Colombo, Sri Lanka 2016 (2022)

DevelopingEM 2016

DevelopingEM 2016 was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka between December 5^th and 8^th.

The conference included local and international emergency practitioner delegates from 20 countries, and faculty from 13 different countries including teams from Stony Brook, and Monash Universities.

It was extremely well received with 185 local Sri Lankans practitioners attending (almost the entire national community of EM focused practitioners).

The DEM process allowed the local attendee registration charge for the conference and workshops to be heavily subsidized (10% of cost).

DevelopingEM was also able to support the attendance of 14 attendees from the region (Afghanistan, Cambodia, Laos, Pakistan, Nepal, The Maldives and India).

The first 9 regional delegates to apply had their travel, accommodation and registration completely absorbed by DEM with the next 5 having complimentary registration included.

A further 5 Pakistani delegates self funded their attendance through independent fund raising. Some of these subsidized practitioners had not previously travelled internationally.

FIG 1

Denotes the number of delegates sponsored by DEM from Sri Lanka and the region

The conference included core sessions in adult EM and critical Care, Trauma, Paediatrics and EM in Sri Lanka and the Region. Optional Sessions included Toxicology and a Global EM Discussion Group. Local clinicians were involved as faculty and track leads for all sessions.

There were 8 allied workshops and two site visits to Sri Lankan health institutions. Social functions allied to the conference allowed a continuation of conversation and the development of ongoing relationships between clinicians from around the globe.

The DEM process allowed for a large number of regional delegate attendance at the wide range of workshops.

Fig 2

Denotes local and regional sponsored workshop attendances (TAPNA contributing to funding of the Toxicology workshop) at DEM 2016

Our ability to achieve the level of local and regional involvement is entirely due to the income provided by our international delegate registrations.

FIG 3

Breakdown of the expenditure as it relates to a single international delegates’ registration fee of 1200 USD for the 2016 conference.

• $564 towards venue costs
• $180 towards administration (event management, insurance, legals, merchandise, fees)
• $84 towards IT support
• $48 towards planning meetings
• $24 towards marketing
• $300 towards supported attendance of regional and local delegates

In the wake of DevelopingEM 2016 several sustainable educational projects emerged including:

1. Donation of a low-fidelity simulation system (iSimulate device + Crash Kelly mannequin) to the National Hospital in Colombo.
2. 75 HIPPO EM subscriptions were solicited and given to the EM trainees in Sri Lanka as on-line educational resources.
3. A $5000 educational grant was secured to create a distance-learning EM educational rounds on a quarterly basis with the State University of New York EM faculty.
4. A clinical exchange rotation with training EPs from Sri Lanka to train in facilities in Australia with residency faculty.
5. Junior faculty development for many of the Developing EM faculty.
6. Institution of a suite of web based education modalities for the expanding EM trainee base in Sri Lanka coordinated by international EPs to compliment the State University of NY effort including:

• Regular internet delivered lectures
• Weekly Virtual conference sessions
• Virtual Mentoring
• Virtual Journal Club

Also since the event the Colombo Declaration relating to the Stop Bombing Hospitals campaign has been announced and we are attempting to enlist the help of medical and governmental support for the Declaration before making a formal approach to the United Nations.

Overall the Sri Lankan event was very well received and has had many long lasting effects.

We hope to continue to emulate the process in our upcoming events.

Conference resource downloads:

2016 Faculty

Organising Committee

Faculty