TREC 08
Travel Health Conference Day
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Strathclyde Suite
Friday 14th March 2008
TREC's 1st Travel Health Conference Day was held on the 14th March 08 in the pleasant surroundings of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.
With a varied and diverse programme, it was voted a great success by the 60 delegates who attended.
"Thought provoking" "interesting" "excellent day"
"very valuable info" " A day well worth repeating"
"excellent venue and catering, spacious & relaxed"
The Programme
Click speaker's name to go directly to their notes.
- Our GP in Peru
- Dr Jon Cossar – GP – Glasgow
- Being the Volunteer – Could you think about it?
- Ann Bevan – Health Advisor, European Commission Volunteer Programme.
- Accountability & Medico-legal Aspects of Travel Health
- Jeannett Martin - Editor in Chief of Practice Nursing
- Charity Challenges – Life as an Expedition Medic
- Neil Dignon – Consultant in Emergency Medicine – Glasgow
- Understanding Lyme Disease
- Dr Graham Fry. Medical Director – Tropical Medical Bureau, Dublin
- TRAVAX – Up there in Cyberspace?
- Dr Kitty Smith – Medical Lead - Travel Health Section: Health Protection Scotland
- Meet the Travel Health Panel
- Q & A Session chaired by Sheila Hall
Our speakers for the day
- Dr Jon Cossar MD ChB, FFTM RCPS & FRCP (Glasg)
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Following retirement after 30 years of General Practice in the west-end of Glasgow, Jon has continued his special interest in Travel Medicine. This interest began in 1978 with researching Legionnaire's Disease in relation to travel and then on to defining the epidemiological perspective of illness associated with travel. Since 2006, Jon has been involved with the development of the new Faculty of Travel Medicine, of which he is currently Vice Dean, at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. Travel interests of his own have recently included climbing Kilimanjaro (2006) to celebrate his 60th birthday and venturing to the upper reaches of the Amazon (2007) as part of a team from the Vine Trust providing primary care to indigenous villagers.
Our GP in Peru
As well as setting the scene for the TREC Conference this informal, anecdotal account of Jon's experiences will encompass socio-demographic facets, medical problems encountered and unexpected medical scenarios, as well as providing insight into some of the physical, physiological and psychological challenges involved. More information on the Vine Trust can be obtained from www.vinetrust.org. For more information about Jon’s Peru Experience, please refer to the TREC Conference web page.
- Ann Bevan
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Ann originally trained as a nurse and then as a clinical psychologist, specialising in cross-cultural issues. She worked for the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas), and is now Health Adviser for the European Commission’s Volunteer Programme.
Being the Volunteer – Could you think about it?
Long-term volunteering in a less developed country poses personal challenges to the individual, support issues for the organisations, and an extra dimension for travel health advisers! How is this group of travellers different, what are the main health issues, and how should our advice be adapted? More web links relating to Ann’s talk available on the conference web page. - Jeannett Martin RN, MA, Post graduate Diploma Medical Law
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Jeannett Martin is a registered nurse with extensive experience of general practice nursing and travel health. She is a past tutor for the Glasgow Diploma in Travel Medicine and currently a member of the NaTHNaC Advisory Board. She has worked as senior nurse manager for the Medical Research Council’s General Practice Research Framework, as Director of Clinical Leadership and Quality at Lewisham Primary Care Trust and as Senior International Officer for the Royal College of Nursing. Jeannett is now working as Director of Nursing for BarnDoc, an out of hours service in London. She is also Editor in Chief of Practice Nursing and a Visiting Lecturer in Healthcare Law for the University of Reading.
