Tickets 
Travel Insurance
Cash and Cards
Conference Information?
Downloadable and Printable Programs, Maps and Guides are available here.
Its not always easy to get online or print documents in Cuba so use these resources before you go.
If you want to keep in contact with the other delegates during DEM2015 then ask Joachim Unger for the details of our Whatsapp group. Joachim can be contacted on Twitter @xaqu1n
Okay so we know you’re deep in the preparation stages for your upcoming trip to Cuba to join us for DevelopingEM 2015.
We’d just like to remind you of a couple of critical travel tips.
Travel to Cuba
As you know travel to Cuba is pretty easy, unless you’re coming from the USA.
For the Antipodeans we’d suggest going through Vancouver and Toronto. It might seem like the long way round but actually it’s only 3.5 hrs from Toronto to Havana. And you get your visa on the flight.
Europeans have got it easy with multiple flights from many origins going direct to Havana.
For those from the USA there are direct flight options from Miami and New York but our experience is that these are a pretty painful process. It’s actually easier to go through a third country and often these second flights have visa issue on board.
If you’re really struggling with your plans let us know and we’ll see what we can do to help.
Visas
All international delegates will require a visa to enter Cuba. Many airlines issue these visas either at check in or on board but it’s worth checking first. Applying for a visa can take as little as two weeks but we’d suggest you get cracking if you haven’t sorted this out already.
OFAC Approval
Official approval for US citizens to travel to Cuba is managed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The DevelopingEM conference, as an educational event, satisfies the general license requirements of OFAC regarding travel by US citizens to Cuba. More information on getting OFAC approval is available on our website and we do have some experts within our faculty who can guide you.
Travel Insurance
We would always strongly suggest you get travel insurance for any overseas journey.
In the case of travel to Cuba there is governmental advice that all tourists entering Cuba require Medical Travel Insurance provided by a company that is on a Cuban government approved list.
Country specific lists can be found with an online search.
Getting access to cash
One of the more frustrating aspects of travel to Cuba can be the difficulty accessing cash.
On a good day a non US visa debit card will be able to get cash from most Cuban ATMs but the success of this method varies almost by the day.
Buying items with credit card is becoming increasingly possible with non US visa cards and Mastercard. Other types of credit cards and indeed all credit cards linked to US banks will not work anywhere.
Cash is your best bet but again there are restrictions. All conversions of foreign currency engender a fee but the conversion of US dollars attracts a a larger fee. The best currency to exchange is probably the Euro. Australian dollars cannot be exchanged.
A good fall back is that cash advances may be obtained at banks, large hotels or Cadeca exchange houses against non US Visa and Mastercards.
In short have multiple options and a supply of exchangeable currency.
We look forward to seeing all of you very soon in wonderful Havana for what we hope will be the best conference of 2015.
Mary is a trauma and upper GI surgeon and Squadron Leader with the Royal Australian Air Force.
She is the head of trauma services for South Eastern Sydney and is the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons NSW State Committee Trauma Chair.
She has worked in military hospitals in Afghanistan, an experience that has placed her in good stead to lead a Major Trauma Centre trauma team.
She trained at Flinders University before tenures at Westmead and St George Hospitals in Sydney.
Her immediate aim is to see St George Hospital continue to develop into one of the premier trauma hospitals in NSW.
Lee and I love working with Mary as she will take our smashed up prehospital patients direct from the helicopter pad to the Operating Theatre.
This year Mary will be talking about Trauma in the Elderly but you can check her 2013 presentation on Advances in Trauma Resuscitation HERE
Listen to the audio HERE
DevelopingEM 2015 returns with all the elements that make our concept a favourite including;
Short Sharp Evidenced Based Clinically Relevant Presentations
Delivered by a Faculty beyond compare
Matt and Mike’s Renowned Ultrasound Podcast Workshop
Complete Sponsorship of 70 regional colleagues
Complete Absence of Pharmaceutical and Medical Device
Industry Involvement
Our Usual Amazing Social Events
And this year we have even more including;
Site visits to Cuban Health Facilities
NAEMSP Medical Directors Workshop
Cardiac Arrest Workshop delivered by Scott Weingart and the team from ED:ECMO
Presentation by ex-US Surgeon General Dr David Satcher
Come and join us in Havana for what will be one of the best conference of 2015 at an amazing time in Cuban history.
