Dear colleagues and friends of Aviation & Space Medicine,
The first International Conference of Aerospace Medicine was initially planned to take place in September 2020. When the Covid-19 pandemic made the Organizing Committee choose to postpone the conference to September 2022, at the same time it was decided to imagine a transitional period with virtual scientific events of aerospace medicine. Thus, the 2021 Virtual ICAM Webinar Series was created and supported by the active participation of each of the four societies involved in ICAM.
On January 15, ESAM initiated this new concept with a first webinar about « Chances of recovery of the aviation industry in light of the latest aeromedical developments of the Covid-19 pandemic » : the four PDF of presentations are available at https://esam-academy.aero/esam-academy-education/webinars/esam-academy-webinar2-presentations .
On March the 12th and 26th, AsMA continued to report the scientific knowledge about Covid-19 in regard to the « Clinical impacts and aeromedical implications for aircrew health and performance » : the first webinar focused on neurology, pulmonology and cardiology (three PDF at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zknymvpq7akgkn6/AAAVcWkbodMkSRuI6ncVMHEGa?dl=0 ) and the second on post-Covid syndrome, implications for AME and aircrew, mental health and aeromedical research (five presentations at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4xhytnn6zy0sg6b/AACsWTwf-UDid4Z-n4Y_f37ba?dl=0 ).
On May 26, IAASM hosted the next virtual scientific session with a webinar reminding of the organization of traditional ICASM and so the Allard Lecture and the Ernsting Panel, about « Preparing for the next pandemic: aerospace medicine lessons learned from Covid-19 ». Details of speakers as well as the titles of the Allard lecture and the six presentations of the panel can be read at https://www.icam2021.com/ICAM2021/ICAM2021_IAASM_Webinar.pdf .
Eventually, considering we’ve come full circle for the SARS-CoV2 as the global theme of previous sessions, and that it is time for us to focus on different topics, SOFRAMAS proposed an original final webinar entitled « Tropical diseases and overseas missions in aircrew: an update in 2021 ». A French-speaking session then an English-speaking session were developed on September the 23rd and 30th, regarding various infectious diseases but also the overseas aspects of clinical situations (five PDF at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/58qyexn31hlwl8g/AACALLlMfZBZiU9eGhtCbmGAa?dl=0 ).
Half webinars were free and half required registration with fees, some of them led to official CME credits but all contributed to the aeromedical training of AME; above all they allowed us to think about Aviation Medicine during this particular and tiring period, and they made several hundreds of the community of aeromedical practitioners stay united… so that everyone may now think about « Extending the limits of global aerospace medicine » for the next step in September 2022 !
Olivier Manen, MD, Prof.
Chair of the Scientific Committee of ICAM