EMSSA Conference
The African Federation for Emergency Medicine
ANNOUNCEMENT
FORMATION OF
THE AFRICAN FEDERATION FOR EMERGENCY MEDICINE
“SUPPORTING EMERGENCY CARE ACROSS AFRICA”
November 26, 2009 at 12:00 noon
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
We are proud to announce the formation of the African Federation for Emergency Medicine (AFEM), dedicated to “Supporting Emergency Care Across Africa”. Lee Wallis, President of the Emergency Medicine Society for South Africa (EMSSA), organized several meetings on this and other topics during the 2nd EMSSA “EM in the Developing World” Conference, held from 24-26 November, 2009, at the Cape Town International Conference Centre. The AFEM will act as a formative, “umbrella” organization for all the existing and future African National EM Societies. EMSSA is the first and only national EM Society in Africa, but many more are on the brink of formation, including Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia and others. AFEM is also proud to announce that they will accept as full members and / or member societies other health professionals and health professional societies, including EM nursing, EMT’s and paramedics, in recognition of the multi-lateral, multi-disciplinary, multi-professional nature of emergency medicine and acute care. The conference also saw the official formation of the Emergency Nursing Society of South Africa (ENSSA), as an equal-member sub-group of EMSSA, as a further reflection of our natural partnership with the specialty of emergency nursing. The current AFEM interim Executive Committee of 9 elected persons will determine over the oncoming months the ultimate structure of AFEM; 5 initial committees (Identity; Governance, Membership, Terms of Reference and Services) were formed to assist in this most crucial phase.
The Interim Executive Committee is:
Chair – Lee Wallis
Vice Chair – Conrad Buckle
Secretary – Charles Otieno
Officers – Sebastian Spencer, Petra Brysiewicz, Valerie Krym, Steve Justus, Terry Mulligan, Bob Corder
Also announced at the EMSSA conference during these same talks was the formation of the African Journal of Emergency Medicine, a peer-reviewed, indexed journal to be dedicated to clinical, academic and developmental aspects of emergency medicine in the many and varied nations of Africa and elsewhere in the developing world. While the exact details of this journal and the plans for its ultimate structure remain in the planning stages, we are proud to announce this new addition to the growing family of academic and scientific emergency medicine journals.
We welcome the advice and participation of our colleagues in emergency medicine, emergency nursing, pre-hospital emergency care and in all areas of acute care and emergency medicine to join with us and to assist us in the formation of this monumental organization, and we look forward to your active membership in the months and years to come.
For any information, or to be part of this exciting development, contact admin@afem.info