This year’s Irish Association for Emergency Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) took place at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Athlone on Thursday and Friday last. It was hosted by Emergency Medicine (EM) team from the Midlands and set a new records for the number of delegates who came from all over the island of Ireland.
The extensive academic programme featured dedicated nursing, paediatric EM, major incident and prehospital care tracks; a compendium of state-of-the-art talks; hosted the final of the nursing and NCHD SimWars competition and was also addressed by the recently appointed HSE CEO, Bernard Gloster. The programme showcased presentations reflecting the extensive research portfolio within Irish emergency care and was brought to a close with the 2023 Leo Vella Lecture which was delivered by Dr Gerry McCarthy, currently National Clinical Lead for the HSE’s Emergency Medicine Programme and widely acknowledged as a long-time visionary in Irish Emergency Medicine.
Other notable events at the ASM were the launch of the eLearning programme for the Emergency Medicine Early Warning System (EMEWS) and the re-election of Prof. Conor Deasy to lead the Association for a second term. For those who may be unfamiliar with it, EMEWS is the first bespoke national Early Warning System developed to recognise and respond to patient clinical deterioration given the particular casemix and unique environment of an Emergency Department (ED). It was designed, developed, piloted and validated in Ireland and later given a Ministerial mandate to be implemented by the HSE.
In addition to the excellent academic programme, the event featured an extensive social programme culminating in the Gala Dinner which brought together the full cross section of participants in Irish Emergency Medicine in a very convivial environment.
The Association acknowledges the work of its Administrator, Claire Briant; its ASM Lead, Dr Alan Watts; the Midlands Team under the chairmanship of Prof. Robert Eager and the many volunteers whose work made the conference the best yet. It also recognises the efforts of those who manned Ireland’s 28 Emergency Departments while the 2023 conference was going on and looks forward to the next ASM which will be held in Killarney in October 2024.
Download: IAEM Press Release noting setting of new records at the excellent IAEM ASM 2023 in Athlone
