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 is 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. He has explored this work in many countries, with a focus in South and Southeast Asia as well as Sub-Saharan Africa, working to improve health facility's abilities to identify sick patients, coordinate safe and effective transport and improve the emergency care they receive upon arriving at a definitive care location. 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. He is currently involved in a number of efforts focused in improving the measurement and effectiveness of emergency referral systems, supporting the revision of the Averting Maternal Death and Disability tool. Most recently he has been working to create new partnerships in Sri Lanka to better understand current patterns of road traffic accident injuries and outcomes and how existing prehospital care and emergency care resources can be leveraged to optimize outcomes.
