There will be a throng of members and trainees in Hobart in November. They will gather for the College’s biggest event of the year – the ASM.
But FACEM Dr Stephen Macdonald is looking past the ASM to the Thursday evening after its close and to the Friday the day after (21-22 November) – to the College’s inaugural Research Network Symposium, also in Hobart.
The symposium is a one-day event being that seeks to deliver collaborative research projects to patients in the emergency departments.
‘We have a good track record of research in emergency medicine in Australia and New Zealand, but historically it has been heavily driven by a relatively small number of geographically dispersed individuals and groups.
‘But we want that research to be truly practice-informing, and to do that we need to harness the capacity we have in EDs across Australia and New Zealand through coordinated and collaborative multi-centre studies.
‘This event is not an ASM or a Winter Symposium. They each have a more broad focus and tend to cover the breadth of practice and science of emergency medicine. We are looking specifically at the practicalities of multicentre clinical research in emergency departments.’
The network symposium’s program will feature speakers including Stephen, Dr Simon Craig, Associate Professor Paul Middleton, Dr Katie Walker, Dr Franz Babl and Professor Gerben Keijzers, but the day’s agenda will be driven by participants.
‘We want to hear from the emergency medicine community about their projects and for them to present to the group for feedback and discussions. Proposals for observational studies and clinical trials are welcome.’
The program includes two interactive afternoon sessions to explore those ideas and to deliver that feedback.
‘Our Deep Blue session will involve reasonably mature research proposals or updates on studies that are already recruiting,’ Stephen says.
‘The Shark Tank will be for less well developed ideas, where presenters can benefit from the expertise in the room to turn their proposal into a viable multi-centre project.’
We also want engage those who are interested in being involved in research but perhaps aren’t sure how to go about it, or don’t have the resources to get started.
Participants are invited to submit their research proposals to be involved in either of these sessions until 30 September.
‘We are seeking proposals that involve emergency department patients as research participants, and are multi-centre in scope. We are looking for submissions from across the spectrum of emergency medicine practice.’
Stephen says there will also be opportunities
