ESAM – now and in the future

Presentation at AMABEL General Assembly

14 december 2012

Roland Vermeiren – Past President of ESAM 2006 - 2012

Statutary Objectives and Activities since 2006

Be pan – European Be independent Develop relations with EASA, ICAO and other relevant

organisations and associations And coordinate European aerospace medicine interests Assist to develop and harmonise education in aerospace

medicine Encourage information and dialogue between associations and

organisations Exchange of scientific results ,and organise ECAM conferences

Trigger to start ESAM in 2005 :

EASA Rules have a great impact on how you do your AME work ! now and in future

before no representation of European aero-medical professionals Only political pressure from some member states and business lobbying Many European states and AME’s were not involved Reputation of aero-medical system was poor, « not collaborating » Already too late for some issues ( LAPL )

This has changed due to ESAM ! But : INCREASED liability for the AME !

Membership of ESAM

2 new members in 2012 : - CAMA ( Civil Aviation Medical Association = USA, Canada ) - Ukraine

It becomes difficult to get more members, because most European associations are already in !

ongoing contacts with Portugal, Iceland, Baltic States, Kosovo, Slovakia

A constant problem for the EC is to have the correct and updated contact list ( e-mails of presidents, liaison members, association adresses )

Financial status

See report treasurer Carla Ledderhos on ESAM website ( +/- 50.000 euro )

some associations have problems with paying : contact EC !

Number of AME’s of associations decreasing

Costs by lack of EU attendees to ECAM 3

Decision EC 13 October in Dublin : decrease to 7,5 euro / member of each association in 2013

Long way to registration of changed Statutes

Agreed at voting during GA in Bucharest 16 September 2011

Translation into German

Processed by notary in Fürstenfeldbruck

Finally accepted by German Association Court in Cologne ...….in October 2012

In future : less Statutes, more internal «rules of application» ? 

Change of persons in EC/AB 2010 -2012

Andreas Adrian by Patricia Jung, proposed by the same German GAAME association, as EC member without portfolio, agreed at the EC meeting in Naples, February 2012

Uwe Stüben by Jürgen Graf, proposed by the same German Academy of Aviation and Travel Medicine, as AB vice-chair, appointed at the EC meeting in Naples, February 2012

Death of Secretary General Paolo Tosco on 29 October in Roma, with appointment of Declan Maher as ad-interim SG

2 Nomination Committees

former Nomination Committee : Chair : Gabor Hardicsay ( H )

members : Elena Kolesnikova ( RU ) and Izzo Simeone ( I ) for the election of the new EC 2012 – 2014 (except for President) By organising an electronic voting in October 2012

with Information Director Lilla Ungvary ( H ) and webmaster Kristoffer Tjensvoll ( N )

New Nomination Committee appointed by the GA 2012 in London : for the election in 2013 of a

President for 2014 - 2015 chair Lilla Ungvary ( H ), members Claudia Stern ( GE ) and Lars

Tjensvoll ( N )

New 2012 - 2014 Executive Committee

President : Kevin Herbert ( UK ) First vice-president : Anthony Wagstaff ( N ) Second vice-president : Vincent Feuillie ( FR ) Secretay General : Declan Maher ( IRL ) Treasurer : Carla Ledderhos ( GE – DGRLM ) Communication director : Patricia Jung ( GE – GAAME ) Member : Cristian Ionut Panait ( RO )

Co-opted member for IAC : Elena Cataman ( MO ) Co-opted member for EASA : Roland Vermeiren ( BE )

First meeting 9/10 February in Münich : with all past EC members about the future ESAM strategy

Advisory Board work

Former AB committee appointed by the EC in Naples 18 February 2012 – chair Ries Simons – vice-chair Jürgen Graf ( replaced Uwe Stüben ) – secretary Declan Maher – members Vincent Feuillie and René Maire

Produced Position papers on – FTL – insulin dependent pilots and metabolic syndrom

follow up of cabin air quality debate

E-Journal workgroup : - no own EU Journal, but cooperation with AsMA in the Editorial Board of the Blue Journal : Jürgen Graf ( GE )

New Advisory Board Committee

Chair : Ries Simons ( NL )

Vice-chair : Juergen Graf ( GE )

Secretary : Stefan Drechsel ( CH )

Member : René Maire ( CH )

New AB tasks

More experts of other countries

EASA rulemaking groups ( especially update of medical criteria )

Anti-coagulation

Epilepsy and « fits »

1% rule

Work at EASA (1)

In review group part MED aircrew : (RV) - acceptance of ESAM’s syllabus for training in aviation medicine ( now called «learning objectives» ) and discussion about new «competency based» training ( as described by ICAO ) - discussion about insulin dependent aircrew

Membership SSCC : the only representative for the EU aero-medical professionals (RV) – working « horizontally » in the SSCC subcommittees Flight Standards and ATM ( THUS safe ) – in the proposal from the workgroup about reorganisation of the SSCC a separate sector ( THUS safe ) – need for more aeromedical experts in subcommittees ( now in subco Aerodromes : Walter Gaber from FRAPORT )

Work at EASA (2)

publication of NPA on ATCO cl 3 medical requirements ( including AME cl 3 training ) (RV)

