EDITOR’S DESK
Season’s Meetings
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here’s never been a more exciting time to be involved in international emergency medicine. As I penned this editorial to open the tenth edition of Emergency Physicians International, I walked through the list of exciting emergency medicine meetings and training events taking place around the world. There are literally too many to mention here, which is an incredibly exciting problem to have. The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia will have their usual annual national conferences, with international EM becoming a more prominent component of each of these. One American conference to highlight is the 2013 Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference called “Global Health and Emergency Care: A Research Agenda.” This will take place in conjunction with the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Annual Meeting on May 15, in Atlanta, Georgia. The second unique U.S. based conference to highlight is the 10th Annual New York Symposium on International Emergency Medicine, which will take place August 7-8 in New York City. Already this year international EM conferences have taken place in Venezuela, Vietnam, Singapore, The Philippines, Denmark and Sweden. The next few months will bring emergency care providers together in Belgium, Manchester, Marseilles, Cuba, Tokyo, Cape Town, Hong Kong and Germany. Trying to keep up with this exploding list is enough to make your head spin – and wear out your passport. To help you keep track of who is gathering where, and when, check out our events calendar on page 6, or online at www.epijournal.com/events. The International Federation for Emergency Medicine (IFEM) has been busy as well, surging forward with a range of activities. IFEM’s leadership has been pleased to add on a few new member societies, including the Philippines, Costa Rica, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Oman, Iraq, and Cuba. IFEM has developed and posted two useful landmark documents: “The Framework for Quality and Safety in the Emergency Department” and “The 2012 International Standards of Care for Children in Emergency Departments.” There are multiple IFEM task forces working on additional training documents and resources, so check back to epijournal.com and ifem.cc to find out the latest. To assist with these projects, IFEM is seeking expressions of interest for people to join its Pediatric EM Special Interest Group, Disaster Medicine Special Interest Group, Efficacy of Emergency Medicine Taskforce, Specialty Society Development Task Force, and its Categorisation and Rating of EM Websites Taskforce. If you’ve been wanting to get more involved in the logistics of international emergency medicine, now could be an excellent time to start. Bringing all of these new developments together is the ever-expanding EPI Network, which now boasts more than 1,900 physician members from more than 100 countries. If you haven’t yet, check out EPI online and you’ll find a wealth of information and opportunities. And if you know of an important international event or program I’ve not included here, then use the EPI network to publicize it. As you can see, there is quite a lot of activity going on this year in international EM and your opportunities to participate are almost unlimited!
C. James Holliman, MD, FACEP, FIFEM editorial director
The International Federation for Emergency Medicine (IFEM) has been busy as well, surging forward with a range of activities. IFEM’s leadership has been pleased to add on a few new member societies, including the Philippines, Costa Rica, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Oman, Iraq, and Cuba.
Cuba Enters Global EM Conversation Amphetamine Abuse in Saudi Arabian EDs Healthcare at the World’s Largest Gathering Design: The Power of Observation Units EMERGENCY PHYSICIANS INTERNATIONAL
ISSUE 10
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SPRING 2013
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LIFE FLIGHT When a devastating night club fire in southern Brazil killed and injured hundreds, emergency workers from nearby Porto Alegre took flight. Once the beds in Santa Maria were full, it took 92 trips by military aircraft to transport victims of the fire to Porto Alegre.
global snapshot – Readers from 25 countries share reimbursement challenges the med – A Mediterranean diet is among the most life-saving post-MI interventions
ABOUT EPI With a quarterly print and digital distribution and an online network of more than 1,900 members, EPI is the essential hub connecting global emergency care, sparking dialogue and creating a space for new collaborations. Find copies of the print magazine at international EM conferences around the world, or read it online at www.epijournal.com
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