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About

The ESAIC is dedicated to supporting professionals in anaesthesiology and intensive care by serving as the hub for development and dissemination of valuable educational, scientific, research, and networking resources.


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Congresses

The ESAIC hosts the Euroanaesthesia and Focus Meeting congresses that serve as platforms for cutting-edge science and innovation in the field. These events bring together experts, foster networking, and facilitate knowledge exchange in anaesthesiology, intensive care, pain management, and perioperative medicine. Euroanaesthesia is one of the world’s largest and most influential scientific congresses for anaesthesia professionals. Held annually throughout Europe, our congress is a contemporary event geared towards education, knowledge exchange and innovation in anaesthesia, intensive care, pain and perioperative medicine, as well as a platform for immense international visibility for scientific research.


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Professional Growth

The ESAIC's mission is to foster and provide exceptional training and educational opportunities. The ESAIC ensures the provision of robust and standardised examination and certification systems to support the professional development of anaesthesiologists and to ensure outstanding future doctors in the field of anaesthesiology and intensive care.


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Research

The ESAIC aims to advance patient outcomes and contribute to the progress of anaesthesiology and intensive care evidence-based practice through research. The ESAIC Clinical Trial Network (CTN), the Academic Contract Research Organisation (A-CRO), the Research Groups and Grants all contribute to the knowledge and clinical advances in the peri-operative setting.


Learn more about the ESAIC Clinical Trial Network (CTN) and the associated studies.

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EU Projects

The ESAIC is actively involved as a consortium member in numerous EU funded projects. Together with healthcare leaders and practitioners, the ESAIC's involvement as an EU project partner is another way that it is improving patient outcomes and ensuring the best care for every patient.


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Patient Safety

The ESAIC aims to promote the professional role of anaesthesiologists and intensive care physicians and enhance perioperative patient outcomes by focusing on quality of care and patient safety strategies. The Society is committed to implementing the Helsinki Declaration and leading patient safety projects.


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Sustainability

To ESAIC is committed to implementing the Glasgow Declaration and drive initiatives towards greater environmental sustainability across anaesthesiology and intensive care in Europe.


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Partnerships

The ESAIC works in collaboration with industry, national societies, and specialist societies to promote advancements in anaesthesia and intensive care. The Industry Partnership offers visibility and engagement opportunities for industry participants with ESAIC members, facilitating understanding of specific needs in anaesthesiology and in intensive care. This partnership provides resources for education and avenues for collaborative projects enhancing science, education, and patient safety. The Specialist Societies contribute to high-quality educational opportunities for European anaesthesiologists and intensivists, fostering discussion and sharing, while the National Societies, through NASC, maintain standards, promote events and courses, and facilitate connections. All partnerships collectively drive dialogue, learning, and growth in the anaesthesiology and intensive care sector.


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Guidelines

Guidelines play a crucial role in delivering evidence-based recommendations to healthcare professionals. Within the fields of anaesthesia and intensive care, guidelines are instrumental in standardizing clinical practices and enhancing patient outcomes. For many years, the ESAIC has served as a pivotal platform for facilitating continuous advancements, improving care standards and harmonising clinical management practices across Europe.


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Publications

With over 40 years of publication history, the EJA (European Journal of Anaesthesiology) has established itself as a highly respected and influential journal in its field. It covers a wide range of topics related to anaesthesiology and intensive care medicine, including perioperative medicine, pain management, critical care, resuscitation, and patient safety.


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Membership

Becoming a member of ESAIC implies becoming a part of a vibrant community of nearly 8,000 professionals who exchange best practices and stay updated on the latest developments in anaesthesiology, intensive care and perioperative medicine. ESAIC membership equips you with the tools and resources necessary to enhance your daily professional routine, nurture your career growth, and play an active role in advancing anaesthesiology, intensive care and perioperative medicine.


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ESAIC News

Online Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Crisis Simulation Masterclass

Innovation in challenging times brings new possibilities to light

When faced with the problem of continuing valuable simulation training during the pandemic, the ESAIC had to look for innovative solutions.

We had previously collaborated with Madrid’s University Hospital of Alcorcón, and its experienced high-fidelity simulation centre IDEhA, for the 2017 ESAIC Simulation Masterclass on Procedural Sedation and Ventilation Techniques.

IDEhA is a space for virtual training in a simulation and technological innovation environment that offers teaching based on a simulation environment in different areas of care, surgery, medicine and technical skills. It was created in 2015 and its name is the acronym that corresponds to Innovation, Teaching and Training at the University Hospital of Alcorcón (Madrid), being a pioneering initiative in the Madrid public system.

We knew it was perfect for our needs. It is a large well-equipped centre. It has an operating room, multi-purpose hospitalization room, consulting room, technical skills room, control room, debriefing rooms, classrooms and convertible seminars. It is equipped with high-end adult and pediatric simulators, as well as simulation with standardized patients and roleplay techniques.

The faculty at IDEhA have a wealth of experience. In combination with our own faculty Dr Daniel Arnal and Dr Julien Picard, we were certain this would make a winning combination.

