Congratulations to Portugal on the Approval of the Specialty of Emergency Medicine

The European Society for Emergency Medicine would like to congratulate the Sociedade Portuguesa de Medicina de Urgência e Emergência on obtaining approval for Emergency Medicine to become a specialty in Portugal.

On 23rd  September 2024, the Assembly of Representatives of the Order of Physicians (OM) approved the new specialty of  Emergency and Urgent Care Medicine. This follows tremendous work by the Portuguese Society in lobbying for the specialty.

The objective now is to start training Emergency Medicine Specialists in early 2025.  A Commission will be setup to see which hospitals can accommodate trainees and the Ministry of Health will be informed so that vacancies can be published as soon as November.

“This is a great day for Emergency Medicine in Europe. Following the recent successes of Spain and the Netherlands, Portugal has continued the drive to have the specialty accepted across the whole of Europe,” said Dr Jim Connolly, President of the European Society for Emergency Medicine. “We are very proud to support the Portuguese Society. We congratulate them on a fantastic outcome, recognising it has been the result of incredible work by the society.”

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More abstracts selected for oral presentation at EUSEM 2024

The number of abstracts submitted for presentation at EUSEM 2024 is back to pre-COVID levels according to chair of the congress abstract selection committee, Dr Barbra Backus.

A total of 1228 abstracts were submitted by the main submission deadline on 7 May, and the committee chose 166 for oral presentation, 49 for eposters with five-minute oral presentations (moderated posters) and 839 for presentation as eposters.

 

Dr Barbra Backus MD

Barbra, who has been a member of the abstract selection committee for five years and is also an associate editor of the European Journal of Emergency Medicine, says: “We had a very good number of submissions, and the quality of the research is certainly good.”

 

This year, the committee is trying a different approach for the abstract presentations in order to mitigate the problem of having large numbers of moderated posters during the breaks between scientific sessions when the attention of participants is often divided between posters, socialising, networking and visiting the exhibition.

“We decided to increase the number of orals and have fewer moderated posters in the hope of improving well-deserved attention for the presenters,” she said. “We have a ‘Best Abstracts’ session on Monday 14 October between 09:00 and 10:30 that is really important. This is for abstracts of high-quality, which have been highly rated during the abstract selection process because of their good methodology, a good sample size, or because they are interesting and very relevant for a broad spectrum of emergency physicians. But of course, all the abstract sessions will be important and interesting for different reasons.

“This year we’ve seen a few more abstracts submitted on artificial intelligence, environmental topics, ‘green’ emergency departments and pollution, which are all important topics. Then there are abstracts on recurring themes such as biomarkers, cardiovascular emergency medicine, geriatrics, neurology and paediatrics that, together with things like trauma care, resuscitation, risk stratification and ultrasound, are all part of our core business. Almost all of these important topics fill at least one full session with abstracts.”

Barbra, who is an emergency physician in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, is now encouraging researchers to submit late breaking abstracts (LBAs) to the congress between 16 and 23 September. She expects approximately 100 to be submitted and about six will be selected for oral presentation.

“Late breaking abstracts need to be innovative, not just an abstract that, for instance, is mainstream, that could have been submitted three months ago but the researchers were too late with their analysis so are submitting as late-breaking. Late-breaking should be ground-breaking. We are keen to see multi-centre abstracts on innovative medicine that is applicable to emergency medicine and physicians, and that can make an impact on the quality of health care provided in emergency departments.”

Barbra concludes: “We have a really good and interesting programme for EUSEM 2024. Although the bigger sessions, with keynote speakers, tend to attract larger audiences, people may be surprised that the oral abstract sessions are just as important in terms of the research quality, innovation and newsworthiness. These studies are our knowledge and practice of the future.”

 

View the programme here

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Scam Alert

We regret to inform you that some registrants have reported receiving scam attempts from the following emails address: info"at"eusemconference.org or booking"at"gtravelmanagement.com requesting contact and passport details.

We want to emphasise that EUSEM 2024 is entirely organised by EUSEM. In addition, registrants are required to create an email account on our secure “MyEUSEM” platform to register for our congress. We will never request your personal details and payment via email or over the phone.

