President’s message; November 19, 2012
The nice summer is gone and we are all back to work. What are the latest news for CSME and the medicolegal world??
I would like to draw your attention on the new CSME website, much more user friendly than the previous one. Please visit it and make any suggestions to improve its content: future meetings of interest, short review of books or scientific papers, etc. If everyone could spend a few minutes from times to times trying to make suggestions to improve the website, every member will benefit. We hope to have more updated guidelines available soon on our website; our guidelines committee is working hard to have high updated quality guidelines available for you.
Secondly I would like to say a few words about AIDC2012, the 4th world meeting of medical experts, held for the first time in North America. Thanks to the speakers and to all those of who made the trip to Montreal for this conference; you have contributed to the success of this meeting and to the quality of the discussions after each presentation. 280 attendees from 21 countries presented in 4 days more than 90 scientific presentations. For the attendees, they have a secure access to all PPT, biographies, abstracts and photos of the conference (Go to: http://www.aidc2012.org/en/inscription). At this address, those of who were unable to attend can buy on line an electronic copy of the AIDC2012 materials. Soon an AIDC website will be launched, with highlights of past AIDC conferences; you will also have the opportunity to become an AIDC member, and thus be aware of developments in the assessment of bodily injury worldwide (Congress, books, publications, etc.). The new president of the AIDC, Professor Haluk Ince, will organize AIDC2014 in Istanbul, Turkey.
As you know the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons is now offering AFC (Areas of Focused Competence) diplomas. CSME will soon make soon the proposal of a medicolegal expertise diploma; a committee, led by Dr Arthur Ameis, is working on the portfolio for such a diploma. It is more than time that some regulation and diplomation occurs in Canada for complex medicolegal work, as in most European Countries. The body of medicolegal knowledge needed over our specialty qualifications is hard to imagine for one who has never been exposed to the extent of medicolegal topics offered in a thorough medicolegal training (ie.: you can visit http://www.mae.umontreal.ca/en). Medical experts do not have any formal immunity, and the small number of lawsuits occurring against medical experts, for negligence or defamation, should be a driving argument for proper medicolegal training and qualification.
Finally we need your help to increase the number of CSME members; please contact friends and colleagues and tell them how CSME could be helpful to maintain your competence in the medicolegal field. Think about that: if any of you could bring one new member, the number of CSME members could double. We need a critical number of members to continue offering quality scientific sessions: we hope to see you in Toronto on November 23 and December 7.
Dr F Sestier, past CSME president (201102013)