Accountability & Medico-legal Aspects of Travel Health
The objectives of this presentation:- review the concepts of accountability and responsibility
- outline the criteria for negligence and misconduct with examples of associated case law
- provide guidance on meeting the requirements of professional accountability
- Dr Neil Dignon
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Neil is Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and part of the West of Scotland EMRS (Emergency Medicine Retrieval Service) providing resuscitation and transfer to the critically ill and injured in the Highlands and Islands. He has experience as a medic on over 25 Expeditions and Charity Challenges and is a regular contributor to Expemed and Expedition Medicine – Britain’s leading wilderness medicine training courses. He is currently leading a more settled life, but with one eye on an Antarctic trip as a ship’s doctor later in the year.
Charity Challenges – Life as an Expedition Medic
The reality of life as an Expedition Medic- with experiences from over 25 Expeditions and Charity Challenges, this presentation looks at pre-trip planning, life in the field and what happens when things go wrong.
- Dr Graham Fry
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Since qualification in 1976, Graham has been involved in medical work in central Africa where he returns on a regular basis. Now based in Ireland he runs the Tropical Medical Bureau with 22 clinics spread throughout the island. He also lectures in clinical tropical medicine at Trinity College Dublin and to various other national and international groups. Treatment of Lyme Borreliosis has been a particular interest along with other causes of chronic illness and fatigue in the international traveller.
Understanding Lyme Disease
Many patients nowadays appear in our practices with the rather unsatisfactory diagnosis of "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" (CFS) or some variation on this general theme (Post Viral Fatigue, Myalgic Encephalopathy (ME) etc).Thrown into the midst of all this confusion is the fact that many of these individuals will have a history of travel (even if only within Europe) and so the potential possibility of a parasitic cause for their state needs to be considered. Lyme Borreliosis, regarded as the most common tick-transmitted disease of the northern hemisphere, may present with many of the signs and symptoms more commonly associated with CFS. Missing the diagnosis of Lyme Borreliosis in an individual patient may condemn them to a prolonged unnecessary illness.
- Dr Kitty Smith
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Dr. Kitty Smith has been involved in travel medicine since the early 1990s, when her (often severely immune-suppressed) HIV-positive patients required advice to enable them to travel safely. She passed the Diploma in Travel Medicine in 1996, one of the first students to do so and has been involved in travel medicine ever since. She returned to Glasgow in 2004 to take up a post in clinical infectious diseases and travel medicine and moved to her current role as Medical Lead in the Travel Health Section of Health Protection Scotland in January 2007. She has responsibility for providing clinical expertise in all travel health activities in HPS, including TRAVAX® and fitfortravel® content and continues to practice clinical infectious diseases, tropical medicine and travel medicine at the Brownlee Centre, Gartnavel Hospital. Kitty is a Member of the Faculty of Travel Medicine and sits on the Education and Professional Development and Examination Committees.
TRAVAX - Up there in Cyberspace
TRAVAX® and fitfortravel® are well-established, widely used and respected sources of travel-health advice for professionals and the public respectively. They have always provided advice based on available evidence and expert opinion. However, all healthcare practice should be based on evidence obtained in a consistent, logical and validated manner. This presentation describes that process and illustrates the way in which it had a significant impact on typhoid vaccine recommendations. More information about this presentation available on the conference web page.
- Question & Answer Session
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Chaired by Sheila Hall, the Q&A Panel enjoyed a lively discussion covering issues such as costing of vaccines and recent registration of yellow fever centres.
Delegates were keen to join the discussion and it was agreed that longer time could have been allocated for this session.
We’ll know the next time!Panel members – Jeannett Martin, Graham Fry, Fiona Genasi (HPS), Margaret Umeed, Sheila Hall – Chair.
- Mary’s Meals
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Our featured charity during the day was Mary’s Meals – an initiative of Scottish International Relief - www.marysmeals.org. Thanks to the generosity of delegates and speakers, we raised a total of £508 for Mary’s meals – sufficient to provide a daily meal, for one year, to 95 children in Malawi and other countries where this charity is working. A huge thanks to all contributers.
If you are unable to find the password please contact the TREC office – admin@TRECtravelhealth.co.uk