If you cant make it consider our Virtual Registration and Donation options.
Regan joined us in Salvador for DEM 2014 from Boston where she works as an emergency physician. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Whilst the rest of us are satisfied with some teaching and maybe publishing an article, Regan has been involved in not only building a whole hospital in Haiti, but also driving emergency medicine development and capacity building in the same country.
Her presentation on her work with Partners in Health (www.pih.org) in Haiti was inspiring.
Since then she hasn’t limited herself to redeveloping emergency medicine systems in one of the most disadvantaged countries in the Western hemisphere, she’s also been to Sierra Leone to assist the PIH efforts in Ebola management. What more can I say. She returns to DEM 2015 to help coordinate our Caribbean session with Lisa Charles from St Lucia, and she will be giving us an Update on EM in Haiti.
The DevelopingEM team is greatly honoured to have had DEM2015 receive the endorsement of the International Federation for Emergency Medicine (IFEM).
IFEM will be partnering with DEM to sponsor the attendance of Cuban and Caribbean delegates to the event and we are very grateful for the support.
Jim Holliman, the current President of IFEM, has been enthusiastically supportive of our endeavours from the start and has coordinated an amazingly dedicated group of emergency physicians to discuss their ventures around the globe during our Global EM session on the afternoon of Tuesday 15th of September.
With presenters discussing their experiences from India to Vanuatu this is sure to be a fascinating session.
Jim will be leading the session with a discussion on IFEM’s current activities. In 2013 he described the activities of IFEM and whilst there have been a few changes since then his presentation gives an excellent overview of the organization.
One of the core elements of DevelopingEM from the start has been ultrasound.
This is because ultrasound is now one of the core elements of modern clinical emergency medicine.
It is applicable to nearly every presentation in some fashion.
Point of care ultrasound enhances diagnostic and management strategies, as well as saving time, money and radiation.
At all of our previous conferences DevelopingEM has used workshops and presentations as teaching opportunities to expand our delegates’ skill base with this most important of skills.
This year apart from Matt and Mike’s workshop there will be a panel discussion on the Challenges of POCUS in Paediatric EM and Sahar Ahmad will be discussing POCUS in the Management of Undifferentiated Dyspnoea and Respiratory Failure.
So there will continue to be a big FOCUS on POCUS.
One of the best presentations from last year was by Charisse Kwan and Marcela Preto Zamperlini discussed aspects of Life Saving POCUS in the Paediatric ED.
Suzanne joined us in Salvador for DEM 2014 from Toronto, Canada where she is a Pediatric Emergency physician at The Hospital for Sick Children. Currently she is a co-director of both the PEM Fellowship Program as well as the Trauma Program at SickKids. Her academic interests include medical education in the area of injury prevention and control and system improvements within pediatric trauma activations, with an important focus on advocacy and knowledge translation of pediatric injury. She spends her free time hanging with her two lovely children and wonderful hubby, extended family and often paint and canvas.
She gave an outstanding presentation on the role of Tranexamic Acid in Paediatric Trauma and this year she will be speaking on Trauma Tips for Tots.
Click here to view her powerpoint
Click here to listen to her presentation
Mike has been one of our most avid supporters and tweeters since 2013. He wrote a lovely summary of his social experience in Havana during the last conference. It’s worth a read.
http://developingem.com/2014/03/03/the-year-of-the-cat-cuba-2013/
Mike’s an interesting character who after a run of several careers as a steelworker, EMT, military officer, metallurgical engineer and street musician, earned his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
He completed his Emergency Medicine residency at the University of Chicago and was Chief Aeromedical Resident at the University of Chicago Aeromedical Network.
He is the Chief Flight Physician with the University of Wisconsin’s Med Flight program as well as an associate professor and faculty with UW’s EM residency program.
He is a well known lecturer at many regional, national and international EM/EMS/HEMS conferences.
With a career spanning over 20 years and several thousand patient transports, Mike is one of the worlds most experienced helicopter flight physicians.
During DEM 2015 he will be presenting on PreHospital Haemorrhage Control.
To get an idea of what to expect here is Mike’s presentation on Burns Management from DEM 2013.
Click here to listen to his audio
