Modes Of Transport

As part of this site we will be regularly posting educational material which we hope you will find both interesting and useful. The first of these is a PDF version of the Modes of Transport lecture from our Essential Aspects of Aeromedical Retrieval course.

The three principal modalities of transport utilised by retrieval teams are ground transport, and fixed wing or rotary wing aircraft. The retrieval clinician must have an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of each and, more importantly, a well thought out strategy for determining which is the most appropriate for a given scenario.

The PDf can be accessed via the following link:

Modes Of Transport

New ARC Guidelines

You may be interested in checking out the latest edition of Emergency Medicine Australasia, Vol 23,3,June 2011. It contains a detailed summary of what’s new in the December 2010 update of the Australasian Adult Resuscitation Guidelines.

These guidelines are unique in that for the first time the Australian Resuscitation Council worked with the NZ Resuscitation Council  to co-publish guidelines that were uniform across both countries.

The full set of guidelines can be accessed at: http://resus.org.au

MAY STAR Course a great success

We have just completed the May workshop on Essential Aspects of Retrieval Medicine. Participants spent three days immersed in the world of retrieval medicine. It was an intense experience that involved lectures, workshops, small group discussions and scenario based sessions. One of the highlights was the Saturday night scenario session at the Queensland Combined Emergency Services Academy on Whytes Island. Delegates were put through nine challenging scenarios, some indoors, some in an outdoor setting under cover of darkness and one of a simulated rescue in a tunnel environment. Despite not getting home until almost 3AM all delegates were back for the 8 o’clock start Sunday morning.

The success of the course was validated by exceptionally high scores on the evaluation sheets with over half of the delegates rating all sessions as 5/5. One participant summed it up as ” the best CME course I have ever attended”.

Registration is now open for the November Course which will be held in Brisbane on 11th – 13th November, 2011.

Full details can be found on our website at http://www.flyingdoctor.org.au/Health-Services/Health-Services-Support/ET/ET-QS/star/

The STAR Program

The RFDS Queensland Section transports over 10,000 patients per year – that’s almost 30 every single day – which means that our teams have an enormous wealth of experience in all aspects of Aeromedical Retrieval. Furthermore, the geography of Queensland means that much of this work is conducted in remote areas with long transport times to definitive care. The retrieval and transport of critically ill patients remains one of the most challenging aspects of modern medicine. There is a requirement for practitioners to possess a broad range of critical care skills and be able to apply them in a highly restrictive and unpredictable environment.

RFDS Qld has combined all of this expertise into creating the STAR Program – Specialised Training in Aeromedical Retrieval.

The major focus of this program is to improve the delivery of clinical care in aeromedical retrieval. This will give you the opportunity to receive training and education in all aspects of this challenging discipline.