In an era marked by healthcare challenges as diverse as they are pressing, the Africa Health annual Emergency Medicine Conference has emerged as a crucial event in the ED (Emergency Department), ER (Emergency Response) and ESP (Emergency Service Providers) space.
This confluence of some of the greatest minds in emergency medicine will take place as part of Africa Health Congress 2023 by Informa Markets at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Johannesburg from the 17th to the 19th of October 2023.
In collaboration with the Emergency Medicine Society of South Africa (EMSSA), the conference will assemble a scintillating lineup of expert speakers; field-leading specialists, medical experts, policymakers, and frontline healthcare workers.
The conference theme – Sustainable Emergency Care in Africa – encapsulates the crucial project of this highly anticipated event: to chart a course for the future of emergency care across Africa through the prism of resilience and sustainability.
The 4th Emergency Medicine Conference is a key component of the larger Africa Health 2023, where field-leading medical specialists unpack the challenges of healthcare in a resource-constrained context, highlighting and sharing innovative solutions to the rising incidence of non-communicable diseases. A key focus will be on pragmatic approaches to emergency care that are both efficacious and sustainable.
High-profile speakers like Efriam Kramer, Emergency Medicine Professor at WITS University, and Dr Amanda Naidoo-Pillay, Emergency Medicine Registrar at Steve Biko Academic Hospital, will address attendees with a wide array of incisive sessions on timely topics spanning from practical advice on everyday issues like snakebite, drowning, and best practice in rape case management, to more abstract concepts like medicolegal issues facing EDs, the epidemic of burnout in ESPs, and Western vs African ethics in emergency medicine.
This event will be chaired by Professor Feroza Motara, a leader in the field of Emergency Medicine. Motara serves as an Adjunct Professor and Academic Head in the Division of Emergency Medicine at WITS University, where her leadership has been instrumental in advancing the field within the theoretical realms of academia, as well as the practice of contemporary emergency care.
Her work has been emblematic of bringing emergency medicine knowledge, into the broader spaces of general medical practice, and raising awareness for the challenges facing this crucial front-line field.
Among her recent scholarly contributions is a paper exploring CPR awareness among non-medical staff. Last year, she had several studies published in prestigious medical journals, including ‘The profile of patients presenting with intentional self-poisoning to the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital emergency department, South Africa’ and ‘Prevalence and presentation of neonatal sepsis at a paediatric emergency department in Johannesburg, South Africa’.
Each of the Emergency Medicine Conference’s three sessions will serve as a launchpad and platform for the sharing and synthesis of the latest knowledge and innovations in the field, with topics as diverse as the ethical considerations of palliation by Dr. Vidya Laloo to Dr. Bradley Rae’s compassionate approach to violence, aggression, stress and burnout in the ED.
The conference will be of interest for anyone working within the ambit of emergency healthcare, including physicians, emergency care practitioners, medical officers, trauma surgeons, and paramedics, among others, and serves as a fertile ground for networking, partnership forging and knowledge sharing.
The event will invite each attendee to not only consume knowledge but to be part of a larger discussion that shapes the future of emergency healthcare in Africa.
In the words of Africa Health 2023 spokesperson Dr Bandile Hadebe, “We are not just building capacities; we are shaping the future of sustainable emergency care in Africa. This conference is a conduit for that transformation.”