Welcome

It‘s hard to believe it‘s already February 2011! The CICM Board Meeting is fast approaching and the exams will be starting in no time.

Although June may seem far away, the ASM Registrations are now open and we encourage everyone to go online and register. 

The deadline for material for the next e-news is 5pm on the 14th March. Please have any material to Lisa Davidson by then if you would like it included in the next edition.

We are constantly looking for ways to improve our communication, so feedback is always appreciated. If you have comments or article ideas, please email Lisa.

2011 Subscriptions

The 2011 subscription notices were sent to all Fellows at the end of January. We ask that you please pay these as soon as possible.

To pay online please go to: https://members.cicm.org.au/.

You can also return your subs notice via post or fax. If you have not received your subscription notice, please contact the office.

Online Library

The College has entered into an arrangement with EBSCO and Elsevier to make available through the CICM website, electronic versions of a limited range of relevant intensive care/critical care journals.

We are currently in the process of setting up the access portal, which should be completed soon. Depending on usage, further journals may be added to the selection in future.

Watch out for launch updates on the website.

CPD Project

The College is currently working on a project to implement a new CPD program for 2012. The CPD planning group has been working for several months creating new categories and ratings for activities and courses.

Work on the new, user friendly, online diary and online application for course accreditation is progressing well. Demonstration stations are planned for the 2011 ASM to allow Fellows to give immediate feedback about the online system. 

Regular updates regarding the new program will be sent to Fellows and course administrators in the next year. If you have questions or feedback you would like to give the College, please contact  Lisa Davidson.

Regional Committees

CICM‘s Regional and National Committees now have their own webpages for specific state and national news. 

To visit our new webpages, go to: http://cicm.org.au/regnational.php

Training News

New Registrations:

Due to the training regulation changes for 2011, the College had a large influx of registrations at the end of 2010. The processing time for new registrations has increased  due to the workload and we ask new trainees to be patient and allow a 6 week turn around.

Intensive Care Training Time:

A reminder that the changes made to the regulations regarding IC training time, can be found on the training program page on the website.

Fellowship Exam - Closing Date:

The closing date for applications for the fellowship exam is Monday 7th February at 5pm (AEDST)

AVT‘s

All AVT forms are now to be completed online, through the members portal, within three months of the commencement of your position. If you do not have your login details, please contact the College.

Communication Course

The College will be running a one-day Communication Skills Course for Trainees, in Sydney on Friday 15 April. This course will compliment and build on the communication aspects of the ADAPT course.

Some of the areas to be covered include: breaking bad and catastrophic news; open disclosure; advance care planning and end of life treatment choices. We intend that the course will be offered several times each year in future and would encourage all Trainees to attend.

A notice with further details will be distributed shortly to all Trainees; however numbers will be limited so we encourage you to register your interest now by emailing us at cicm@cicm.org.au 

Facebook

The College has finally joined the world of Facebook! After feedback from both Trainees and Fellows, we decided it was time to broaden our communication scope.

There will be regular updates and information and we would love suggestions for links to interesting websites or articles.

Go to "The College of Intensive Care Medicine of Australia and New Zealand" and "Like" us! 

If these new endeavours are going to work, we need your participation and help!
 

Online Forums

We have now successfully launched the online discussion forums for Trainees and Fellows and they can be found in the members portal under the tab "Forums"

The purpose of these forums is for members to discuss issues surrounding training, exams and other matters with their colleagues.

These forums will be solely for discussion purposes not as a means of communication directly with the College. Queries surrounding individuals training or fellowship will still need to be directed to the College. 

As with our new Facebook page, the success of these initiatives lies with you, the user. We encourage you to get online and try them out. You may find a new study partner or discover a new resource.

Any feedback you have will be welcomed by the College.  

SOT Workshop

Thursday 14th April - Sydney

A full day workshop open to all CICM Supervisors of Training will be held in Sydney on Thursday 14 April.

The workshop will focus on enhancing Supervisors skills in important areas such as managing poor performance in Trainees and improving Trainee decision making and self analysis.

All Supervisors are welcome to attend, however we would strongly encourage Sydney based Supervisors to attend this workshop, as it is intended to rotate future workshops through other cities.  Further information will be circulated to all Supervisors shortly.   Please note, this workshop will not impact on the regular SOT workshop that is held in conjunction with the ASM - the content of the two are quite distinct.  

