Managing critically ill children is one of the most challenging aspects of emergency medicine.
They compensate—until they don’t. They deteriorate rapidly. And for many clinicians, they present infrequently enough to erode confidence, yet commonly enough that the stakes remain high.
At DevelopingEM 2026 in Saint Lucia, the Paeds BASIC Workshop has been deliberately positioned as one of the cornerstone educational experiences of the entire conference.
This is not simply another paediatric course.
It is a bridge between emergency medicine and paediatric intensive care.
Where Paeds BASIC Comes From
The origins of Paeds BASIC lie in the highly successful BASIC (Basic Assessment and Support in Intensive Care) course, developed in Hong Kong in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The original BASIC course was designed to solve a universal problem:
Critically ill patients are often managed initially by clinicians who are not intensivists.
It focused on:
Practical bedside care
Physiological understanding
Structured approaches to early critical illness
And it spread globally because it worked.
But a gap remained.
Why a Paediatric Version Was Needed
Despite the availability of courses like APLS and PALS, clinicians still faced a major challenge:
Resuscitation courses focus on the first 10–15 minutes
ICU training is too specialised and inaccessible
Real-world care requires hours of structured management
In reality:
Most critically ill children are managed initially by emergency clinicians, generalists, or rural doctors
Many clinicians feel least confident in paediatric ventilation, shock, and ongoing critical care
Paeds BASIC was developed to fill that gap.
What Makes Paeds BASIC Different
Paeds BASIC is built on a simple but powerful idea:
Teach clinicians how to manage the critically ill child beyond the resuscitation phase.
1. It Bridges ED and ICU
This is not an algorithm course.
It focuses on:
Ongoing management
Clinical reasoning
Anticipation of deterioration
2. It Is Physiology-Driven
Rather than memorising protocols, participants learn:
Why children respond the way they do
How to interpret clinical signs
How to adjust management dynamically
3. It Is Highly Practical
The course uses:
Rotating small-group skill stations
Repeated hands-on exposure
Case-based discussion
Ensuring learning is:
Active
Retained
Clinically usable
4. It Is Globally Relevant
Paeds BASIC is used across:
High-income ICUs
Regional hospitals
Developing health systems
Because it teaches:
Principles that apply anywhere
The DevelopingEM 2026 Paeds BASIC Experience
At DevelopingEM, Paeds BASIC is delivered as a two-day immersive workshop, running across the preconference weekend.
The program reflects the full scope of paediatric critical care in emergency settings.
Day 1: Foundations of the Critically Ill Child
The first day builds a structured approach to paediatric critical illness:
Assessment of the seriously ill child
Acute respiratory failure
Mechanical ventilation: basics and modes
Fluids and resuscitation
Crisis resource management
Participants rotate through hands-on skills sessions covering:
Acid-base interpretation
Resuscitation
Analgesia and sedation
Mechanical ventilation strategies
This is where confidence begins to build.
Day 2: Advanced Management and Integration
The second day moves into high-stakes clinical care:
Airway management
Shock and septic shock
Trauma
Neurological emergencies and TBI
Renal failure
Again, rotating skills sessions reinforce:
Ventilation (advanced modes)
Shock assessment
Vascular access
Airway techniques
The course culminates in:
Integrated transport and simulation-style exercises
Consolidating knowledge into real-world practice
Why This Course Matters More Than Ever
Emergency medicine is changing.
Increasingly, clinicians are expected to:
Manage critically ill children for longer
Initiate advanced therapies earlier
Work in environments without immediate ICU backup
At the same time:
Paediatric ICU access remains limited in many regions
Workforce gaps persist globally
Complexity of care continues to increase
Paeds BASIC directly addresses this reality.
What You Take Back to Your Department
After completing Paeds BASIC, clinicians consistently report:
Greater confidence managing sick children
Improved structure in assessment and treatment
Better understanding of ventilation and shock
Increased ability to anticipate deterioration
Most importantly:
You become more comfortable in the moments that matter most.
Why It Fits DevelopingEM
The ethos of Paeds BASIC aligns perfectly with DevelopingEM:
Practical, not theoretical
Globally applicable
Focused on real patients, not ideal systems
Delivered in Saint Lucia, alongside clinicians from across the world, the course also offers:
Perspective
Collaboration
Shared learning across different healthcare environments
Who Should Attend
This course is ideal for:
Emergency physicians
Trainees
Rural and regional clinicians
Acute care practitioners
Particularly those who:
Manage paediatric patients infrequently
Feel less confident with paediatric critical care
Want a structured, practical framework
Final Thought
Paeds BASIC is not about becoming a paediatric intensivist.
