AMSANZ Conference - August 2007 - Report
Once more, the AMSANZ Conference was an enjoyable meeting held this year n in combination with ANZSOM (NZ and Australia)
A few members attended some lectures between skiing, golf and wine tasting – most (apart from those trying night skiing) attended the 007 dinner & dance.
The figures have not yet been finalised, but it is likely there was a small financial loss.
The Committee this reasonable considering we had conference organisers which cost $26,000.
The trip to Manapouri power station was a highlight orchestrated by Tim Rumball.
The Lane lecturer, Prof Charles Watson, arrived eventually from Perth & spoke on Avian Flu and an overview of pandemics. Who’d have thought there were 16 billion chickens in the world – mostly in China. Buy locally produced food ..
The Patterson lecturer, Prof. Keith Petrie from Auckland gave an entertaining talk on the ‘worried well’ and illness perceptions. If you Google ‘Keith Petrie’ you’ll find a detailed list of his research and presentations.
Hamish Black from International SOS spoke on managing the travelling workforce – have a medical examination, don’t ignore travel warnings & make sure someone knows where you are.
Cardiologist, John Eliott from Christchurch gave an update on the treatment of heart attacks. Now safe to travel in 6-8 weeks.
Des Gorman gave a brilliant talk on the management of medically unexplained disease. The short answer is to buy the book – Issy Pilowski, “Abnormal Illness behaviour” (Wiley 1997) but once you have ruled out disease, acknowledge the reality of the symptoms and stop doing further investigations. Then refer for coping treatment.
And our own celebrity, Dave Powell reminisced on 10 years of practice – 8 out of 10 airline pilot problems are caused by mental / alcohol / drug problems. Get to know your pilots well.