The unusual spell of exceptionally warm weather (for the UK !) seems to have come to an end, and a rainy day gives me a chance to blog about the AsMA meeting, held in Atlanta,Georgia, in mid- May.

The Executive Committee held a very successful meeting in Naples over the weekend of 18-19th February. We are grateful to the inimitable Paulo Tosco for his impeccable organisation of the weekend, not least for the sizeable discounts at the various restaurants we used.

We were joined at the meeting by Patricia Jung, standing in for Andreas Adrian, and Lars Tjensvoll and Anthony Wagstaff, who presented their work on EASA safety groups.

A new year has dawned.....so it is time for the first blog of 2012.

And what a year it promises to be. Olympics in the UK in the summer (I have tickets!), the third European Conference of Aerospace Medicine in November, the wedding of my daughter in June.......and I become President of ESAM. It is difficult to know which of the latter three events is the most scary!!

I have just returned from a fascinating visit to the Interstate Aviation Committee medical meeting in Moscow. A delegation from ESAM of Elena Cataman, Ries Simons, Uwe Stuben and myself attended from 24th to 28th of October. The warmth of the welcome, and generous hospitality, of our Russian hosts more than compensated for the cold Moscow climate.

During the meeting I gave a presentation on the history of ESAM and its future strategy, with a translation into Russian by Elena, who did the same for all our presentations. Uwe gave a presentation on the use of hair analysis in the detection and monitoring of substance abuse in Lufthansa cadet pilots, and the Lufthansa medical services. Both generated much interest and many questions. Ries’s presentation was on pilot fatigue and fatigue risk management. This again was well received and prompted many questions.

As the UK enjoys weather only matched by that experienced in Bucharest at the ICASM conference, it is time to write a blog. Sorry that this blog is a little overdue, not helped by a short stay in hospital, in fact it's written from my bed. I am on the mend!

The ICASM conference was informative and enjoyable, and I must congratulate our Romanian hosts for their excellent hospitality and organisation.

I am returning to the UK from Seville, on a Ryanair flight, as I write this blog. The Executive Committee (EC) had a very productive meeting on Saturday 18th.

Many of us took the opportunity for a couple of extra days in the beautiful and sunny city of Seville, where the temperature touched 38degC at times. We were joined by representatives of Soframas (Patrick Rodrigues) and SEMA (Maria-Jose Martin Utset), as observers, for parts of the meeting. They were able to witness at first hand, the hard work we are doing on your behalf. If you would like a representative of your Society to attend a future meeting, particularly if we are meeting in your area, please make contact with Roland Vermeiren to arrange an invitation.

The proposed changes to the ESAM statutes are now on the website.

The Executive Committee have decided to make the final version of the proposed changes to the statutes available on the website in advance of our next meeting in Seville on 18th June.

I am sitting in the sunshine in Wiesbaden, staying with friends following my return from the Aerospace Medical Association meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, from 8th to 12th May. This was a very successful meeting, attracting 1300 delegates, of whom over 400 were international.

There was the usual diverse mixture of stimulating scientific sessions, many social gatherings, and of course the opportunity to meet with friends, both old and new, in the aerospace medicine domain. Navigating the often perplexing mixture of sessions on offer was made easier this year by the use of an 'app' for the iPad.

As the lambs frolic in the fields, and the flowers in the garden burst into bloom, it is a good time to reflect on ESAM’s rapid growth, and future direction. Just like a plant, an organisation like ESAM needs to ensure that it has strong roots to sustain its growth and development. For this reason the Executive Committee (EC) have recently agreed a strategy document, to set the direction for the coming years.
DON’T PANIC!

It is not a weighty tome, being a few pages long. It will appear on the site shortly after this blog, so we would be very grateful if you could read it. You may have to forgive the references to Monty Python and Star Trek, both major influences on my writing style!

In a lull before the Christmas celebrations get into full swing, it is time to reflect on the second European Congress of Aerospace Medicine, held in Athens in November. The 20 degree rise in day time temperature was most welcome to those of us from northern Europe, in the grip of arctic weather. This was matched by the warmth of welcome from our Greek hosts, who should be congratulated for volunteering to host the meeting at a time of great financial challenge, both for the Hellenic society, and Greece as a whole.

After 6 years and 3 terms of chairing and building up our wonderful Association, ESAM, time has come for me to pass the ship to a new captain, Kevin Herbert, Chairman of the UK AME Association and current Vice-president of ESAM. It has been an intensive and time consuming period, but it has given so much back in the richness and warmth of contacts from all over Europe and the joy of harnessing the desire, which was fundamentally there in all national associations, to work together in a pan-European setting.  

Friends,

On the 22nd of this month we will open the first ICAM. It will be held in Paris. A meeting of four great associations with different philosophies but a common focus; Aerospace Medicine. ASMA, ESAM, IAASM and SOFRAMAS will come together under one cupola.

How appropriate, as the first medical meeting of the FAI took place in Paris 100 years ago in 1922!

We had planned to have the Conference two years ago but none of us anticipated what visited the world in 2020 and the lasting impact it has had on everyone. But we have survived the pandemic and we are of the 99% who will die of something else another day.

Dear friends and colleagues,
2010 has been a very busy year for ESAM and 2011 promises to be the same !

ESAM got a new membership from the Danish Society of aerospace medicine, and we have elected a new Executive Committee at out General Assembly in November, after our 2th ECAM Congress hosted by the Greek Society.