Improving global prehospital and emergency medicine, public health, and disaster health care and preparedness

Elysée Nouvet and Kevin Bezanson

Elysée Nouvet is a medical anthropologist and an Assistant Professor in the School of Health Studies (Global Health) at Western University in London, Ontario. Her PhD (York University) focused on the social determinants, expression, and impacts of pain and distress in a Nicaraguan shanty. Since then, she has developed and co-led research on perceptions and moral experiences of humanitarian and global health initiatives throughout the world.

Uniting her work is a commitment to bringing the lived experiences of those on the receiving end of humanitarian and global health initiatives to bear on policy and practice. Her research is conducted in collaboration with non-governmental organizations, government agencies, and community groups. Dr. Nouvet is a long-time member of Humanitarian Health Ethics, and a member of the WHO COVID-19 Research Roadmap Social Sciences working group (WG) as well as the COVID-19 Research Coalition Ethics Working Group.


Kevin Bezanson is a palliative care physician based at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, and an Assistant Professor, Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Lakehead University campus. He completed a Diploma in Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, University of Liverpool, in 2006, and Masters in Public Health, University of Toronto, 2013.

He has clinical, educational, and research interests in access to palliative care for underserved populations, currently including Indigenous communities, and people facing homelessness, in Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario. He worked in Malawi as a clinical program manager and research fellow focused on operational research in the areas of palliative care and HIV/AIDS in collaboration with Dignitas International, Malawi Ministry of Health, and the Palliative Care Association of Malawi. He has also worked with the Global Health Program of the Department of Family & Community Medicine, University of Toronto.