With 2021 almost behind us, it’s important to reflect on the work we have all done over the last year. With a pandemic, lockdowns and our workplaces being busier than ever it has been great to still be able to connect and learn from our amazing EMUGs community of practice through the SONIC conference and the many regional workshops and online webinars we have held over 2021.
We have an exciting range of events lined up for 2022. We’d love to hear from you if you would like to run a webinar or speak at a regional event on a POCUS topic you love.
DURING 2021 WE RAN:
11 webinars with a total of 518 attendees
2 virtual collab-labs with 24 attendees
Sonic Conference with 75 live & 63 virtual attendees
Level 1 and 2 online POCUS Management Courses
5 live regional events with the following number of attendees
Northern Territory - 87
Victoria - 24
South Australia - 25
Tasmania - 20
New Zealand - 28
A huge amount of work by our Operations Team and the organising committee went into bringing our highly successful SONIC Conference in Queenstown to fruition. With a 1 year delay and successfully dodging the New Zealand lockdown, the lucky participants were able to connect and engage in lectures and workshops as well as enjoy all the fun activities around Queenstown. The hybrid event was a real learning experience for our team and something we hope to continue into the future to improve accessibility and broaden our potential conference speakers and audience reach.
There are a number of projects going on in the EMUGs community. One of the biggest and most important has been our collaboration with the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) in developing the clinical leaders in ultrasound resources. I am happy to report that these should be released early 2022 and will be a fantastic resource for Ultrasound leads and directors going forward. A huge thank you to the EMUGs representatives on this working group, Tarek Elsayed, Jacques Loubser, Gaynor Prince, Susan Thomas and Cris Zollo. Your active contribution to advancing our mission through this project is enormous.
We have a number of other resources released this year such as our subscriptions and the POCUS Passport. The POCUS Passport is a new open access resource that provides you with all the tools to get credentialed by your local hospital using the ACEM guidelines for POCUS credentialing.
Our Central Council has undergone a refresh this year with some members moving on and some new additions. On behalf of the Central Council I would like to thank Shailesh Dass and Melody Hiew for their contributions over the years and all the help and guidance in getting EMUGs to its current position. I would also like to welcome our new members to the board - Lexi Nikolsky and Josh Monester. As ED registrars we hope they can provide a fresh and enthusiastic perspective to our council and help connect further with the emergency medicine trainees who are such an important part of our community and future.
With a stable Operations Team in Romy and Stacey and the addition of Cian looking after digital marketing, our governance structures and accountability are in good hands. I am constantly amazed at the work that goes on behind the scenes to keep our organisation agile and our community engaged and focused on our values. I am confident now in our financial position and with the structure of our team and processes that we can move forward with confidence.
Thank-you to our sponsors who have supported us this year and made all our events possible; Sonosite, Butterfly, GE, Philips and Tristel
Finally I’d like to thank our regional teams and everyone who has helped to organise an event, attend an event or helped out with one of our projects. Our volunteers and grass-roots focus is the heart-beat of our community and without YOU there would be no EMUGs. If you are interested in joining a regional team or project then please reach out to myself or Romy (romy@emugs.org). Our teams are always looking for enthusiastic clinicians with a love of POCUS.
On behalf of our Operations Team and Central Council Board of Directors I wish you all the best for the holiday season and 2022. May it be a return to normality (& COVID free) and hopefully we can all catch up in Noosa in October 20-22 for our SONIC conference.
Luke Phillips
Chair - EMUGS Central Council Board of Directors