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Terror attacks: Are we prepared?
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At the upcoming EFORT Congress in Vienna, orthopaedic and trauma surgeons will once again share their professional knowledge and experiences in the hope of improving the quality of care and outcomes of treatment for their patients. The main theme of the congress in Vienna is “Sports activities and orthopaedic practice.” Many orthopaedic and trauma surgeons are looking forward to our high-quality annual meeting, which is one way we better prepare ourselves to handle the expected orthopaedic and trauma pathology that presents to our practices.
As medical specialists, we must be prepared to treat rare and unexpected pathology, as well. We also have a huge responsibility to serve our communities by delivering the best care in the most urgent circumstances. During the last year, colleagues from all over our continent, and in other parts of the world, have been confronted with the results of increased violence from the deliberate harming of many innocent people. Orthopaedic surgeons in Paris, London, Berlin and Stockholm were seemingly suddenly confronted with a high number of patients who had life-threatening injuries that required emergency trauma care. Terrorist attacks are unpredictable. Furthermore, these have an enormous impact on victims, the population and all who are involved in the care of the injured persons and their families.
The board of EFORT decided that this year’s annual congress in Vienna can serve a special purpose given the current environment. It was deemed necessary to hold a symposium at the meeting to facilitate the sharing of experiences from inside and outside of Europe. Colleagues who witnessed, lived and worked through some of the unprecedented violence of the last year will share the difficult lessons they learned to help prepare us, as much as is possible, for the unexpected, unwanted, but nevertheless, real possibility of a terrorist attack. As an organization that connects all aspects of orthopaedic and trauma care in Europe, EFORT wants to support our common responsibility for best possible care of our fellow citizens at home. This is one of the reasons EFORT was founded almost 25 years ago.
I would like to encourage congress participants to attend this symposium, which will take place Friday, 2 June 2017 at 08:15 to 09:45. The personal experiences shared by the experts on hand, who found themselves on the front line, will help everyone to prepare to administer the kind of treatments we hope will never be necessary.
- For more information:
- Jan A.N. Verhaar, MD, PhD, is the president of EFORT. He can be reached at Erasmus University Medical Center, Room HS-101, 3000CA Rotterdam ZH, The Netherlands; email: j.verhaar@erasmusmc.nl.
Disclosure: Verhaar reports no relevant financial disclosures.