2010 Small Research Grant - Foundation Fund
Dr Nishan Rajakumaraswamy
ST4 Anaesthetics
Presentation at the Annual Congress of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM)
Summary: I attended the Annual Congress of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) in October 2010, thanks to a generous grant from the NIAA (Foundation Fund). I was invited there to present two of my audit projects as posters - one on 'compliance with surviving the sepsis campaign guidelines' and the other on 'compliance with the NICE guidelines on avoiding inadvertent peri-operative hypothermia'.
The experience of presenting the posters to a mixture of audience members who ranged from renowned scientists to expert clinicians was overwhelming, though largely informal. I was surprised to learn that the standards which we only seldom monitor (usually as a result of audits initiated by keen trainees/ consultants) formed an essential part of regular internal quality checks as well as being incorporated into payment systems in other countries such as US.
I also had the opportunity to attend various lectures and seminars conducted by the society. These sessions explored common topics in intensive care in great depth from molecular biology to pharmacoeconomics. Further, there was an enormous array of advanced technology as applied to intensive care, for example continuous Hb monitoring, which were on display.
In summary, it was a tremendous educational experience and I would recommend it to any trainee in intensive care.
