Each year the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States (AMSUS) sponsors a meeting for healthcare professionals, with a focus on the activities of the health agencies of the United States Government. American attendees include military and civilian healthcare professionals of the Armed Forces, Public Health Service, and Department of Veterans Affairs.
This year's meeting will be held 31 October - 5 November in Phoenix, AZ. We encourage government healthcare professionals of other nations to attend, and we normally host approximately 100 International Delegates. The agenda includes activities and special programs for professionals from all fields of the health sciences. Full Category 1 Continuing Medical Education credit will be offered to international physicians attending the AMSUS conference in Phoenix. Unfortunately, we are unable to pay travel and per diem expenses, but International Delegates are not charged for registration, programmed activities, or social events.
Call for International Delegates:
The call for participation in AMSUS goes out to the embassies of all nations who share diplomatic recognition with the United States in February-March of each year. That invitation is then, hopefully, forwarded back to the leadership of each nation’s federal healthcare entities (military services, public health, or veteran’s administrations). Individuals should feel free to contact their leadership to ensure that they have been formally invited and to verify their participation is approved. If a copy of the letter that was sent to your Embassy is needed, please contact the International Committee and one will be provided. Also, in some cases an individual letter of invitation is required for passport and visa purposes. In those cases, an invitation can be prepared, provided the member verifies that his or her participation has been cleared by their parent federal healthcare organization. The point of contact for this matter is Colonel Jim Fike, USAF, MC of the International Committee.
International Delegate Registration Process:
In order to ensure that our international guests are identified properly, and prevent inadvertent registration fees and costs that AMSUS has agreed to cover, there is a slightly different process for registration than the US participants will follow. The international delegate registration form should be filled out and then e-mailed to meetings@amsus.org. Although confirmation that your registration form was received will be sent out earlier, a confirmation number will be sent out in the weeks prior to the actual conference. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the AMSUS International Committee Chairman, Colonel Jim Fike, USAF, MC.
International Delegate Presentations:
International presenters will follow the same guidance as the US presenters, and work with the chairperson of their presentation session to comply with deadlines for continuing education credit for their presentation, and to have all of their presentation requirements met. Once a presentation is accepted, the international delegate will be introduce to the session leader to allow for direct communication, but can also contact the International Committee for guidance and support.
The majority of the presentations in recent meetings have focused on operational topics, and this year’s theme “Global Health: A Force for Good” will likely lead to a comparable focus – not only on the international support to current operations, but humanitarian assistance and disaster response. Nevertheless, there are opportunities to submit proposals/abstracts for clinical and research topics, too.
International Poster Session:
In addition to the international oral presentations, there is an opportunity to submit an abstract for the International Poster Session. The details of the 2010 International Poster Session are being worked out at this time, and more information will be posted to this site as soon as it becomes available.
Joint Humanitarian Operations Course:
Each conference for the last few years international delegates have been offered an opportunity to register for the Joint Humanitarian Operations Course. The US Agency for International Development, Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, teaches this course. It is focused on the US government response to humanitarian operations, but the course materials and discussions on the military support to civilian authorities in a disaster response setting have applicability to many non-US government and non-governmental organizations.
This 2-day course is offered either on the Saturday-Sunday prior to formal registration and/or the Wednesday/Thursday at end of the AMSUS convention. Note that it does require that participants’ schedules include the additional days before or after the main body of activities. The course size is limited and only a handful of seats are available. If you are interested, please contact the International Committee as part of your registration process (or afterwards, as needed).
