International Medical Conference Research Articles

ECG findings are poor predictors for adverse events and cardiac death in Barth syndrome

BackgroundPatients with Barth syndrome (BTHS) can present with cardiomyopathy. BTHS subjects are at risk for cardiac adverse outcomes throughout life, including malignant arrhythmias and death. Electrocardiogram (ECG) parameters have never been assessed as a tool to predict adverse outcomes in individuals with BTHS. ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to identify any ECG parameters, including QRS fragmentation, presence of arrhythmia, or abnormal intervals, that could predict adverse outcomes and cardiac death among the BTHS population. MethodsWe performed a retrospective case referent study on subjects with BTHS (n = 43) and compared them with our reference group, subjects with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) from a single institution (n = 53) from 2007 to 2021. BTHS data was obtained from subjects attending the biennial Barth Syndrome Foundation International Scientific, Medical, and Family Conferences (BSFISMFC) from 2002 to 2018. ECG data from the first and last available ECGs prior to an adverse event or cardiac death was analyzed. Then, multivariable regression was performed to determine odd ratios between ECG characteristics and adverse events/cardiac death. ResultsNo ECG variables were statistically significant predictors of adverse events or cardiac death in the BTHS group. Last ECG QRS fragmentation trended to statistically significance (OR 13.3, p = 0.12) in predicting adverse events in the DCM group. ConclusionNo ECG parameters, including QRS fragmentation, presence of arrhythmia, or abnormal interval values, predict adverse events or cardiac death among BTHS patients. QRS fragmentation may be a predictor of adverse events in the DCM population.

Forty-Eight Years in Ottoman Service: General Inspector of Quarantines Dr Bartoletti Efendi and His Activities [1840-1888

Foreign specialists were employed in the Ottoman Empire's health services, particularly during the 18th century onwards. The Ottomans required international cooperation to implement reforms to combat epidemics during the global epidemics of the 19th century. As a result, many foreign physicians joined the Ottoman medicine service. Therefore, numerous foreign physicians began serving with the central health organization in Istanbul and the quarantine units established in the provinces. Some physicians made significant contributions to the Ottoman sanitary administration through their positions, time in Ottoman service, and activities. Dr Bartoletti, who was born in Istanbul in 1808, was one of these specialists. After medical education in Italy, he started his Ottoman service as a quarantine doctor and became a member of the Sanitary Council. He also represented the Ottoman Empire at the international medical conferences held in Paris, Istanbul and Vienna and performed important duties in Ottoman sanitary affairs during his forty-four years of service. By examining Dr Bartoletti's activities between 1840 and 1888, this study aims to contribute to the existing literature on this field.

Enjeux et controverses quant à la participation d’activistes intersexes au Consensus de Chicago (2005)

For the first time, two intersex activists were invited to participate in an international medical conference in Chicago in 2005. As a result of this conference, recommendations for the medical management of intersex patients were updated. In addition, a new terminology has been adopted to refer to intersex people, namely disorders of sex development. This qualitative research aims to understand the implication of patient expertise in the development of new models of care. The article takes as a case study a controversy between the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) and the Organisation internationale des intersexes (OII), during the 2000's. The analysis of the controversy between ISNA and OII reveals that the participation of patients in the Chicago conference raises the epistemic injustice. That is, the knowledge of those affected is not given the same credibility as that of other participants. In addition, intersex people do not have access to the same information as health professionals, especially since the medical protocols used to recommend secrecy. It also reveals that the strategies adopted by some organizations may prove to be a failure or safeguard positions contrary to the interests of the people concerned. This paper calls for reflection on the strategies implemented, here in the dialogue with the medical profession. This research contributes more widely to the scientific debates on the epistemological and political stakes of a participation of the concerned persons in the development of healthcare policies.

Integrating a healthcare innovation bootcamp into an international medical conference to democratize innovation learning.

Integrating a healthcare innovation bootcamp into an international medical conference to democratize innovation learning.

