Emory Healthcare: Melding Critical Care, Infectious Diseases, and Disaster Preparedness Together

We are continuing our new series, Media Day, where we spotlight individual medical institutions and their infectious disease (ID) programs. This episode profiles Emory Healthcare.

When people think of Ebola or other diseases or viruses that are considered high-consequence infectious diseases (HCID) they often think of movie scenarios where clinicians are completely covered in personal protective equipment and wearing face masks with ventilators to keep themselves protected from airborne viruses, and it happening in countries outside the US.

To some degree that is true, but it is important to recognize HCID can happen anywhere. In fact, a few years back, Emory Healthcare brought in 4 patients with Ebola virus disease to treat at their facilities. At a time when little was known about caring for these patients, the university's Serious Communicable Diseases Unit (SCDU) successfully treated these patients, and in turn, created protocols of care that are now the standard when caring for patients with deadly infections.¹

And when there has been Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Emory has sent teams of researchers and infectious disease experts to help with clinical care, but also learn from those on the ground working in those HCID environments.¹ Their team is answering the call whether in a hot spot area internationally, or when HCID happens here in the US.

Although this particular disease typically is very rarely brought into the country via travelers, the COVID-19 pandemic is a reminder HCID can truly happen anywhere. The pandemic motivated Gavin Harris, MD, and his Emory colleagues to begin SCDU’s Project ECHO preparedness series. The ECHO program conducts educational, monthly meetings that convene via Zoom. Topics focus on special pathogens and other infectious diseases, and vary by session—depending on current events with specific pathogens or viruses that are circulating. ²

Harris is associate medical director, Serious Communicable Diseases Program (SCDP), Emory University, and director of Education and Outreach for the program and had experience working in hot zone environments where HCID outbreaks were happening. ECHO seemed a natural evolution as the pandemic hit.

“When we started, and the intent of that was to amplify and disseminate best medical practices to hospitals throughout our southeast region, here in the United States; but what we quickly learned, and I think this is an important lesson to think about, is that we listen to our audiences, because some of the conditions and challenges that we experienced here at Emory in Atlanta were very different than what rural hospitals or other frontline facilities were experiencing,” said Harris.

For smaller, rural hospitals, Harris points out they did not have enough staff or resources to adequately care for patients with COVID. After listening to the feedback from the other facilities, they worked on better communication and utilize electronic communication tools such as Teams and Zoom to hold their ECHO training webinars for various specialties.

Harris also points out for patients with HCID, a big consideration is that for individuals who are battling these serious health ailment, they are often hospitalized for long periods of time and their recovery post-discharge, can also take time so support and resources are needed for these patients and their families. And on the institution side, he says a comprehensive approach is needed with various medical stakeholders getting involved.

“We tried to engage our ancillary or auxiliary services so folks that normally may not be at the forefront of clinical care or at the patient's bedside, like nurses or clinicians, but others. "We tried to engage our laboratorians; we tried to engage administrative personnel, and so we learned, again, from feedback that the care of patients for high consequence infectious diseases or that preparedness at large, has to encompass the whole of organizations from the ground up, and then also from the top down.

In the next episode, Harris discusses his work in hot zones and treating high-consequence infectious diseases.

References
1.History of SCDP. Emory. Accessed December 19, 2025. https://scdp.emory.edu/about/index.html

2.Project ECHO Program. Emory. Accessed December 19, 2025.
https://scdp.emory.edu/programs/echo-program/index.html