Home Contact Member Login Sitemap
Official Website of the Asian Association for EMS
 

EMS Asia 2012

Conference Report  

The Asian EMS Council's 1st ever Asian Conference on Emergency Medical Services, exclusively dedicated to EMS was held at the beautiful Malaysian city of Penang. Packed with 3 sets of parallel sessions and many plenaries and pre-conference workshops, the conference rose above the ordinary. Despite its tight schedule, the faculties and delegates never felt stressed out. The secret lay in the fact that it was all so new – lectures and topics. And it was all so cutting edge!

The beautiful Bayview Beach Resort, the heritage and culture of Penang, the alternating rain and sun, the exotic cuisine and the ever smiling Teo Howe and Sarah Abdul Karim, the Organising Chair and the Scientific Chair just added the right flavour to this inaugural Asian Conference, laying down standards that will be difficult to match for future conferences.

23 nations were represented, with Eastern and South Eastern Asian countries dominating the 4 day event – the main conference being held on 10th and 11th of September; India was also there, represented by Angel Rajan Singh and Subroto Das as invited speakers. All faculties, nearing 50, were given 2 lectures each, a decision, when seen in retrospect was a great one by the Scientific Committee since most had traveled across the Asian continent to be there; Indian conferences need to learn from this.

The Scientific Committee of the Conference, chaired by Sarah Abdul Karim, tried its best and succeeded in creating a separate space for EMS. Overlap with core EM was very infrequent and if it did, it was unavoidable.

EMS ASIA 2012 featured plenary sessions and key tracks on Major Incident Management, Paramedic Training for the Future, Resuscitation, Ambulance Safety and Ergonomics, Medical, Trauma, Mass Gathering Medical Coverage, EMS Systems around Asia, Emergency Dispatch, Paramedic Training and Protocols. 

As is the trend with medical conferences worldwide, there were pre-conference workshops stretching over 2 days prior to the conference proper. These included EMS Leaders and Medical Directors Workshop, Advanced Life Support Providers Course, Patient Care and Manual Handling Workshop and Wilderness First Aid Workshop.

The innovativeness of the conference can be best exemplified in the Wilderness Workshop. Held in the rainforests that backdrop Penang, the trainees were given an experience of real life emergency situations in the wild.

Day 1

“This is  the first conference, as far as I can recollect where the first 2 speakers happened to be ladies”, is how  Nadine Levick, Research Director, EMS Safety Foundation, summed up the Organising Committee's attempt to ring in a difference, while delivering her talk in the first plenary on 'Life First, Safety Second? The Neglected Aspect in EMS'.

Her talk followed the keynote address of the conference, by  Sabariah Faizah Jamaluddin, National Head of Emergency Medical and Trauma Services, Ministry of Health Malaysia, who spoke on the challenges and the successes of ‘Delivering Quality Care - Transformation of PHC in Malaysia’.

The opening ceremony was very refreshing too, devoid of pomp and splendour but very effective in its content. No politicians were allowed to have their shadow imprinted on the conference.

The afternoon started with more parallel tracks; the common thread, running through all, was the importance given to Ambulance Safety and Ergonomics that featured in 3 sets of parallel tracks during the conference. The theme of this ambulance track – ‘Designing an Ambulance’ was an eye opening input for ambulance users. The other track was on 'Transporting Children'; the topics were related to pre-hospital care EMS, which clearly underlined the justification of a stand-alone EMS conference since most EM conferences deal with paediatric emergencies in ED settings. 

penang 

Two good plenaries followed: 'Lesson Identified Lesson Learned' where Prof Dato Sri  Abu Hassan Asaari Abdullah analysed ambulance crashes of 2011; this was followed by a set of plenaries sponsored by Zoll. 