On Obstacles and Strategies of International Medical Conference Interpreting - Take the 2nd China SMA Conference as an Example

There is a growing need of quality medical conference interpreters worldwide, yet conference interpreting in medical setting is bristled with difficulties for even experienced interpreters. To address these issues, this study cites the video of the 2nd China SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) Conference as a corpus and makes an in-depth analysis of it under the guidance of the Interpretive Theory. Through a series of data mining on issues related to speech such as pre-post conferences situation, interpretation procedures and skills employed, the study summarizes the triple difficulties during interpretation and conveys solutions by adopting a qualitative approach. It further highlights some new strategies to train more professional interpreters based on the discussions above. The result of this study contributes to the improvement in the quality of medical interpreting, the increasing research to medical conference interpretation and eventually help meet the surging need of medical interpreters in the health care industry.

Book review on the Mr Oswal's autobiography <em>Globe Trotting and 62 Years of ENT</em>

As Vasant Oswal's professional colleague and friend, it gives me immense pleasure to review Vasant's biography, published and launched in Edinburgh in the U.K. in May 2022 at the Annual British Medical Association conference.
 I met Vasant at the annual meeting of the Form (Preparatory Committee) of the World Federation of Societies in Laser Medicine and Surgery (WFSLMS). I was elected Secretary-General and Vasant, Honorary Treasurer. Subsequently, our encounters went on for many years at the various international laser medical, dental, and veterinary conferences in different parts of the world. [...]

The Anbar 2nd International Medical Conference (AIMCO-2022): Approaching the “Updates in Medical and Health Sciences”

QScience.com is the innovative and collaborative, peer-reviewed, online publishing platform from Hamad bin Khalifa University Press (HBKU Press). It offers a fast and transparent Open Access scholarly publishing process, which is centered on the author, bringing their research to a global audience.

Exploring the significance of English-based communication for a community of medical academics in a public university teaching hospital in Algeria

This paper provides an in-depth and holistic description of the significance of English language use for a community of university hospital professors in a public university teaching hospital in Algeria. The research follows an exploratory qualitative study methodology. The participants included 26 community members who agreed to take part in focus group interviews, in addition to complementary in-depth interviews and field observations. The study revealed a complex linguistic situation that is characterized by multilingualism, diglossia, code switching, and code mixing. English is used in the traditional domains of research publication and dissemination but has also expanded to the formerly French-medium medical domains such as professional, vocational, educational, and social communication. Community members’ need to use English is motivated by their attempt to integrate into the international medical community through the practice of a variety of skills and tasks organised as domain-related task repertoires. The use of information and communication technologies and participation in international medical conferences have also increased the need for English language use. These results can be used for future ESP research on English for medicine involving the design of English for medical purposes curricula, materials and assessment models, and data collection instruments.

The (commercialised) experience of operating: Embodied preferences, ambiguous variations and explaining widespread patient harm.

This article provides a detailed account of how surgeons perceived and used a device-procedure that caused widespread patient harm: transvaginal mesh for the treatment of pelvic floor disorders in women. Drawing from interviews with 27 surgeons in Canada, the UK, the United States and France and observations of major international medical conferences in North America and Europe between 2015 and 2018, we describe the commercially driven array of operative variations in the use of transvaginal mesh and show that surgeons' understanding of their hands-on, sensory experience with these variations is central to explaining patient harm. Surgeons often developed preferences for how to manage actual and anticipated dangers of transvaginal mesh procedures through embodied operative adjustments, but collectively the meaning of these preferences was fragmented, contested and deferred. We critically reflect on surgeons' understandings of their operative experience, including the view that such experience is not evidence. The harm in this case poses a challenge to some ways of thinking about uncertainty and errors in medical sociology, and calls for attention to a specific feature of surgical work: the extent and persistence of operative practices that elude classification as right or wrong but are still most certainly better and worse.

Consistency between trials presented at conferences, their subsequent publications and press releases

ObjectiveThis study examined the extent to which trials presented at major international medical conferences in 2016 consistently reported their study design, end points and results across conference abstracts, published article...

Reduced carbon footprint of virtual 2021 annual meeting of AAPOS

Carbon dioxide emissions are the primary driver of climate change, and international medical conferences contribute substantially to greenhouse gas emissions. The reduced carbon footprint of the virtual 2021 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS) was calculated.

AKATSUKI study: a prospective, multicentre, phase IV study evaluating the safety of emicizumab under and immediately after immune tolerance induction therapy in persons with congenital haemophilia A with factor VIII inhibitors

IntroductionFor persons with haemophilia A with factor (F) VIII inhibitors (PwHAwI), immune tolerance induction (ITI) therapy is indicated for inhibitor eradication; however, since PwHAwI on ITI were excluded from the...