It is about becoming:
Safer
More confident
More effective
In the care of critically ill children—wherever you work.
Join Us in Saint Lucia
The Paeds BASIC workshop is one of the most sought-after components of DevelopingEM 2026, with limited places to preserve its small-group, high-impact learning environment.
We are committed to supporting the attendance of local and regional clinicians and half of our delegate group for Paeds Basic will be emergency practitioners from the region.
If paediatric critical care is an area you want to improve—this is where to do it.
AND
If you want to learn and collaborate with clinicians from the Caribbean committed to excellence in PEM—this is the workshop for you.
If you’ve been to one of our previous conferences, you’ll already know this — but if you haven’t, it’s worth saying clearly: The workshops are where a lot of the real learning happens.
Not because the plenaries aren’t strong — they are — but because emergency medicine is a practical discipline. And the only way to genuinely improve is to get into the detail, work through cases, and refine how you actually think and act in the department.
That’s exactly what we’ve built for DevelopingEM 2026 in Saint Lucia.
One of the consistent bits of feedback we’ve had over the years is that experienced clinicians don’t want basic content.
They want:
nuance
decision-making frameworks
pattern recognition
ways to avoid mistakes
So that’s what these workshops are designed around.
Advanced Emergency Ultrasound (2 days)
Run by the Alfred Health team, this is not a “how to hold the probe” course.
This is about:
integrating cardiac, lung and abdominal ultrasound
using ultrasound to guide decision-making in real time
managing uncertainty when findings aren’t clean
If you already use ultrasound and want to actually level up, this is where you do it.
Adult Emergency Medicine & Critical Care Brian Wright and the team from Stonybrook return with high level talks on bridging the gap between the ER and the ICU.
Brian has been with us since 2014 and his team of experts will be again covering critical care management across the spectrum from asthma to tox to scape to sepsis and much more.
Always one of the best sessions of DevelopingEM.
Paediatric Emergency Medicine & Critical Care April Kam from McMaster returns as well with a team or paediatric critical care specialists from across North America.
This year will cover the latest PEM evidence as well as covering topic areas all the way from the febrile child, to Paediatric POCUS and the management of Respiratory Failure.
The track will also include fascinating paediatric insights from our host country, Saint Lucia.
Trauma Neil Ballard is arguably the most experienced prehospital and retrieval physician in Australasia and this year he leads our trauma medicine track. Along with a group of trauma surgeons and critical care clinicians, he will lead discussions in some of the controversies of current trauma management, from transfusion to prehospital thoracotomy, this track has it all.
And then there are the
Afternoon Experiential Tracks:
Emergency Medicine in Saint Lucia This track centres on the host nation and will be led by local experts. Expect discussion around: • Workflow realities • Staffing models • Governance • Locally driven innovation
Emergency Medicine in the Region This session creates space for regional delegates (that your registration payment has supported to attend) to present practical experiences from across the Caribbean.
International Emergency Medicine Nat Thurtle (with us since 2012) returns with a team to share experiences of developing systems from around the globe. Always a highlight it will be amazing to have Nat back.
Paeds BASIC (2 Days) Paeds BASIC is NOT an introductory paediatric course. It is a two-day program designed to extend emergency paediatric skills to the intensive care level. It builds beyond APLS and focuses on structured recognition, physiological understanding, and escalation pathways for critically ill children. Participants will work through advanced respiratory failure, circulatory shock, congenital and cardiac pathology, neurological emergencies, and crisis resource management. The course emphasises disciplined assessment, team communication, and stabilisation in environments where PICU access may be limited or delayed. This is a significant step above standard life support training — aimed at clinicians who already manage children but want to elevate care to a higher systems and physiological level.
Advanced Emergency Ultrasound (2 Days) This two-day advanced course is designed for emergency physicians who already use point-of-care ultrasound and want to move beyond basic scanning. Run by the Alfred Health team, the workshop focuses on advanced integration of ultrasound into decision-making. Expect in-depth work on shock protocols, advanced cardiac assessment, procedural optimisation, and refining diagnostic accuracy in complex presentations. The emphasis is not on image acquisition alone — but on how ultrasound changes management. Participants should leave with sharper image interpretation skills and a more disciplined framework for integrating POCUS into real-time emergency decisions.
Radiology Interpretation This workshop is designed for the working emergency physician who relies daily on X-rays, CT scans, and ultrasounds — often before formal radiology interpretation is available. The focus is practical and high-yield: • Subtle but critical X-ray findings • Early CT signs of life-threatening pathology • Novel bedside ultrasound options Quick tips, structured review strategies, and pattern recognition refinement form the backbone of this session. The aim is simple: reduce misses and increase diagnostic confidence.
