CIOMR Workshops

Starting at the Ghent Congress (2005), CIOMR has run a number of workshops in order to provide to all interested medical officers additional training that is not readily available elsewhere.

LtCol Peter Stanworth (UK) (who also headed the one-man Continuing Education Committee (CEC) from 2006 to 2009) introduced the highly successful “Neurosurgery for Non-Neurosurgeons” Course, which was repeated several times, as was the “Emergency Obstetrics” Course, run by Col Charles Cox (UK), and the “Get Acquainted with MIMMS” (a course on medical management of large incidents).

In 2009 a course on “Maxillofacial Surgery” was introduced. All these 1-day courses are aimed at non-specialist personnel, who on the other hand may be confronted, in particular during deployments, with problems in these respective fields.

For 2010 the courses on Neurosurgery, Obstetrics, Maxillofacial Surgery and MIMMS will (hopefully) be programmed;  work on developing a course on “Emergency Ultrasound” is in progress, and possibly the Course on Uncommon Cardiac Problems (which was held for the first time in Viterbo (2006) will be repeated.

Discussions on developing a “Thoracic Surgery Course” (to be introduced in 2011) are on-going.

For infrastructural reasons all courses in which work is done on animal material, will be concentrated at the Mid Winter Meetings, when invaluable support has been obtained from  the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Ghent, Belgium.

It is the intention to publicize the programs at the earliest possible moment (i.e. immediately following a CIOMR meeting) in order that medical personnel from the Regular Forces can be actively approached and their participation be planned well beforehand.

Walter HENNY MD

Colonel, Royal Netherlands Army Reserve

CEC Chairman