Amazing things keep happening in St Lucia as a result of connections made during DevelopingEM 2013. Here’s a letter from our friend and colleague Lisa Charles to explain the latest news.
Victoria Hospital in Castries St. Lucia hosted our first ever Basic PICU course, May 20th to 21st, under the leadership of Drs. Elena Cavazzoni and Bruce Lister. The course was a resounding success with participants expressing renewed commitment and energy as they returned to work driven to implement the new information and techniques which will change their practice.
It all began with a casual conversation during the Developing EM conference in Cuba less than one year ago where Elena asked Caribbean delegates what they thought of having the PICU course taught locally. The power of networking within international conferences such as Developing EM where people meet face to face to learn of and appreciate the challenges of EM in the developing world first hand can not be understated. Nor can the commitment of groups such as the Paeds Basic instructor group and Ultrasound Podcast who self finance these trips to make a difference.
A special thank you goes out from all twenty eight participants in St. Lucia and the many patients who will benefit from the information imparted to us through this most recent spin off of the Developing EM network.
Thanks to those instructors who travelled from around the world: Dr. Peter Skippen, Dr. Nga Pham, Dr. Bruce Lister, Dr. Elena Cavazzoni, Chris Barstow and our newly trained regional trainers Dr. Kandamaran Kishnamurthy, Dr. Joanne Bradford and Dr. Martin Plummer. Special thanks also to Dr. Michele Lashley, University of the West Indies, Barbados for all the work in pulling the course together.