Stanford Existential Risk Initiative and has recently joined Charity Entrepreneurship as an analyst. He is passionate about doing research that makes a difference and is developing his career to include both policy and clinical practice.
We discuss his experience with:
• building resilience into healthcare systems;
• developing a network and seeking valuable conversations;
• being a conduit between policy makers and clinicians on the ground;
• and much more!
Links: https://www.charityentrepreneurship.com/
Dr Jake Mann is a clinical paediatrics registrar with research specialisation in metabolism and liver disease. He studied at Birmingham medical school and currently trains in Cambridge where he is a Wellcome Trust clinical fellow. He has a strong interest in clinical research and high impact research focuses for doctors and we were really excited to chat to him about his work as well as balancing clinical work with research.
Resources
Recommendations
Dr Henry Howard is a junior doctor in Australia who donated 50% of his income in 2021 to charity. He has pledged to give 10% of his income to effective charities forever having taken the Giving What We Can Pledge. He’s also really interested in Medtech and entrepreneurship. We’ve really enjoyed talking to him about his career, effective giving and his thoughts on doctors' ability to do a huge amount of good through donating to charity.
Resources and referenced materials