ECG Interpretation Similar in philosophy to the radiology workshop, this ECG session is built for clinicians who already read ECGs regularly but want to tighten their system. The workshop emphasises: • Systematic interpretation under time pressure • Recognising high-risk but subtle ischaemic patterns • Differentiating dangerous mimics • Avoiding premature closur This is not basic ECG teaching. It is about discipline, consistency, and eliminating avoidable error in cardiac emergencies.
Saint Lucian & Regional Delegate Workshops Two workshops are specifically designed to strengthen local and regional system development and it is your registration fees that are allowing these to occur. Emergency Nursing Focused on triage optimisation, resuscitation leadership, and interdisciplinary coordination, this workshop recognises that emergency system performance depends on nursing leadership and structured team function. It addresses workflow control, crisis communication, and practical leadership strategies within resource-variable environments. EMS System Management Workshop This workshop focuses on prehospital system development and governance. It is aimed at strengthening system reliability across the entire emergency care pathway — from first contact to definitive management.
So that’s it another fabulous program for clinicians who already practise emergency medicine daily and want to refine judgment, elevate skill, and strengthen systems.
We’re back — not to repeat what you already know — but to sharpen how you deliver it.
DevelopingEM has a different model to most conferences.
Right from the start we wanted to donate our time and energy to something valuable and as a result neither Sanj nor myself or indeed anyone in the medical organising committee receives a single one of your dollars.
Right from the start we wanted to make sure that the neither the medical device nor pharmaceutical industries were involved in DevelopingEM and we receive no income from this sector and we do not have a trade exhibit.
Right from the start we wanted to bring a high level educational experience to a part of the world where emergency medicine was developing and sponsor the attendance of host country and regional attendees.
As a High Income Delegate it is your registration charge that allows DevelopingEM to occur and allow us to achieve the aim of inviting and supporting the attendance of as many local and regional delegates as possible.
Your registration charge makes up 95% of our income so without you this whole thing just doesnt work.
To date our model has allowed the supported attendance of over 800 delegates since our first international event in 2013 and we hope to get close to 1000 overall by the time we conclude DevelopingEM 2026.
We are working closely with the Saint Lucian Ministry of Health to identify suitable sponsored delegates from the host nation and we hope to provide complimentary registration to over 100 local clinicians over the span of the conference.
We are also working with the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States as well as with pre-existing Caribbean connections to identify delegates from the region that will benefit from not only complimentary registration but also travel and accommodation assistance to attend DevEM2026. We hope to support at least 10 (and hopefully 20) clinicians from the region to attend in this way.
This is all down to you.
The more registrations we have the more local clinicians can attend.
Its really that simple.
So why dont you join us and the DevelopingEM community this year, not only for some great education but to do something good.
If you’ve registered (or are thinking about registering) for DevelopingEM 2026, one of the first questions that naturally comes up is:
Where exactly is Saint Lucia — and how do I get there?
The short answer: it’s easier than many people expect.
WHERE IS SAINT LUCIA?
Saint Lucia is an island nation in the Eastern Caribbean, part of the Lesser Antilles. It sits between Martinique to the north and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the south, and is well connected to North America, Europe, and other Caribbean hubs.
The island is known for its dramatic volcanic landscape (including the iconic Pitons), warm climate, and a well-developed tourism infrastructure — one of the reasons it works so well as a conference destination.
English is the official language, the local currency is the Eastern Caribbean Dollar (XCD), and US dollars are widely accepted.
WHICH AIRPORT DO I FLY INTO?
Most international travellers will arrive via Hewanorra International Airport (UVF), located on the southern part of the island.
Hewanorra is Saint Lucia’s main international airport and the primary gateway for long-haul flights.
HOW BUSY IS HEWANORRA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT?
Hewanorra is a well-established international airport with multiple daily international arrivals, particularly during the peak travel season (which includes November).
On an average day, the airport handles: • Several wide-body long-haul flights from North America and Europe • Multiple regional Caribbean connections • A steady flow of arrivals timed to allow same-day onward travel across the island
Despite being a smaller airport than major global hubs, Hewanorra is designed for international traffic and processes arrivals efficiently.
WHERE CAN I FLY FROM?
