Center for
Global Health

Associate Scholar

Languages: English (native), Spanish (basic)

Bio statement

Dr. Owens is an Emergency Physician at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Director of the Navy’s Global Health Fellowship, and Assistant Professor at the USU and EVMS. He received his MPH from the University of Massachusetts and CEM from IAEM. His is the current Medical Director for the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Medical Response Team.

Dr. Owens recent duties include directing multiple workshops and response activities throughout Central America, Pacific, and Africa with a focus on LMIC. He supported the 2014 Ebola epidemic as Medical Coordinator for an ETU in Liberia. His work include multiple publications associated with this work.

Recent global health projects

1.Community Health Emergency Rapid Response Team (CHERRT)– This is an Angolan national disaster/epidemic response team that I helped develop in collaboration with the US Embassy in Angola, Angola military, Angola Ministry of Health (MOH), and other first responder agencies to independently respond to regional disaster and infectious disease outbreaks. With assistance from the Embassy I have trained, equipped, and maintained skill proficiency for over 400+ providers through regular visits the last six years. Last year (December 2019) I invited the National Institute of Health (NIH) to train lab technicians in field laboratory techniques (i.e. Biobubble) after purchasing the equipment for the CHERRT in addition to annual updated team response, preparedness, and mitigation training.

2.Emergency Medical System (EMS) program/system development in Phu Yen Province, Vietnam – During a four month trip to Southeast Asia developing and providing workshops in a variety of countries, I conducted a two week training workshop for national medical leaders and representatives in Emergency Medicine (EM) from Vietnam. This two week program included collaboration with two Japanese Emergency Physicians. My team conducted presentations, table top scenarios, breakout sessions, and discussions that culminated with a sample EMS program for each individual’s representative region/city based on a fixed simulated budget. This project included evidenced based medicine (EBM) best practices, expert opinion, lessons learned, legal standards and limitations, as well as input from multiple subject matter experts from the United States willing to assist with this project.

Selected publications

• Owens MD. “Angola’s Community Health Emergency Rapid Response Team (CHERRT): An Example of Preparing Low and Middle Income Nations (LMIC) to Respond at the Local and Regional Level Independent of International Support”. IAEM Bulletin. November 2019, pp.11-12.
• Owens MD, Rice J, Moore D, Adams A. “A Global Health Engagement Success: Applying Evidence Based Concepts to Create a Rapid Response Team in Angola to Combat Ebola and Other Public Health Emergencies of International Concern”. Military Medicine, May-June, 2019.
• Owens MD. Salmonella Infection in the Emergency Department. Medscape. Update August 10, 2018.
• Owens MD and Rice J. “The Angolan Pandemic Rapid Response Team: An Assessment, Improvement, and Development Analysis of the First Self-sufficient African National Response Team Curriculum”. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, June 13, 2019.
• Owens M. “China 1 USA 0”: A Former Ebola Provider’s Explanation Why the United States is Falling Behind in the Global Health Arena”. Military Medicine, 181(9), pp. 951-952. September 1, 2016.
• Owens MD. Presence Matters: Navy Medicine’s Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response in Africa. Part 2. Navy Medicine Live. March 10, 2015.

Last Updated: 28 February 2022