Dr Shilpakar becomes first Nepali female plenary speaker at ICEM

KATHMANDU: Dr Olita Shilpakar, one of Nepal’s first female doctors to earn a doctorate in Emergency Medicine, has made history by becoming the first Nepali woman to be invited as a plenary speaker at the prestigious International Conference on Emergency Medicine (ICEM).

The global conference, held in Montréal, Canada, in May, brought together nearly 2,000 emergency medicine professionals from over 80 countries. Dr. Shilpakar’s plenary talk, titled “Defining and Delivering Emergency Medicine in Developing Countries”, shed light on both the opportunities and challenges faced in the field across low-resource settings. She shared the stage with Dr. Lize Mumporeze from Rwanda and Dr. Yenisey Cruz from Belize, in a session moderated by Dr. Aisha Terry, past president of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP).

Dr. Shilpakar currently serves as Assistant Professor and Consultant Emergency Physician at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj Medical Campus. She is also on the executive board of the Nepalese Society of Emergency Physicians (NSEP), a voting member of the International Federation for Emergency Medicine (IFEM).

A Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Dr. Shilpakar has played a key role in shaping emergency care standards in Nepal, including leading the development of the country’s first national Standard Treatment Protocol for Emergency Health Services. She is a certified instructor for BLS, ACLS and PALS under the American Heart Association and an accredited trainer of the IFEM Basic Emergency Care course.