and so as soon as i got down there, dr. conte wanted me to learn about about lassa and the best way to do that was to be in the lassa ward. now, dr. conte and i developed a very close relationship. he was a mentor to me. he was -- actually by american standards he wasn't really particularly old. he was only in his late 50s to early 60s. but in that part of africa, that was about as old as anybody ever got. so in their eyes and also, i think, a little bit from having gone through all of the disease burden that is in that portion of africa, he really did kind of seem even a little bit older than that. and he and i developed that typical mentor/meantee relationship showing me all the knowledge he had learned over his long life treating lassa patients. and so i worked under his tutlage at the ward. one of the patients that really struck me -- one of the first patients that i saw there and i think those of us in medicine can say that sometimes the first time you see something it really touches you the most. it was a young child who wa

before that, i would like to book is dedicated to dr. conte who was a friend and a mentor and a true humanitarian so i always like to mention that at the talks. if anyone has questions because of the filming, please use the microphone and please have a question. >> what kind of work are you doing now and how does your experience relate to what you're doing there? >> thank you. currently, since writing the book and being back, my humanitarian work currently is mostly in iraq. i go back and forth about every other month. i'm helping to set up the emergency medical system there essentially. you would think in iraq that they would have a functioning emergency and trauma care system but before this last year essentially they didn't really have much of anything there. and with a medical group called the international medical corps which is in santa monica as well we're helping to start the ambulance system. we'll have several hundred doctors trained in emergency medicine over this next year and upwards of 700 paramedics and so forth on the ambulance