Direct flights to Saint Lucia are available from several major hubs, including:
• United States: New York, Miami, Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Newark and other seasonal routes • Canada: Toronto and seasonal connections • United Kingdom: London (direct long-haul flights) • Europe: Via London or regional European connections • Caribbean: Easy connections through Barbados, Antigua, Puerto Rico and other regional hubs
For many travellers, Saint Lucia is either a direct flight or a single-connection journey.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I ARRIVE?
Arrival at Hewanorra is straightforward: • Immigration and customs are efficient and familiar with conference and tourism traffic • Taxis, transfers and pre-arranged shuttles are readily available • Travel to Castries and the Royalton conference venue typically takes 60–90 minutes
IS IT COMPLICATED TO GET THERE?
In short: no.
Saint Lucia is one of the more accessible Caribbean islands for international travel. Flights are regular, the airport is experienced with international arrivals, and ground transport is reliable.
A FINAL WORD ON PLANNING
If you’re attending DevelopingEM 2026, early planning helps: • Flights are generally more affordable when booked earlier • Accommodation options are broader • Arrival logistics are easier to coordinate
Saint Lucia may look exotic on the map, but in practice it’s a well-connected, conference-ready destination.
We look forward to seeing you there Nov 14-18, 2026 for DevelopingEM 2026.
A common concern for Caribbean conferences is accommodation cost. Many resorts, including our venue the Royalton Saint Lucia, operate on an all‑inclusive model. While the nightly rate may appear high initially, it includes meals, drinks, amenities, taxes and service charges. When these inclusions are considered, the overall value becomes clear.
DevelopingEM has secured a room block at the Royalton, while Castries and surrounding areas also offer accommodation options across all budgets, including boutique hotels and BnBs.
DevelopingEM 2026 is confirmed for November 14-18, 2026 in beautiful Saint Lucia in the Caribbean.
Why Saint Lucia I hear you ask?!
Well because we have friends and colleagues there who have been trying to get DevelopingEM back to the region for years.
The wonderful Lisa Charles suggested a collaboration years ago and we are enormously grateful for her persistence and patience in finally getting DEM to Saint Lucia.
Lisa has presented on the development of emergency and critical care in Saint Lucia at 3 of our previous events and has helped coordinate, with DevelopingEM faculty, a range of teaching and system strengthening activities in Saint Lucia over the last decade.
With her support, DevelopingEM now has the support of the Saint Lucia Chief Medical Officer, the Saint Lucia Ministry of Health, and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States to collaboratively organise another regional event where local and neighbouring clinicians share experiences and solutions with delegates from around the globe.
The conference returns with our proven plenary format and with a range of high-quality workshops over a 5 day period.
We hope those who already know us are pencilling the schedule into their diaries but for those of you who haven’t experienced a DEM lets reintroduce the concept.
DevelopingEM is a little venture Sanj Fernando, Lee Fineberg and myself started in 2011 and DevelopingEM 2026 will be our ninth event.
DevelopingEM Ltd is a not for profit venture with a unique financial model.
On average greater than 90 percent of our funding comes from the registration fees of attendees from privileged situations, often where there is individual access to substantial study leave funding.
This funding not only pays for the organisational aspects of each event but, with careful budgeting, it allows funding to be directed towards subsidising the attendance of clinicians from host nations and regions. In 2026 we are aiming to support the attendance of 60-70 St Lucian and regional Caribbean clinicians.
The absence of a requirement for medical industry funding gives us organisational independence and there is no influence from industry bodies on our ethos and direction.
We aim to hold a regular regional conference in a situation where emergency medicine is rapidly evolving.
The educational approach is centred on the provision of excellent clinical information aimed at the senior clinician allowing all attendees to take home clinical pearls to their next clinical shift.
The core conference has tracks focussing on Adult Emergency Medicine and Critical Care, Paediatric Emergency Medicine and Trauma Care.
These core tracks are teamed with sessions focussing on the development of emergency medicine globally as well as sessions determined by the host partners.
Along with our plenary sessions we will be collaboratively running a range of workshops including
Advanced Ultrasound
Paeds BASIC
ECG Interpretation
Radiology Intepretation
EMS Management
Emergency Nursing
DevelopingEM 2026 will be our ninth event with previous events in Sydney, Cuba (twice), Brazil, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Colombia and Darwin.
Over that time we have sponsored the attendance of over 700 regional clinicians who, depending on the setting, have paid anything from zero to ten percent of the registration fees of an international delegate. Regional delegates have also received accommodation and travel assistance.
The last 4 conferences have seen this delegate support become a much more organised venture with local and regional delegates not only mostly funded from a registration point of view but also receiving accommodation and travel assistance.
We remain very proud of this aspect of DevelopingEM.
