By Rania El-Farrash, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Neonatology

Soon after the unanimous vote by the International Council for Respiratory Care (ICRC) to welcome Egypt as a member of the Council, Ain Shams University sponsored an International Education Recognition System (IERS)-approved Neonatal Respiratory Care Conference. The seminar was convened February 7-9 and offered an intense educational experience, with 14 contact hours of lecture demonstrations and four hours of animal laboratory hands-on teaching/learning activity.

The Level I IERS program featured an experienced cadre of distinguished Egyptian physicians and professors specializing in neonatal and pediatric medicine. Two leaders of the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) were prominently featured as contributing faculty in the clinical program. The first American professor was AARC President-elect Brian Walsh, MBA, RRT-NPS, RRT-ACCS, AE-C, FAARC, Harvard Medical School research coordinator in the department of anesthesia, division of critical care. The second was AARC Board of Directors Member and Neonatal-Pediatrics Specialty Section Chair Natalie Napolitano, MPH, RRT-NPS, AE-C, FAARC, a research specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Included in the comprehensive seminar were presentations on the basics of mechanical ventilation, advanced modes of ventilation, ventilator-associated pneumonia, management of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), cardiac implications of BPD, and disease-specific strategies of ventilation. Participants in the conference reported a high level of satisfaction with the quality of the program and the expert knowledge of the faculty.