The Call for Abstracts and Registration for the 4th Pan American Regional Conference are now open!

The Preliminary Program is now available on the website.

The 4th Pan American Regional Conference will be convened from 15-17 October 2012 in Leesburg, Virginia, USA (Washington DC Area). The theme of the conference will be Measuring Progress and Improving Preparedness in Disaster Management. The conference will bring together individuals interested in disaster and emergency medicine/management to discuss developments and to build consensus on important related issues in the field.

The 4th WADEM Pan American Regional Conference will be comprised of consensus-building workshops, debates, keynote addresses, as well as invited and free papers. There will be a focus on risk reduction, improving preparedness, and assessing responses worldwide from prehospital care systems through post-event evaluations. Additionally, there will be several relevant pre- and post-conference workshops and courses.

Please click on the following link for more information - http://www.wadem.org/4thpan_american.html.

News and Annoucements from WADEM

PDM 26:6 is now online on CJO
The most recent issue of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine has been uploaded to Cambridge Journals Online. Please login to the Member Area to access the recent issue of PDM.

Psychosocial Section
In March, the Board of Directors approved the formation of the Psychosocial Section. The section was established to increase the role of psychosocial/disaster mental health specialists in responding to and providing support across the different phases of a disaster. The Section is open to all WADEM members in good standing with expertise or an interest in the psychosocial aspects of disasters. Please visit the Psychosocial Section webpage for more information.

Oceania Newsletter
The March issue of the Oceania Newsletter is available on the WADEM website. This issue includes profiles of the recently elected Officers of the Oceania Chapter and a report/update about the Foreign Medical Teams Working Group that recently met in Geneva in December 2011. Please click on the following link to access the newsletter - http://www.wadem.org/oceania/mar_2012.pdf.

Call for WCDEM Bids
WADEM is currently accepting bids for the 20th World Congress on Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WCDEM) in 2017. Bids are generally considered and awarded by the Board of Directors four years in advance. Any interested parties (academic department, professional association, scientific institution, etc.) will need to be present at the 18th WCDEM in Manchester, United Kingdom to give a formal presentation. For more information about the requirements about bidding for or hosting a WCDEM, please visit - http://www.wadem.org/documents/wcdem_bid_guidelines.pdf.