Last week, Dr. Antonio Dajer, spoke at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM), about Interprofessional Education through the eyes of the 9/11 tragedy. Dajer was the sole attending physician on duty the morning of 9/11. The talk was titled “9/11: What the housekeepers taught me”, it discussed his and his team’s disaster response to 9/11 through themes of interprofessional collaboration and care.

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Pharmacy Professor and Associate Dean, Rachel Ogden, shared her thoughts on the talk.

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“In that terrible situation everyone in that hospital came together and did what needed to be done. No matter what their job title was, they each took care of their patients and staff that were not even scheduled to work that day fought the crowds and police force to come in and help. It shows that as humans we all take care of each other, and truly care for one another. This presentation was very moving and showed the greatest form of interprofessional collaboration.”

Since 1991 Dajer has been an attending in the Emergency Department at NY Downtown Hospital, now has been the Chairman and Site Director of Emergency Medicine since 2005. Dr. Dajer has lectured extensively on NY Downtown Hospital’s response to 9/11, this tragedy positioned him to take part in the largest single-hospital disaster response in American history.