ASM 2011

"Pushing the Boundaries of Intensive Care"

Registrations Now Open

Visit the ASM Website for all the latest news, international & national speakers, registration fees, entitlements and full program details: http://www.cicm-asm.org.au

Registration brochure is NOW available; this year you can register on line (via the ASM website), fax or post.

Add http://www.cicm-asm.org.au  to your favorites, tell a friend and mark it on your calendar. 

 
IMPORTANT DATES

ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS CLOSE, 18th March
EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION CLOSES, 26th March

ADDITIONAL SESSIONS
A number of additional sessions will be run in conjunction with the ASM.
For further information, click on the links:

Clinical Update Course
Thursday 2nd June: 8.15am - 4.30pm

CICM Primary Exam Information Session
Sunday 5th June: 8am-9am

SOT Workshop
Saturday 4th June: 8am-9am

The College would like to thank the following Sponsors for their continual support:

Platinum Sponsors

Edward Lifesciences

ACT Health

Philips

Monograph Book Sponsors

GE Healthcare
 

Clinical Update

CLINICAL UPDATE COURSE

Immediately before our ASM this year, the College will be running a one-day ‘Intensive Care Medicine Update‘, a new initiative principally aimed at CICM Fellows.

The course will cover the latest developments in intensive care practice from experts in various clinical areas, including Cardiothoracic, Respiratory, Renal, Neurological, Endocrine and Metabolic, and Infectious Diseases. The course will be a mix of lecture style presentations and hands-on workshops.  This is expected to be an annual event, to be run the day before the CICM Annual Scientific Meeting each year. Further information on the course will shortly be sent to all Fellows and posted on the ASM website, www.cicm-asm.org.au  

Trainee Committee

This year is set to be an exciting year for the College , equally for our Trainees, in terms of involvement in College business and ability to shape the future of our speciality.

The Trainee Committee held their first teleconference of the year last week and we are now pleased that we have representation from each region. At this meeting three of the Committee were nominated to be our representatives on the Board, the Education Committee and Hospital Accreditation Committee. I think this will finally give us the voice that we need to express our opinions and influence critical decisions on these committees.
 However, we are aware that the Training Community as a whole also needs to have a voice and a say in these decisions and should have a role in developing both the training program and influencing proposed changes in key areas such as the curriculum and mandated courses.We have therefore developed a Trainee Survey that will be sent to all Trainees within the next week. It is imperative that all trainees spend a few minutes doing the survey so that we have the perspectives and ideas from all of you and not just those of us who try and represent you at a College Level.

The survey is quick to fill out and it would be great to get as many responses as possible. The Trainee Committee plans to use the results to develop a strategic plan to address the issues facing us and as a real voice to present to the College showing what we, the Trainees really think. The power of numbers and objective evidence cannot be under estimated and I think this survey will be enormously powerful if we get a good response.  

The Trainee Committee also believes that this is the time for the Trainees to start providing solutions and enthusiasm to help our new College realise its full potential.
Liz Steel, Chair - Trainee Committee
 

Events and Courses

Sydney Intensive Care Equipment Course
15th - 16th April 2011
Hotel Park Royal, Darling Harbour

For further information, visit our website
http://www.cicm.org.au/courseaus.php

ARC

The Australian Resuscitation Council (ARC) has now published its revised resuscitation guidelines for Basic, Advanced, Paediatric and Neonatal Life Support. These changes reflect the most recent scientific evidence which was evaluated and recently published by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) and its member organisations, including the Australian Resuscitation Council.

Six of the recently combined/co-badged Australian and New Zealand Resuscitation Council representatives are CICM fellows (Professors Morley, Reade and Tibballs, and Drs. M. Anderson, Parr and Frengley)

The revised guidelines for Basic, Advanced, Paediatric and Neonatal Life Support are available at www.resus.org.au and for the first time have been jointly developed and published with the New Zealand Resuscitation Council (NZRC)

Survey for Directors

A group of doctors from Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Western Australia are conducting a survey to determine brain death diagnosis practices in Australia and New Zealand.

If you are a Director of a unit and would like to be involved, please click on the link 
 
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9323R2R

or email

Andrew.Gardner@anaesthesia.uwa.edu.au