“The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.”
— Sir William Osler (1849 – 1919)
Write it down in your diaries LITFLers, the place to be from May 31st to June 2nd 2013 is Wellington, New Zealand.
Why?
Not just because Wellington is the “coolest little capital in the world”, but also because it is hosting the 2013 Annual Scientific Meeting of the College of Intensive Care Medicine.
The conference convenor is (LITFL contributor!) Dr Paul Young and he has put together a great team of speakers tackling topics with the general theme of “Down with Dogma: Challenging the Fundamentals of Intensive Care“.
I’m particularly looking forward to hearing what one of my old med school teachers, Stephen Streat, has to say in a talk titled “Cults, memes, gizmo idolatry, ‘Wiki-truth’ and the rise of magical thinking“, but there will be myths being busted and pseudo-truths being exposed in talk after talk by expert after expert.
Paul explained the rationale for the conference theme and put forward an invitation to attend the 2013 CICM ASM at the last meeting in Melbourne recently:
In addition to the numerous experts and elite speakers featuring on the program, it seems that I have been included to challenge the dogma that you actually have be a fully qualified intensivist and actually have to be expert at something in order to speak at the CICM ASM! I’ll be tackling two of my favourite topics in talks titled “Toxicological myths and half-truths” and “Social media and the internet: the future of medical education?“… Hecklers welcome!
At least I’ll have another LITFL contributor, Oliver Flower there as moral support — Oli will be speaking about “An iconoclastic view of neurocritical care“. As an aside, I spoke to Oli (@NeuroICU) about the Intensive Care Network project (which you must check out) in a recent ‘Conversation in the Fast Lane‘.
I hope to see you in the greatest country on earth next year 
Early bird registration opens in January 2013 on the CICM ASM website
Download a pdf of the CICM ASM 2013 program here
Check out the CICM ASM 2013 page at wellingtonicu.com
Use the #CICMASM13 hashtag to take part in the discussion on Twitter
About Chris Nickson
Are you recording??? 8>D
Would be a shame not to, eh
C
Wow, looks like a great programme. I actually worked with Paul Young briefly when I was in the Royal Melbourne ICU a short few years back. I remember at one bedside on a round one day him saying “Whoever charted that antibiotic is a f***king idiot”. Thankfully my signature was illegible and I stayed quiet.
I assume a hashtag will be created closer to the time.
jc
Brilliant… Glad to see Paul putting the communication skills prize he won in med school to good use!
And yes, the twitter hashtag shall come.
Chris
I hope you’ll be including induction of emesis and gastric lavage among your toxicological myths. These archaic practices really need to be stamped out in New Zealand!
Prepare for some serious stamping!
Chris