Developing an evaluation framework for assessing the impact of recovery colleges: protocol for a participatory stakeholder engagement process and cocreated scoping review

IntroductionRecovery colleges (RCs) are mental health centres aimed at equipping people with skills to live a meaningful life despite the presence of mental distress. Unique to them is the aspect...

German Medical Data Sciences in Studies in Health Technology and Informatics - Reflections on the Fifth Volume.

Since 2017, the German Society for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology e.V. (GMDS) offers the submission of full papers to the annual meetings, optional in Studies in Health Technologies and Informatics (Stud HIT) or in GMS Medical Informatics, Biometrics, and Epidemiology (MIBE). GMDS' aim is to increase the attractiveness of the conference and paper submission process in particular for young scientists and to increase the visibility of the conference. A standardized peer review process was established. Since 2017, a 25-35% of the contributions have been submitted as full papers. A total of 177 papers were published in Stud HTI. With an unofficial journal impact factor of 1.088 (2019) and 0.540 (2020), the papers were cited with a frequency similarly to national medical journals or full paper contributions of International medical informatics conferences.

686 Emergencies in Plastic Surgery – The Impact of a One-Day Conference on Medical Students’ Confidence

Abstract Introduction Plastic surgery emergencies, such as facial trauma, burns, and gunshot wounds, are commonly presenting injuries to the emergency department. However, these topics are rarely part of medical school curriculums and few educational conferences exist on these topics. Hence, we created a novel international medical student conference entitled “Emergencies in Plastic Surgery”. We then evaluated its effectiveness in improving confidence in management of plastic surgery-related emergencies. Method We administered pre- and post-event online questionnaires to delegates evaluating self-reported confidence for Facial Trauma, Gunshot Wounds, Burns, Tendon Repair, Splinting, and Lacerations on a 5-point Likert-scale. Responses were matched before statistical analysis. Results Of the 85 attendees, three quarters responded (76%, n = 65). The conference significantly increased confidence ratings in all topics (p < 0.001). Prior to the conference, Lacerations had the highest confidence scores (2.36 ± 1.19) whereas Facial Trauma scored the lowest (1.79 ± 0.858). Facial Trauma had the greatest improvement in confidence (mean difference = 2.09 ± 0.974), whereas Lacerations yielded the lowest improvement (mean difference 1.21 ± 1.28). Facial Trauma also yielded the greatest mean satisfaction rating (4.68 ± 0.594). Conclusions The conference improved student confidence in all plastic surgery emergencies topics. More complex topics, e.g. facial trauma, yielded the greatest satisfaction and improvement in confidence.

#pandemicpedagogy: Using Twitter for knowledge exchange.

The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in homeworking becoming the norm internationally. As a result, international, national and institutional medical education conferences, workshops and seminars have been cancelled or postponed indefinitely. Consequently, the opportunity for knowledge exchange and networking has been reduced. Hull York Medical School runs a medical education research unit with associated masters and PhD programmes that rely on conferences as opportunities for postgraduate students to learn from others in the field, showcase their research and innovative pedagogy, as well as network for future employment.

When I say … the wisdom of crowds.

Recently our group tried an experiment while presenting at an international medical education conference. We placed 1,189 M+Ms in a transparent plastic bag and asked attendees to guess the number, and report their confidence in that guess, in two ways. First, each person guessed as they arrived at the session by writing their answers and submitting for our tabulation.

Carbon-neutral medical conferences should be the norm

Carbon-neutral medical conferences should be the norm

The inaugural Qatar Critical Care Conference with its Qatar Medical Journal Special Issue – An important milestone

© 2019 Hassan, Alinier, licensee HBKU Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Efficacy and safety of Chou-Ling-Dan granules in the treatment of seasonal influenza via combining Western and traditional Chinese medicine: protocol for a multicentre, randomised controlled clinical trial

IntroductionChou-Ling-Dan (CLD) (Laggerapterodonta) granules are an ethnic herbal medicine from Yunnan province of China. CLD granules have been used for the treatment of inflammatory conditions and feverish diseases in China,...