January 2020
Last December, the Medical School in collaboration with the Hellenic Society of Obstetric & Gynaecologic Emergency (HSOGE) and the Cyprus Society of Perinatal Medicine (CSPM) organised the seminars Basic Life Support in Obstetrics (BLSO) and Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO). This is the third consecutive year in which these seminars have been organised by the Medical School in Cyprus.
The courses were initiated in the US in 1991 by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) to respond to the needs of thousands of health professionals who may have to respond to obstetric emergencies.
BLSO is designed to improve the management of normal deliveries, as well as obstetric emergencies, by standardizing the skills of first responders, emergency personnel and maternity care providers. The BLSO curriculum is designed to train pre-hospital care providers, first responders and emergency personnel, medical, nursing, and physician assistant students.
The ALSO seminar is aimed exclusively at health professionals and medical students who already have the BLSO certification and has two main objectives: to deal with emergency situations with specialised handling, and to avoid unnecessary intervention.
The President of HSOGE Professor Nikolaos Varnis was the scientific coordinator of the seminars. At the opening of the seminars Professors Christina Karaolis and Gabriel Kalakoutis welcomed the trainees on behalf of CSPM. Among the instructors were Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Sir Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, and Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Savvas Argyridis who had overall responsibility for the courses.