In 2006 I met an enthusiastic Welsh anaesthetist, Anthony Lewis, whilst working together in an aeromedical retrieval job in Sydney.
13 years later I continue to work with Ant but in quite a different collaboration.
In 2011 whilst Lee and myself were just thinking about DevelopingEM, Ant and his team were well on the way into a commercial space with the ground-breaking medical simulation company iSimulate.
Right from the word go Ant and Peter McKie from iSimulate were supportive of DevelopingEM and Ant has been a member of our faculty in Sydney and Havana.
In 2016 Ant and Peter facilitated a much discounted simulation package for our colleagues in Sri Lanka which continues in a purpose built facility in the National Hospital in Colombo.
This year the iSimulate team have come through again with a cut price REALITi simulation Eco System for our colleagues in Fiji.
Our Fijian colleagues elected for a small registration charge for local delegates attending DEM2018 and it was with these funds that the iSimulate device was bought.
The new device was presented by Ant to Mafa Vakamocea (Director of the Fijian Organising Committee for DevelopingEM 2018) and will be handed over to Arveen Maharaj (Fijian member of the faculty for DEM2018) for use in Suva in clinical simulation and educational settings.
The device is accompanied by the usual excellent backup and support services offered by iSimulate and will be an educational tool for years to come.
Im a bit biased but I think many of you will agree that the iSimulate range of devices are amongst the most amazing pieces of simulation kit that has been developed in the last 20 years and we are very excited with the prospect of being able to expedite the delivery of such a wonderful device to our enthusiastic EM team in Fiji.
Thanks to Ant, Peter, Mafa, Arveen and Anne Creaton for making this happen.
With the second successful collaboration of this type with iSimulate, DevelopingEM has now made the future provision of iSimulate equipment to host country teams a standard part of our memorandum of understandings with the teams.
So an iSimulate for Colombia is now confirmed for 2020.
Join us in Cartagena to meet and learn from an equally enthusiastic team.