In this month's guest editorial, Michelle Mello and colleagues argue that institutions in the United States should facilitate health care professionals' service in Ebola-affected regions, not discourage it.
The authors highlight that while some academic medical centers in the US have invoked their usual policy of supporting overseas work with services such as emergency travel assistance, others have strongly cautioned against serving or have specified that staff who serve in Ebola-affected regions do so in their personal capacity.
The authors argue that academic medical centers should actively promote health care professionals' service by enabling them to go as employees and preserving the full net of support and protection this status confers in the US, including travel insurance, worker's compensation coverage, and pay.
Image Credit: DFID, Flickr
Editorial
Supporting Those Who Go to Fight Ebola
PLOS Medicine: published January 26, 2015 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001781
Essay
Randomized Controlled Trials in Environmental Health Research: Unethical or Underutilized?
PLOS Medicine: published January 6, 2015 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001775
Research Articles
Evaluation of a Minimally Invasive Cell Sampling Device Coupled with Assessment of Trefoil Factor 3 Expression for Diagnosing Barrett's Esophagus: A Multi-Center Case–Control Study
PLOS Medicine: published January 29, 2015 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001780
Hormonal Contraception and the Risk of HIV Acquisition: An Individual Participant Data Meta-analysis
PLOS Medicine: published January 22, 2015 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001778