Month: October 2014

London’s Air Ambulance & Extreme Medicine to host two-day Pre-Hospital Care Workshop

For 25 years London’s Air Ambulance has been at the forefront of pre-hospital emergency medicine, gaining a reputation for clinical excellence and pioneering procedures which have been adopted across the world.

Next month, ahead of the World Extreme Medicine Expo, on the 6^th and 7^th of November, London’s Air Ambulance is hosting a two-day Pre-Hospital Care Workshop as a precursor to the Extreme Medicine Conference 2014 to give delegates and medical practitioners an insight into the work of the charity and to share some of its advanced practices.

The charity has achieved survival figures for traumatic cardiac arrest and pre-hospital thoracotomy, and success rates for adult and paediatric intubation, which are among the highest in the world.

The workshop will give practitioners the opportunity to get involved with medical demonstrations and scenario based exercises while also providing access to the senior consultants and paramedics responsible for London’s Air Ambulance governance, major incident planning, research and innovation.

Speaking about the event, consultant and education lead, Dr Gareth Grier said: “London’s Air Ambulance has treated over 31,000 patients, which we recognise is a huge amount of experience and learning developed over 25 years. By passing on this knowledge we can help to drive excellence in pre-hospital care standards”.

“Many of the techniques we have pioneered have become widespread as a result of being heard and talked about at events such as this one. During the workshop we will be showcasing some of our more recent innovations, REBOA being one of them, discussing the future of pre-hospital care, challenging conventional wisdom and hopefully, inspiring the next generation of trauma specialists”.

Earlier this year London’s Air Ambulance became the first service to perform roadside balloon surgery to control severe internal bleeding on a patient who had fallen from height.  Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta (REBOA) is just one of the practical demonstrations delegates can participate in amid a programme that will look at biological terrorism, crew resource management at complex pre-hospital scenes and the role of a UK pre-hospital doctor in the international response to humanitarian disasters.

Programme Overview: 

Day One

Seminar topics:

Introduction and overview of London’s Air Ambulance and Pre-hospital Care in the UK

The role of a UK pre-hospital doctor in the international response to humanitarian disasters

Biological Terrorism

Crew Resource Management at complex pre-hospital scenes

The medical response to major incidents in London

Workshops:

Pre-hospital advanced airway

Emergency thoracotomy

Emergency Neurosurgery

Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta (REBOA)

Day Two

Seminar topics:

Pre-hospital blood transfusion in civilian trauma

Damage control anaesthesia – lessons from Afghanistan and London

Opportunities for medical students in pre-hospital care

Paramedic scene leadership during advanced pre-hospital interventions

Defying medical dogma – case studies from the pre-hospital phase

The future in pre-hospital care Nanorobots and suspended animation

Workshops:

Various scenario based training exercises