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How many volunteers were present at the Congress? : |
150 |
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Delegates from which countries presented in the congress? : |
Iran, Denmark, Canada, China, Estonia, USA, Philippines, Sweden, Japan, Egypt, Brazil, Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Switzerland, Italy, Indonesia, Qatar, Australia, Belgium, Macedonia, France |
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Were the delegates of any other organizations present in the congress? : |
No |
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If yes, please write the names of the organizations in the box : |
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What were the responses to your talking points? Were specific questions or concerns raised? : |
There were some questions about the response to road traffic injuries in Iran, injury surveillance system in Iran and the role of forensic medicine organization. |
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If you met staff members, please list their full names & positions. : |
Prof. Klas Puschel, Chair of the congress and head of the department of forensic medicine at Hamburg university
Prof Don Redelmeier, Faculty of medicine, University of Toronto |
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Please inform us if there are any follow up actions we need to talk with the members of the congress : |
I suggested Iran as the host for the 24th International Traffic Medicine Association conference. Some of the delegates had hesitations regarding acceptance of this proposal because of the limitations they felt for travelling to Iran. I tried to make them sure that they will have a great experience if they attend the conference in Tehran. Some of the other delegates who had previously visited Iran agreed with my speech. There were also suggestions from Japan and Qatar for hosting the next conference. ITMA board is going to decide on these suggestions in coming months. |
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Your experiences about the travel processes(Providing ticket, accommodation,...) : |
The expenses were too much high. I am afraid that I might not be able to participate to any future conferences out of Iran because of financial problems. |
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Please give a briefing of your own observations and outcomes of the congress: : |
These are a brief overviewof the 23rd ITMA conference written by ITMA president:
"ITMA's mission to reduce harm from traffic crashes grows more and more important as already well over one million people are killed on the world's roads each year. That number keeps increasing as the number of vehicles is increasing, causing yet more deaths and injuries from traffic crashes. ITMA provides a forum for researchers and practitioners from around the world to share experiences and knowledge enabling them to return to their countries with ideas they have acquired from each other. This allows them to hasten the process of decreasing human suffering from injuries and deaths in traffic in their own countries.
Working together between experts from different professions is important to reach this goal. Our recent meeting in Hamburg fulfilled many aspects of this. We were physicians, engineers, researchers, students and practitioners, decision makers, politicians, officials from different authorities and NGOs, young and old, experienced and novice. Coming from such different parts of the world as Denmark, Qatar, Canada, China, Estonia, Iran, USA, Philippines, Sweden, Japan, Egypt, Brazil, Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Switzerland, Italy, Indonesia, Australia, Belgium, Macedonia, France and of course from our hosting country Germany. Many more countries were represented by delegates meeting each other in the common English language.
We discussed matters of traffic safety of concern for all of us in different fields such as fitness to drive and how to measure, categorise and treat victims of traffic crashes. We had sessions on the epidemiology of crashes and on how to achieve safe mobility in cases where fitness to drive criteria were not met. We also discussed and learned about traffic safety at sea and were told about how analysing the dead body of traffic injury victims could give us new knowledge to prevent death to happen in future crashes. We heard about young and old drivers, problems with drunk and drugged driving were discussed and examples of different solutions from around the world were given. We had good examples of organisational models from different parts of the world. The model of doctors and psychologists working close together in teams in Germany gave new aspects of driver fitness.
We heard about why USA is lagging behind in traffic safety compared to other countries, how a "doctor's warning" could halve the injuries from subsequent crashes, critical views on excluding to many drivers at risk to have a cardiac arrest at the wheel and how emergency transport and care is organised in Chongqing, China. We were provocatively asked if we really need driver assistance systems in cars and learned how the older driver can connect well with such devices. These subjects are given only as examples of the abundance of interesting themes. Discussions at sessions and in intervals were vivid and the time flew away all too quickly.
We also had a great time in Hamburg, meeting old friends and making new acquaintances at social events such as the get together and the different surprise tours we were given. The new idea to have the persons taking part in the different tours giving short presentations of their tour and showing (only the best) pictures from it gave us all the opportunity to learn from each other and get to know new friends. The beauty of Hamburg in spring was not shadowed by the umbrellas we had to use from time to time. The traffic situation in central parts was calm and in many areas cars were not at all present and only an abundance of bicyclists, joggers and other pedestrians were seen." |