However, we still need to find a solution to running engaging scenarios online. Our answer came through IDEhA’s technical director, Dr Marta Bernardino. Marta had recently completed a course on running the online simulation using Laerdal’s SimCapture software. SimCapture enables the lives to feed on the centre’s cameras and monitor to integrate into Zoom. This would give the attendees a direct connection to the sim suite and virtual monitor. With Marta’s experience and Laerdal’s support, IDEhA was set up with SimCapture so it was ready to run the online simulation.

SimCapture allows you to effectively manage, record, and assess simulation training, both on-site and in-situ. Capture audio, video, annotations, patient monitors, and simulator data in a single web-based interface.

On 20 -21 April 2021, we ran our first online masterclass. The plan was unique and effective. Actors/avatars and a supporting nurse were physically located in the simulation centre. Each of the 2 actors was connected to a participant on Zoom and identified with a white or black surgical cap. The participants were given a briefing before the scenario, as per normal simulation. During the scenario, they would ask for information and give commands to their actor to interact with the patient. The information would also come back to them through a monitor view from the sim centre that would be visible on their Zoom screen.

 

We ran scenarios based on anaesthesia CRM training: Anaphylaxis, Malignant Hyperthermia, Local Anaesthetic Toxicity and Can’t Ventilate/Can’t Intubate airway. The scenarios and the debriefing approach had to be reworked to suit this new format. Scenarios had to be clarified and simplified a little and their learning outcomes made them even more well defined. The faculty had to be very clear about the flow of the scenario and that it would be manageable under these new conditions.

Debriefing had to become less personal and more a collective discussion about the technical and human factors issues of a particular scenario. However, we discovered that there were excellent discussion points raised through the participants’ interactions. Leadership, communication, teamwork, protocols all had the same relevance but had to be approached in different ways in the debriefing. Participants still took away personal learning points. Participants still experienced that adrenaline rush, even though they were removed from the actual sim centre.

Feedback from this event was highly enthusiastic. We received some excellent suggestions to evolve the course and strong support to continue to provide this online option, even when travel and face2face sessions were permitted again. We had attendees from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Australia, Greece. Romania and Turkey. It allowed ESAIC members to get access to the high-quality simulation without the need to travel.

Our next online simulation masterclass takes place on 11 – 12 May 2022.

You can find more information here: https://www.esaic.org/event/online-anaesthesia-and-intensive-care-crisis-simulation-workshop-helsinki-declaration-through-high-fidelity-simulation/

The Online Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Crisis Simulation Masterclass is part of the Safer Care to Save Lives education project.  The development of this project is supported through unrestricted educational grants from our key ESAIC Patient Safety Partners: Medtronic, Philips Healthcare, Edwards Life Sciences, Mindray and Getinge.

Our faculty

Daniel Arnal, M.D. is the chair of the ESAIC Patient Safety and Quality Committee. He is also co-founder and past chair of the Spanish Anesthesia Incident Reporting System (SENSAR). He is also Chair of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation Regional Network for Spain and Latin America and Vice President of Quality, Patient Safety and Ethics of the Spanish Society of Anesthesiology and Reanimation (SEDAR).

He completed his anesthesiology training at Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañon, in Madrid, Spain, and has worked as an Anesthesia Consultant in the Hospital Universitario Fundacion Alcorcon since 2005 where he coordinates and teaches simulation training programs in the IDEhA Simulation Center.

Dr Arnal’s publications and scientific interests focus on patient safety and quality, and he co-edited the Spanish Anesthesia and Critical Patient Crisis Manual.

Julien Picard is Anaesthesiologist and Intensivist at the Grenoble – Alpes University Hospital, France. He has clinical activity in Trauma ICU and Emergency. He is a Professor of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Grenoble Alpes University. Julien earned his Doctor of Medicine degree at Grenoble-Alpes University in 2007 and his PhD in Engineering of Cognition, Interaction, Learning and Creation in 2020. He also has a Diploma in Specialized Studies in Anesthesiology and Critical Care, and University Diplomas of Medical Pedagogy and Medical Law and an aptitude for Expertise. He is the head of the Simulation Center (CESAR – Centre Evaluation et Simulation Alpes Recherche) that he co-founded in 2008. He is involved in the French Society of Anesthesiology and Critical Care (Société Française d’Anesthésie et de Réanimation) as the Secretary of the Patient Safety Committee (Comité Analyse et Maitrise du Risque) and contributes to the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC) as a member of the Simulation Committee. He is also a member of the Board and of the Scientific Committee and Pedagogical Committee of the French-Speaking Society of Simulation in Health (SoFraSIMS – Société Francophone de Simulation en Santé). His publications and scientific interests focus on Trauma, Haemostasis, Risk Management and Patient Safety.

Marta Bernardino is an Anaesthesiology and Reanimation MD and Director at the Hospital Simulation Centre (IDEhA), University Foundation Hospital Alcorcón (Madrid- Spain). She is an Advanced Simulation Instructor with the Center for Medical Simulation & Harvard-MIT with the Hospital virtual Valdecilla program. She has a European Diploma in Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care with the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive care ESAIC. Spanish Society of Simulation and Patient Safety (SESSEP) Safety committee chair, Executive Committee. https://sessep.com/junta-directiva/.