Annual General Body Meeting
July 18th 2003

The American Academy for Emergency Medicine in India (AAEMI) held its Third Annual General Meeting at Bellevue Hospital on July 18, 2003. Dr. Lewis Goldfrank was the keynote speaker at the meeting, which was attended by over 60 participants from all over the United States. The meeting was chaired by Dr. Kumar Alagappan, AAEMI President.
Dr. Mabel Vasnaik, the featured invited guest, President of the Society of Emergency Medicine, India (SEMI), and Professor and Head, Department of Emergency Medicine, St. Johns Medical College Hospital, Bangalore, addressed the group about the need for close collaboration between AAEMI and SEMI in efforts to promote Emergency Medicine in India.

AAEMI's activities over the past year were reviewed by Dr. Indrani Sheridan (Baptist Medical Center, Florida) who was the Program Coordinator for INTEM 2002, India's First International Emergency Medicine and Disaster Preparedness Conference. INTEM was attended by over 700 delegates from ten different countries. North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health Systems coordinated 30 faculty from various institutions throughout the US, and with the help of AAEMI and SEMI, were able to put on an outstanding conference. Similar international conferences in India will be held every four years, (the next conference is planned for 2006) with AAEMI, SEMI and NS-LIJ playing key roles as hosts and sponsors.

Dr. Rama Rao (Bellevue Hospital, NY), the current Academic Co-Chairperson for EMCON 2003, presented information regarding this upcoming national conference in Pune India, to be held from November 1-3, 2003. The conference will feature speakers from across India and 10 faculty from outside India. Those interested in participating in future conferences should contact the conference director, Dr Kumar Alagappan (LIJ).

Dr. Ankur Doshi, a resident from the University of Pittsburgh gave a 45-minute presentation about his Emergency Medicine elective in India. His talk was well received, and generated a great deal of interest among the medical students and residents present. Dr. James Holliman (University of Pennsylvania), who has done extensive work on Emergency Medicine in over 15 countries, was able to give valuable advice on how medical school and resident rotations could be accomplished.

General discussions then revolved around AAEMI member participation with activities in India including ACLS courses, EMS projects (Dr. George Abraham, Pennsylvania) and a disaster task force (Dr. Mihir Meghani, Kaiser Permanente, Northern California). Ideas to increase membership were discussed by Dr. S. Mahadevan (Stanford university, California) and Dr. Pinaki Mukherji (New York), who will coordinate fundraising. AAEMI is interested in obtaining donations for prizes to be awarded for outstanding research, abstract publications and posters presented at future conferences in India, and for various AAEMI projects.

Overall this was a very successful meeting. The dates and venue for the next meeting will be announced soon. Nominations and general elections for the AAEMI executive and board of directors will be held in the next two months. Please check the website (www.aaemi.org) for more information.

We wish to thank our gracious hosts Drs Goldfrank and Rao at Bellevue Hospital for providing the facilities for our meeting, for the time and support they have given to AAEMI, and for the fascinating tours of their Emergency Department.