Rural Trauma Team Development Course^©  (RTTDC^©)

Report from the 3^rd International Rural Trauma Meeting

Hilton New Orleans Riverside, Sunday, October 7^th, 2007, 1:00pm to 4:00pm

The meeting was well-attended, and presentations were given by:

• Dr. James Kessel, Columbia, Missouri, on the status of the RTTDC (Rural Trauma Team Development Course).
• Dr. Raymond Price, Salt Lake City, Utah, on the need to address the pandemic of international trauma that he has seen in his volunteer work.
• Dr. Michel Aboutanos, Richmond, Virginia, on the Essential Trauma Care Guidelines developed by WHO and IATSIC.
• Dr. Jeffrey Salomone, Atlanta, Georgia, on PHTLS and and its role in trauma systems.
• Dr. Lawrence Gentilello, Dallas, Texas, on the progress of the SBI (Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention) program.
• Dr. David Boyd, New Market, Maryland, on his experiences developing trauma systems and his current work with the Indian Health Services.
• Dr. Frank Sacco, Anchorage, Alaska, on solutions found to deal with the unique circumstances of trauma care in the state.
• Dr. Kari Schroder-Hanson, Bergen, Norway, on the BEST (Better and Systematic Trauma Care) course and working with the government of Botswana to help build a trauma system. 

Each presentation produced a good deal of discussion, which left no time for any action items to be discussed.  A second meeting was held at the Hilton on Tuesday, October 9^th. 2007.  The following items were concluded at this meeting:

• It is not possible to write one international rural trauma course that is applicable on a global basis.
• Instead, plans to develop ACS-approved essential guidelines for a rural trauma course will be considered.
• These guidelines would define what components are necessary in any rural trauma course, and the principles and concepts that should be covered in each component.
• As a first step, course materials from existing rural trauma courses will be reviewed and summarized. 

Progress will be discussed at the 4^th Annual International Rural Trauma Meeting in October, 2008. 

If you are interested in this subject, or have information you feel would be helpful to this project, please contact Bridget Blackwood at bblackwood@facs.org.

Information about RTTDC^©:  What is it?

Course Documents

Ordering Information

Revised January 8, 2008

Trauma