Advanced Trauma Life Support, Belgian chapter by RBSS since 2020
Dear Colleague,
Beste Collega,
Cher Confrère,
The Royal Belgian Society of Surgery is proud to announce the organization of ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support) courses in Belgium, patronized by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Committee on Trauma (COT) .
With the organisation of these courses, the RBSS would like to provide easy access to the ATLS program for all Belgian doctors and to set international standards for the trauma care in our country.
The Advanced Trauma Life Support® (ATLS®) program can teach you a systematic, concise approach to the care of a trauma patient. ATLS was developed by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Committee on Trauma (COT) and was first introduced in the US and abroad in 1980. Its courses provide you with a safe and reliable method for immediate management of injured patients. The course teaches you how to assess a patient’s condition, resuscitate and stabilize him or her, and determine if his or her needs exceed a facility’s capacity. It also covers how to arrange for a patient’s inter-hospital transfer and assure that optimum care is provided throughout the process. If you don’t treat trauma patients frequently, an ATLS course provides an easy method to remember for evaluation and treatment of a trauma victim.
For more than a quarter century, the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma has taught the ATLS course to over 1 million doctors in more than 80 countries. ATLS has become the foundation of care for injured patients by teaching a common language and a common approach. The 10th edition was created using an international, multidisciplinary, and evidence-based approach. The result is an ATLS-course that is contemporary and meaningful in the global community.
In our neighbouring countries, ATLS is already endorsed by national trauma and surgical societies (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Unfallchirurgie (DGU) in Germany, Société Française de Chirurgie d'Urgence in France (SFCU), Advanced life support Group (ALSG) in the Netherlands).
Most Belgian doctors will be involved in trauma care during their career and it appears essential for all of us to achieve some training in this field.
From now on, the educational committee within RBSS is happy to be able to offer participants also a national implementation of the ATLS course as she will act as the Belgian organizer for these courses.
For further information about the Belgian ATLS program and registration for upcoming courses, please check the diary of upcoming ATLS courses here on our website or contact our local course coordinator via e-mail at atls@rbss.be.
To know more about the specific content of the ATLS program as conceived by the American College of Surgeons, visit the following website: http://www.facs.org/trauma/atls/
Yours sincerely,
Dr Maximilien Thoma
Course Director