THE FIRST VIRTUAL CONGRESS OF THE AMHE;
A COMPLETE SUCCESS
We had the privilege of organizing the annual congress of the AMHE for the first time two weeks ago via webinar . There were about 150 people who registered for the conference ,and at least 115 participants at all time in the zoom room. Many topics were debated from primary care to OBGYN, surgery pulmonary ,cardiology and psychiatry.The speakership consisted mainly of young doctors who are currently practicing medicine or are in training around the country. It all began on Friday afternoon around 1:00 pm and continued thru the early hours of Sunday morning.
Two or three speakers from Haiti were part of the Sunday morning panel and made a detailed account of the Haitian health System , particularly the plight of the Covid -19 pandemic that has impacted life not only in Haiti but also around the world.
The convention was initially scheduled to take place in the Republic of PANAMA from July 26th to August 2nd. But it was too risky to travel abroad considering the risk of being infected that was looming over everyone’s head.
At the beginning of the congress there were a lot of hesitation and apprehensions , as we did not know how the members and other eventual participants were going to receive the news of a Zoom conference , But Many thought it was a good opportunity to get CME credits while at home avoiding, by so doing ,the hurdles of packing and unpacking, as well attending the long line of security at the Airports while travelling. No less than twelve CME credits will be provided to the participants, and will give them a chance to fulfill their educational responsibility for this year.
This task was made possible by the seriousness and the determination of the the scientific team of the AMHE that put their times, means and resources together and joined forces during the weeks preceding the convention.
Dr. Eric Jerome who has been the Chairman of the Scientific committee for years , has gone, once again, above and beyond himself to make sure that every thing was well calibrated and in tune with people’s expectation. Many colleagues surrounded Dr. Jerome in his task of delivering the scientific component of the congress to the AMHE.. I shall mention namely, the President of the CEC ,Dr. Pierre-Paul cadet, Ms. Michaelle Bruno, the Executive Director, Dr. Angelo Gousse, Dr Elizabeth phillipe, Dr. Shiller Castor, Dr. Marie Francoise Megie, Dr. Michele David,, Dr.Alix Dufresnes and myself ,Chair of the convention by the position of vice-president bestowed upon me. We all met once a week and at times twice a week for over 6 weeks to prepare the different aspects of the convention. We should add to this list the name of Myriam Delva, our Assistant Secretary who kept tally of the speakers, their bio, disclosure and abstract in order to meet the CME requirements. We took our task at heart, we worked fairly well together and we made it possible. At this juncture, we should thank all the speakers who took time to polish their presentation and offered something that people of various tastes could appreciate and savor. The Scientific meeting ended on Sunday afternoon with a Jazz concert that every one was able to enjoy and appreciate between 1:00pm to 3:00 pm, from home, while sipping a glass of wine or a well tasty homemade mug of citronade.
Besides the scientific aspect of the convention.There were two other administrative meetings that took place on that afternoon of Sunday August the 16th, 2020.First there were the Board of trustees meeting that was followed by the meeting of the General Assembly, respectively presided by Dr. Ducarmel Augustin and Dr. Pierre-Paul Cadet. The (3) three days meeting was an over hall successs that will need to be re-edited next year. It was a good initiative for the AMHE members who will be able to collect some CME credits, a good thing for the many young doctors who hopefully will get accustomed with the need of working with AMHE and become part of the organization. It was a good thing for AMHE that has demonstrated its ability to mobilize some many resources in a so short period of time. We could not physically kiss goodbye as we so regularly did during the previous AMHE convention.But the virtual presentation seems to have had a positive impact on all the participants and we all look forward to meeting again next year if the pandemic situation gets completely under control.
RONY JEAN-MARY,M.D,
AMHE-VICE –PRESIDENT