One of the other achievements, which was less anticipated, were the longer-term effects of a broad range of clinicians coming together.
The opportunity that the events have provided for like-minded people to meet has resulted in lasting relationships that have resulted in long standing benefits across the regions where the conferences have been held.
Some examples include recurrent paediatric, ultrasound and trauma workshops across the Caribbean, increased connectivity between regional clinicians with mentors and educators in Australia and the USA, and ongoing mentoring of prehospital practitioners in Sri Lanka.
The benefits have certainly not been unidirectional, and we have been taught much by our regional colleagues.
Perhaps the most acute lesson is just how lucky we are here in Australia.
In Australia we are monumentally privileged in global terms to have the health care systems and working conditions that we enjoy.
Despite having a luxurious health care system, the explanation of the benefits of different systems from around the globe demonstrates that we also have much to learn about how to maximise the benefit of an emergency medicine system.
We have learnt how the Cuban system achieves the same health outcomes as Australia at one eighth of the cost.
We have seen how developing an emergency system from the ground up in Sri Lanka allows that system to focus on patients with actual emergencies.
Just because we have it good doesn’t mean we can’t learn to be better, to be efficient and to be more focussed.
We have also been taught what it is actually like being an emergency clinician in a different system.
Emergency clinicians from around the globe have explained how they battle trauma, disease and illness in working conditions we can barely fathom, with enthusiasm and without complaint.
These experiential presentations have been a core of our conferences and it has been an absolute privilege to learn from wonderful clinicians from around the world.
Sanj, I and the entire team are really excited about the possibilities DevelopingEM 2026 St Lucia will hopefully bring.
We are also very enthused at the prospect of seeing you, our DevelopingEM family, again next year in Saint Lucia.
Come and join us for the best emergency and critical care conference of 2026.
We’re thrilled to announce that our 9th DevelopingEM Conference will be held on the stunning Caribbean island of Saint Lucia — in partnership with the Saint Lucia Ministry of Health.
Get ready for a week of world-class education, collaboration, and island magic.
Long standing DevelopingEM Faculty member Lisa Charles from Saint Lucia will be our co-director for this event.
All the Best Bits of DevelopingEM Return
This year’s event brings back everything you love about DevelopingEM — and more.
Confirmed Workshops
Advanced Ultrasound with the Alfred Health team
Paeds BASIC (ICU level workshop)
Emergency Nursing Workshop with Prof. Kate Curtis
Advanced Radiology Interpretation
ECG Interpretation Workshop
Prehospital Management Workshop
Confirmed Plenary Tracks
Paediatric EM & Critical Care – April Kam and the McMaster team
Adult EM & Critical Care – Brian Wright and Stony Brook team
Trauma Care – Peter Cameron and the Alfred team
International EM – Nat Thurtle
EM in Saint Lucia and the Caribbean
Local Collaboration & Support
Local and regional faculty will join forces with our global experts, ensuring every session reflects the unique challenges and opportunities of Caribbean emergency care.
As always, your delegate contributions will help support attendance for St Lucian and regional participants, strengthening emergency medicine across the region.
And of course, Saint Lucia,
Because no DevelopingEM conference is complete without a bit of island fun.
Expect spectacular beaches, Creole cuisine, Piton sunsets, and the signature DEM social events you know and love.
So, pack your scrubs and your swimsuit — and join the DevelopingEM family once again in Saint Lucia.
Later this year a compulsory national vote on a question about a proposed change to the Australian Constitution, a referendum, will be held to decide upon the establishment of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament. Importantly these new changes will formally recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia.
A new Chapter (IX) and Section (129) will be inserted into the constitution as follows
Chapter IX- Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Section 29 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander VoiceIn recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia:
(i) there shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice
(ii) the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
(iii) the Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.
The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) supports a Voice to Parliament and Declaration of recognition in the Australian Constitution for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to help drive urgently needed changes and provide a clear and practical way forward for self-determination, as an essential step in the nation’s reconciliation journey.
DevelopingEM supports the Explanation of the referendum and the Voice to Parliament detailed by Reconciliation Australia.
A Voice to Parliament will give Indigenous communities a route to help inform policy and legal decisions that impact their lives. Giving people a say will lead to more effective results.
This video from the Reconciliation Australia website provides an excellent summary of the value of the constitutional changes proposed and also addresses some of the common concerns with change.
DevelopingEM supports the Voice to Parliament
Thanks for your time and keep an eye on our social media for more resources related to the referendum.
Yours Sincerely,
Mark Newcombe and Sanj Fernando.Co-Directors of DevelopingEM Ltd.
