The Napoli blog

Uwe Stuben and Declan Maher from the Advisory Board attended, but sadly Ries Simons was unable to because of a family bereavement. And last, but not least, Vincent Feuillie from Soframas attended as an observer, and was appointed to the Advisory Board during the meeting. The EC reappointed Ries Simons as chair, and Declan Maher as Secretary, and Jurgen Graf was appointed as Vice Chair, replacing Uwe Stuben, who stood down. Uwe was thanked for his many years of support and contribution to ESAM. We will miss him.
One topic that cropped up several times during the meeting was the problem of communicating with member societies by e-mail, when the details of the nominated contact, and other officers, of that society, change. It is very important to keep us informed of changes, and we will add a section to the website to make this easier.
This year will see the election of a new Executive Committee, by electronic voting via the website, so it is doubly important that we have accurate details.
The committee is very sorry to have made an error during the General Assembly in Bucharest, in not appointing a nomination committee. We propose that, with the consent of our members, the committee from 2009 continues for a further year. A formal communication about this will be posted on the site, and sent to all members, in the near future.
ESAM will again be holding a scientific meeting during the AsMA conference in Atlanta in May. Titled 'Sugar and spice and all things.....diabetic' we will have presentations on the certification of diabetic pilots taking insulin. This topical and controversial subject should ensure a lively meeting....and Ries has promised not to burst into song!
Can I remind our members who may be organising refresher training meetings, that ESAM can facilitate Europe-wide accreditation via the EASA Chief Medical Officer forum. You should send the program of the meeting to Elena Cataman.
It is tricky compacting the results of a long meeting into a digestible blog, but I cannot finish without mentioning ECAM2012. Information is available elsewhere on the website, and the programme and booking details, as well as the process for submitting scientific papers, will appear soon. But just to give you a sneak preview, we have a theme of 'Medicine in the Extreme Environment'. We will have presentations on illness and incapacitation of ATCOs and flight crew, and the challenges of repatriating ill passengers, service personnel and divers. We will delve into the extreme environments of heat, cold and depth before emerging into a more benign environment of a Gala Dinner on Saturday evening. We hope that some of the scientific papers submitted can be matched to these themes. Presentations of papers will take place on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, with poster displays throughout the weekend. A prize for the best paper will be awarded during the General Assembly.
We will delve into the most extreme environment of Space on Sunday afternoon, with a panel which will cover the past and future of manned space exploration, including space tourism and a mission to Mars. This session will be open to anyone who is accompanying a delegate.

Excited?........well so am I, but I have to admit, just a little terrified as well! Kevin