Invitations pending for new Rulemaking Groups : – age limits – OML / OSL application – Guidance Material for Part Med – aero-medical risk assessment ( the 1% rule ) – standing task of updating the medical criteria

Membership of the MEG ( Medical Expert Group ) – which will work with the CMO forum – and thus become the standing medical advisory group to the CMO of EASA – Rulemaking ( Annette Ruge )

Work at EASA (3)

Membership at the EASA ESSI ( Safety Initiatives ) – EGAST : Patricia Jung ( GE ) – ECAST : Lars Tjensvoll ( N ) – EHEST : Anthony Wagstaff ( N )

Application for membership at EHFAG ( Human Factors ) : Ries Simons ( NL )

Invitation to the CMO of EASA, dr Annette Ruge , to attend an ESAM EC, was accepted

ECAM 3 in London 

great organisational work by Kevin Herbert, our new President

Organisational Committee with UK AAME and ESAM members

Scientific Committee with UK AAME and ESAM members

Attendance problem – negative effect of electronic voting ?

Highlights ECAM 3

Key note speech : prof M Bagshaw ( UK ) : former EU AME group ATCO Incapacitation study NATS ( M Girgis ) Medical transportation : ill divers , military repatriation Extreme Human Physiology : tunnelwork, cold , heat Abstracts : Computed tomography coronary angiography (CH),

hyperbaric treatment (SA), prevention of fatigue of ATCO’s (RU), carotid atherosclerosis (RU), RBTB (CH), hearing loss helicopters (N), loss of consciousness (RU), tubomanometry (BE), testing of anti-G suits (GE), surgery on the moon (EU), space tourism (NL)

Space session : sponsored by AsMA ( representative Andy Bellenkes ) -ESA ( history ) -ITAF ( work environment ) -Virgin Galactic ( space passengers ) -NASA ( Mars flight )

Benefits of ECAM for the future

ESAM = association of all EU professionals

Bringing national associations together for exchange of experience and scientific work

Social contact forum ( organised during years with no other international congress in Europe ! )

Support of EASA : same accreditation points as AsMA or ICASM congresses ( 10 hrs )

Risks of ECAM

Costs … in times of economic dificulties

Each association has own conferences / courses in own language

Aviation medicine = unusual specialty = for most AME’s not primary source of income ( FAA 5 % rule )

2008 ECAM 1 Budapest 120 pp ( low cost ) 2010 ECAM 2 Athens 90 pp ( crisis ) 2012 ECAM 3 London 230 – 180 pp ( thanks to size UK AAME )

2014 ? Oslo ? Other format ?

Cooperation with AsMA

ESAM at AsMA panel in Atlanta 16 May 2012 : on diabetes, the metabolic syndrome, insulin dependent pilots, certification proposals in EU and practices in Australia

AsMA / ESAM EC’s business lunch 17 May 2012 : on cooperation

Mutual representatives in the AsMA Council / ESAM GA : Andy Bellenkes ( USA ) and Hans Pongratz ( GE )

Active in the AsMA ATM and International committees

Possibility to publish articles about the aviation medicine status in Europe in the blue Journal, seat in the Editorial Board

ESAM panel in Chicago 2013 : «implementation of EASA rules»

Cooperation with IAC

Is the medical board of the Interstate Aviation Committee, with Elena Cataman, CMO Moldova, as standing member

Attending and presenting at the meeting from 25 – 28 October 2011 in Moscow

Attending and presenting at the meeting and Congress from 17 – 21 September 2012 in Kiev

Invitation for the 2013 meeting in Baku

Workgoup Training in Aviation Medicine

Chaired by Elena Cataman

Meeting on Competence Based Training in Frankfurt 3 – 4 April 2012 with proposal for EASA review group updating part.MED

Contact with the CMO forum about harmonisation of refresher accreditation points (RV)

Procedure for accreditation of refresher training is on the ESAM website

Website www.esam.aero

Presentation by Lilla Ungvary ( H ), ESAM Communication Director : data from 2007 - 2012

Total successful requests: 1 422 431 Average number of successful requests for pages per day: 163 Total redirected requests: 27 245 Number of distinct files requested: 31,676 Number of different machines serviced: 40 051 Total amount of data transferred: 78.51 gigabytes

Thanks to ESAM Webmaster, Kristoffer Tjensvoll ( N )

And ESAM web – and printed flyers layout designer, Seppe Celis from Eurocontrol ( BE )

Quid pan-European events / conferences / courses calendar ?

ESAM in 6 questions 34 AMABEL responses

Do you feel enough informed about ESAM ? - yes 6 - no 20 - approximatively 7 - no opinion 1

Do you think that ESAM is needed ? - yes 26 - no 1 - perhaps 4 - no opinion 3

Are you satisfied with the activities of ESAM ? - yes 7 - no 2 - approximatively 8 - no opinion 17

ESAM in 6 questions 34 AMABEL responses

Wath do you think about the annual ESAM fees ? - correct 25 - too much 1 - too low 0 - no opinion 8

Are you interested to attend an ECAM conference ? - Yes 24 - no 4 - perhaps 4 - don’t know 2

Have you already visited the ESAM website ? - Regularly 2 - sometimes 16 - never 16