Chris Jacobus' review of his experience speaking at the Eurasian EM Congress

Last year Kate was invited to speak on EM/Pall Care at the 5th Eurasian Congress on Emergency Medicine in Turkey. She was unable to go so sent an email out to the listserv asking if anyone was interested. It sounded like an interesting opportunity, so, on a lark, I volunteered, not really expecting for it to actually happen. To my surprise, they took me up on my offer and asked me to speak! They put me in touch with a Turkish EM physician who has a strong interest in Pal Care and she filled me in on the state of both emergency medicine (well-established and getting stronger) and palliative care (in its infancy) in Turkey. My invitation was to speak on an EM/PM topic of my choice for 20 minutes. After speaking to my Turkish advisor I decided to cover the care of the dying patient in the ED and discussing resuscitation preferences. 

The conference was held in Antalya, a seaside resort town in Turkey, on the Mediterranean. Travel was pretty grueling, I had to fit it into my work schedule so it was 24 hours of travel there, stay for 48 hours, then 24 hours of travel back. They covered the cost of lodging at the all-inclusive resort, but I had to cover airfare. The only other expenses I incurred were souvenirs. The resort was stunning, the service was amazing, and the people were all very friendly. The conference was extremely well organized, very professionally run, and attended by about 1000 people. Half of the lecture tracks were in Turkish and half in English. The English rooms had Turkish interpreters. 

The conference this year will be in Antalya again. I was very much looking forward to going back, and my wife and I were actually planning a trip around it, until they changed the dates so that it now occurs over Thanksgiving. They are looking for a Palliative Care speaker, so if anyone is interested Kate or I would be happy to put you in touch with the organizers. 

Email Kate Aberger with you interest.

It was great to see so many of you at the AAHPM meeting!