The venerable Prof H Tanaka from Japan gave insights into ‘Achieving High Quality and Safe CPR in EMS Setting; Japanese Experience’ while Greg Mears delved on ‘The Impact of Road Safety on Clinical Care’ and Stuart Mallory, on ‘The Eco-Friendly approach to Safety in EMS’

The day ended with another set of parallel tracks, the most interesting being ‘Career Advancement in Paramedics’ titled 'I want to be a Paramedic' showcasing career opportunities and challenges, in the backdrop of the evolving role of paramedics globally.

Day 2

Day 2 began with 3 plenaries. The 1st one by Matthew Strethlow, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery/Emergency Medicine, Director, Clinical Decision Unit, Co-Director Stanford EM International, Stanford University Emergency Dept, Division of Emergency Medicine, enlightened the 400 strong audience on ‘Do I really need that, cutting cost to improve pre-hospital care?’ followed by a very informative one by Prof Marcus Ong of Singapore on 'Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation in the Ambulance – High Quality CPR?'. Chih Hao Lin of Taiwan focussed on ‘Major Incident Management--Experiences in Taiwan.’

There were 3 parallel tracks in the pre-lunch session. The resuscitation track was unique in its content in the context of pre-hospital care EMS appropriately titled, 'Resuscitation in Ambulance – Quality and Safety'. Topics included 'Arrest during Transport, Stop and Resuscitate, Methods in Performing CPR in Ambulance – The Safety Factor and Therapeutic Hypothermia’  all during transportation.

The track on ‘EMS Development in Asia’ showcased the progress in India, Singapore and Malaysia. Associate Prof S Mahadevan from Stanford University detailed out the 108 model in his lecture, 'EMS on the Indian Subcontinent - How we got to the Number One?' The Medical track was as thought provoking as was its theme: ‘Creative and Dynamic in Providing Care’. Matthew Strehlow presented his lessons learnt with regard to 'International EMS Research', while Nausheen Doctor from Singapore spoke on the 'EMS Activated Emergency Cardiac Care Research’. Subroto Das from India spoke on a much needed intervention – 'Indian Scenario of Transporting the Aggressive Altered Mental State Patient'.

Post lunch, the 8th plenary was on Ergonomics of Patient Care – 'Design and Care – What, How and Why?'  by Chris Fitzgerald, Consultant Ergonomist, Risk & Injury Management Services  from Australia. The 9th plenary on ‘Paramedic Training - Future’ was addressed by Mahadevan who delved on 'Cutting Edge Innovations – International EMS Education'. A parallel track on ‘Paramedic Training’ followed with experience sharing from within Asian and from across the world.

Awards

The Scientific Paper presentation was a momentous one for India; Shukanto Das picked up the 3rd prize for his paper on 'Inadequacies in First Aid Training in Schools - A 3 Year Study'. Not even 18, he perhaps, became the youngest ever to win a prize in a paper/ poster competition at an International EM/EMS conference.

 penang-award

The 1st prize was picked up by Maeve Pek Pin Pek of Singapore for her paper on, 'Nationwide Improvement of Door to Balloon Times in Patients with Acute STEMI Requiring Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Using Pre Hospital 12 Lead ECG Recording and Transmission'; the 2nd prize went to the Japanese presenter Hiro Takahashi for his paper on, 'Comparison of Effective CPR Training on Lay-Person '.

The conference ended as it started; in a simple yet effective manner. The closing ceremony was followed by 2 key meetings – PAROS and the Asian EMS Council meeting.

The Organising Committee chaired by the ever smiling, Teo Aik Howe can pride itself for having put up such an impressive show. For once, there was no complaining faculty or a bitter delegate. The loftiness of the entire conference, the idea behind it, the heights the scientific program scaled in the 4 days and the summits it touched was only overshadowed by the Penang Hills that towered over the city.

The next conference in Singapore and the following one in 2014 in India will have to match the high standards that Marcus Ong, Teo Howe, Khoo Giap, Sarah Abdul Karim and their team set in Penang. A difficult task, it is going to be for sure!

 

EMSINDIA Edit Team

 

Journal of EMS Medicine

 

News

Events

All | Archive
 
 

Knowledge Corner

 
 

Gallery

Keep me updated

Enter your email