The only legit mail domain are:

  • mcocongres.com
  • eusem.org
  • eusemcongress.org

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EMERGENCY MEDICINE is finally a recognised specialty in Spain, on 2 July 2024

EUSEM is delighted to announce the official recognition of the Emergency Medicine specialty in Spain, granted on 2 July 2024.
 
We extend our congratulations to our colleagues in Spain and SEMES for achieving this remarkable milestone after years of campaigning and advocating the imperative need to recognise this specialty.
 
Read SEMES Press release:
 
On Tuesday, 2nd July 2024, the Council of Ministers has given the green light to the Royal Decree establishing Emergency Medicine as a recognised specialty in Spain. 
 
This finally resolves the Spanish anomaly and aligns Spain with the rest of the European Union countries and the majority of the international community.
 
This measure will help standardise the training of our emergency doctors, and the first RID (resident internal doctors) places are set to start next year.
 
The Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine -SEMES- announces that today (on 2nd July 2024) the Council of Ministers of the Government of Spain has approved the Royal Decree establishing the speciality of Emergency Medicine in our country. 
 
SEMES' president, Dr. Tato Vázquez Lima, has declared that today is a momentous day for our country's healthcare. Today is a day of satisfaction and joy for all emergency physicians who finally see their efforts, vocation, and dedication recognised. Dr. Vázquez Lima expressed deep and sincere gratitude for their unwavering work and perseverance. 
 
Dr. Vázquez Lima thanked "the Government of President Sánchez, the Minister of Health, Mónica García, all the presidents of the seventeen autonomous communities, mayors, all the political forces, the medical associations and scientific societies. "Their collaborative efforts and altruism for the greater good have led to the agreement facilitating the establishment of Emergency Medicine as a recognised specialty in Spain". 
 
"With the official recognition of the Speciality of Emergency Medicine. The Spanish Government ensures that all Spanish patients receive emergency care from specialised professionals who have received regulated, standardised, and recognised training. This is what all citizens of our country deserve, regardless of their location."  
 
The approval of the Speciality of Emergency Medicine also serves to support and retain young professionals who aspire to specialise in this field. Thus addressing the terrible ongoing issue of brain drain that has been weakening our National Health Care System.
 
With the approval of the Speciality of Emergency Medicine, Spain aligns with most of the countries of the European Union which, for years, have had this medical speciality as part of their healthcare systems. Thus facilitating the transition of professionals from related professions, guaranteeing they receive the relevant training based on their specialty.  
 
Finally, the president of SEMES emphasised that "with the recognition of the speciality, we will be able to contribute to the improvement of Human Resources planning, which is essential for the sustainability of our National Health System". 
 
Find the original Spanish version on SEMES' website.

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The Syncope Core Management Process in the Emergency Department: Consensus Statement

The EUSEM Syncope Group have published a consensus statement in the European Journal of Emergency Medicine on the general process of the workup and care for patients with suspected syncope, providing rules for sufficient and systematic management of the broad group of syncope (initially presenting as TLOC) patients in the ED. A variety of European diagnostic and therapeutic standards for syncope patients were reviewed and summarized in three rounds of a modified Delphi process by the European Society for Emergency Medicine Syncope Group. Based on a consensus statement, a detailed process pathway was created. The primary outcome of this work is the presentation of a universal process pathway for the structured management of syncope patients in European EDs. The presented extended event process chain (eEPC) summarizes and homogenizes the process management of European ED syncope patients. Additionally, an exemplary translation of the eEPC into a practice-based flowchart algorithm, which can be used as an example for practical use in the ED, is provided in this work. Syncope patients, initially presenting with TLOC, are common and pose challenges in the ED. Despite variations in process management across Europe, the development of a universally applicable syncope eEPC in the ED was successfully achieved. Key features of the consensus and eEPC include ruling out life-threatening causes, distinguishing syncope from nonsyncopal TLOCs, employing syncope risk stratification categories and based on this, making informed decisions regarding admission or discharge.

Click here to read the full statement here.

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