Strengthening regional healthcare capacity with Fondation de l’Académie de Médecine

Our partnership with the Fondation de l’Académie de Médecine in 2025: 

• 4 countries with increased capacity to integrate HEMS capabilities
• 353 medical professionals trained
• More than 2,300 people trained in 11 countries

Fondation de l'Académie de Médecine capacity building helicopter exercise in action in Mongolia

The hour immediately following a severe traumatic injury is known to medical professionals as the ‘golden hour’. It’s not an exact measure, but it emphasises how critical the immediate aftermath of an incident is for survival and recovery rates. The sooner medical staff arrive, the greater the chance of preventing blood loss, keeping airways open and supporting patients’ consciousness. 

In hard-to-reach locations, the fastest way to reach patients is often via helicopter, but many countries lack the capacity or systems to deliver reliable heliborne emergency care. Since 2014, we have partnered with the Fondation de l’Académie de Médecine (FAM) on capacity building to support the delivery of Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) training for more than 2,300 people in 11 countries – so local medical staff can provide timely care and save more lives, even in the toughest circumstances.

Systems-based interdisciplinary training for helicopter emergency medical services

Over the last 12 years, the HEMS programme has evolved from a series of clinical workshops to a more comprehensive international framework for health security. As FAM identified the need to build robust infrastructure to enable medical skills to be put into practice, a ‘train the trainer’ model was adopted to create self-sustaining systems. 

We provide logistics, financial support and access to rotorcraft knowledge and skills, and FAM designs and delivers training sessions and symposiums that meet the highest international levels of scientific, medical and educational excellence.  

Training forums usually consist of two days of theoretical instruction and one day of practical training in the helicopter. Designed to ensure a diverse range of professionals can replicate the training in real-life situations, sessions might include general practitioners, nurses, anaesthetists, pilots, technicians and firefighters. 

Every training mission centres on sharing knowledge across disciplines to achieve the best possible medical outcomes. As President of FAM, Hélène Dubrule, said this year, “It’s a unique pooling of skills and learning across aerospace and medicine.”

Learning and improving critical care in tight spaces

At the heart of the training, professionals learn to evacuate patients and treat them within the limited space of a helicopter. “It’s the exact opposite of a hospital ward, with all the staff, processes and controlled conditions,” explained Guy Emanuelli, Helicopter Coordinator at the Airbus Foundation. “In a helicopter, there are maybe one or two people looking after the patient, and they must be in regular contact with the pilot who can advise them on sudden movements, vibrations and changes in weather. At the same time, they are typically dealing with patients in critical conditions.”

Together, these participants learn from the trainers and each other about how to collaborate and adapt their skills, so their countries can expand emergency response services.

After the sessions, the various professionals take their new knowledge and experience back to their day-to-day work, so the training outcomes are felt across hospitals and services. “We also involve the local authorities, medical authorities, hospitals, universities and ministries of health,” Guy explains, “so we’re enhancing knowledge of heliborne technology more widely.” Airbus learns too, implementing improvements to its helicopter capabilities to meet the latest demands of heliborne emergency medicine.

Multi-way partnerships for better outcomes

Adapting HEMS training for local needs

In 2025, our partnership with FAM flexed to deliver tailored training that addressed specific country needs.

Four years ago, Mongolia’s first-ever dedicated aerial search and rescue unit was created through a partnership between the French and Mongolian Civil Defence authorities. Mongolia is roughly three times the size of France and home to just 3.5 million people, with many spread across challenging, mountainous terrain – so building HEMS capacity is critical to strengthening the national healthcare system.

In June, we supported FAM in delivering the first in-country training symposium for 122 participants across a range of disciplines. Beyond these individual outcomes, the event signalled a strategic move by the Mongolian Government to build a centralised command structure for natural disasters. 

The second in-country training programme in India took place in Rishikesh, a perilous, mountainous region in the north. While the case for heliborne medicine has been gaining ground, the country still lacks a national public HEMS provision.

The HEMS training for 59 people, including 23 doctors and 36 paramedics was designed to help save more lives during the critical golden hour, but also strengthen the case for building more HEMS capacity across India. 

Capacity building training session with a static helicopter (Photo credit Fondation de l'Académie de Médecine)

The HEMS training in South Africa was the first carried out by FAM on the African continent, forming part of the inaugural International Symposium on HEMS in Africa. The University of Johannesburg already has advanced technical facilities, including mock-up helicopters for training, so the training focused on building continuity and efficiency.

Highlights included introducing the South African HEMS Activation Screen, a clinical decision-making tool that reduces the financial waste of ‘over-triaging’ and increases survival rates in remote areas. In Chile, we focused on leveraging FAM’s expertise to improve an existing HEMS system.