Abstract :
Brave African Discussions in Emergency Medicine (#badEM) is a
team of inhospital and prehospital emergency care staff who
believe in free, open-access learning. The team, sponsored by Stel-
lenbosch Medical School and Ysterplaat Medical Supplies, hosted a
symposium for 450 doctors, nurses, students and emergency med-
ical services personnel on 10 September 2016 in Cape Town, South
Africa; but most importantly – the symposium was entirely free for
all delegates.
Why would a team of people with full time jobs, precious little
spare time and no funding take a massive gamble and organize a
free event for 450 people, you might ask? Well, we did it because
we believe in emergency medicine, and the incredible people who
work as the indispensable cogs and bolts of the emergency care
system. We did it because the more motivated people are, the
more they enjoy their jobs. We did it because access to information
should not depend on whether you are able, or your institution is
willing to fund your continued medical education. and finally we
did it because we wanted to chip away at the inter-disciplinary
silos, within emergency medicine and its complementary disci-
plines. As a result the symposium programme catered for a wide,
representative audience, and our speakers really stepped up to
the plate.
