GMKA Highlights Ukraine’s Progress in Advancing ATLS and Calls for Stronger International Collaboration in Trauma Care

Global Medical Knowledge Alliance (GMKA) presented Ukraine’s progress in implementing Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) and outlined the next steps for expanding the program at the ATLS European Association Annual Meeting, held September 4–5, 2026, in Stockholm, Sweden.

The meeting brought together ATLS leaders from across Europe to advance training standards, instructor development, program growth, and international collaboration. The discussions focus on strengthening trauma systems and improving outcomes for patients with life-threatening injuries. 

Yuliia Skop, ATLS National Coordinator for Ukraine and Chief Strategy Officer at GMKA, presented Ukraine’s experience with implementing and expanding ATLS. She highlighted the significant capacity already built across the country, the unique challenges of delivering ATLS training during the full-scale war, and the priorities for expanding the program nationwide.

“Our long-term goal is to make certified ATLS training accessible to more Ukrainian physicians and build a system in which instructors trained in Ukraine can pass this knowledge on to others,” said Skop. “That is how training individual professionals becomes a system-wide capacity to provide faster, more coordinated care for patients with severe injuries and ultimately save more lives.” 

During the war, Ukrainian medical teams routinely care for patients with severe and multiple injuries. In this context, ATLS provides a shared, structured approach to the initial assessment and early management of trauma patients. Developed by the American College of Surgeons (ACS), the program combines standardized clinical algorithms with hands-on training to support rapid, coordinated care across different stages of the trauma pathway.

In Ukraine, ATLS is being implemented through a large-scale GMKA initiative in close collaboration with the American College of Surgeons, Mass General Brigham, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, and Harvard Medical School.

The work is focused not simply on delivering more courses, but on institutionalizing ATLS in Ukraine and building the infrastructure needed for a sustainable training system. To date, more than 770 ATLS providers and 33 certified Ukrainian instructors have been trained. To understand where and how the program can expand, GMKA assessed 71 healthcare facilities and conducted audits of 15 potential training centers across nine Ukrainian cities.

Training is progressing alongside this system-building work. Two training cycles were delivered in 2026: the first, held with WHO, trained 47 participants; the second, supported by Razom for Ukraine, brought together 40 military medical professionals. 

GMKA has also expanded access to ATLS educational resources in Ukrainian. The team translated and published the first ACS-authorized Ukrainian edition of the ATLS 10th Edition manual in 2022. Three hundred printed copies were distributed free of charge to Ukrainian physicians, and the digital version has received more than 40,000 views. The Ukrainian translation of the 11th Edition has now been completed.

“To continue this work, we need international colleagues who are willing to share their expertise, train Ukrainian physicians, and help strengthen Ukraine’s own capacity. At the same time, this is a two-way exchange: the international community can also learn from Ukrainian medical professionals, who have gained unique experience managing trauma in the context of modern warfare,” said Yuliia Skop.

Building a sustainable training system during an active war also requires adapting to conditions on the ground.

“Training continues even under constant threat. During one of the courses in 2026, the training setup was moved into a shelter in advance, allowing the course to continue during prolonged air-raid alerts. Ukrainian instructors are working alongside international faculty and gradually taking on greater responsibility for course delivery,” Skop said.

The practical nature of ATLS is particularly important because trauma care knowledge can otherwise remain fragmented across different areas of medical education.

“Some principles and components of severe trauma care are already part of medical training in Ukraine, but the knowledge is often fragmented across different disciplines, without a single structured algorithm or enough hands-on practice. A physician may understand a critical intervention in theory but may never have performed it, even in simulation. When that situation occurs for the first time at the bedside, there is no time to stop, consult a textbook, or determine who should do what. ATLS brings this knowledge together into a clear sequence of actions, allows clinicians to practice complex scenarios in a safe environment, and gives them the confidence to make decisions during the first critical minutes,” said Mariia Matvieienko, MD, PhD, an anesthesiologist from Kharkiv and an ATLS instructor in Ukraine.

The next priorities include preparing additional Ukrainian instructors and course directors, expanding access to ATLS across the country, establishing an ACS Chapter in Ukraine, and exploring integration of ATLS into training requirements for healthcare professionals and trauma centers.

Participation in the ATLS European Association Annual Meeting supports this next phase by connecting GMKA with international ATLS centers and instructors who can contribute expertise to Ukraine’s growing national capacity, while creating opportunities to share Ukrainian clinicians’ wartime trauma experience with the broader international community.