American College of Surgeons visited Maarjamõisa Medical Campus of Tartu University Hospital and the centre for translational medicine

On 14 August, members of the American College of Surgeons visited Maarjamõisa Medical Campus of Tartu University Hospital bringing refresher training of Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) into Estonia.

Introductory seminar of ATLS took place in the most modern centre of translational medicine in the Nordic Countries and Eastern Europe. The representatives of the American College of Surgeons also familiarized themselves with the infrastructure of the centre.

The refresher training programme Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) is a course for doctors who deal with treatment of the patients with trauma injuries. Consequently, general surgeons dealing with patients with trauma injuries, orthopaedists, doctors from accident and emergency medicine department, anaesthesiologists, pediatric surgeons, thoracic surgeons, neurosurgeons and residents of several areas of specialisation were expected to participate the seminar.

ATLS is popular in 60 countries and we are taking steps to bring this course to Estonia as well and to train the doctors in order to improve the level of trauma handling even more.

ATLS is the course of American College of Surgeons (ACS) and the College decides the warranty organizations to which it will give the licence of the course in different countries. In Estonia, the warranty organization would be the Estonian Association of Surgeons.

The American College of Surgeons also visited the Tartu University Hospital in Tartu, Estonian University of Life Sciences and familiarized themselves with the Estonian National Defence College.

The visit was organised by Peep Talving, MD, PhD, FACS, Visiting Professor of the Department of Surgery of the University of Tartu, Manager of Estonian ATLS.