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I think we are all looking forward to a fantastic meeting at WOCOVA! The programs appear to be excellent and there is much excitement about the whole event. I can't wait to hear where the next WOCOVA will be held. I will try to post daily with the events and highlights!

:)

Nancy Moureau

PICC Excellence, Inc.

Arrived in Amsterdam this morning after an over night flight (Uckk) and enjoyed seeing
all the changes in the city since the last time I visited. Met up with Jack LeDonne
(Thank you Jack!), Tim Spencer, Evan, PJ Haylock, Nadine, Gail, Margie, Audrey, Leigh Ann and others
for a lovely walking tour around the Dam Square, The Royal Palace, The New Church,
Rembrandt's house, the red light district, canals, Anne Frank's house, and the inside of
a pub! Few Heinekins, Guinness and others and life was quite good. Bicycles everywhere
and all the people are sooo slim. The conference starts first thing in the morning and
goes until 5 or 6, then dinner meetings. Very sleepy!! Night all...Nancy

Today is day two with a focus on CVCs and risk management/safety. Attendance at WOCOVA is about 550-650 with experienced nurses and doctors. Excellent presentations today by a panel of infection experts, Drs Zingg, Jarvis Maki, Pratt, Scopettulo and Bouza. Certainly Dr. Jarvis is well known for his position on needleless connectors, Dr Scopettulo with Italian infection prevention on the CVC team at Catholic hospital in Rome, Dr. Pratt as the lead with the UK EPIC 2 Evidence with Prevention in Infection Control and of course Dr. Maki who needs no introduction. This panel of experts not only spoke but then discussed various issues among themselves of disinfection of caps, antimicrobial catheters, blood cultures and definitive diagnosis of infection, drawing blood through a catheter and much more. There were so many programs going on it was impossible to attend all. The abstracts were fantastic again (two days of abstracts) with our own tim Royer, Dr Eggimann with the education infection prevention research, Peter Carr from Ireland, Gail Sanivero and Margie Galloway, Tim Spencer and Evan from Australia. So much information and so many people to network and talk with. Lots of information on the EKG technique with all the ins and outs of the process. There were workshops on pediatric and neonatal ultrasound and CVCs. I missed the workshop on ultrasound for CVC/IJs and Subclavians. Had a discussion with Tim Spencer and Jack LeDonne on subclavian placement and why they are inserting lateral , getting away from the pleura and really that ends up to be the axillary vein (even through all the other doctors call it subclavian - they are wrong since the subclavian starts at the inferior border of the clavicle) and why this is a safer location. We were busy all day and even on short breaks spent time in the exhibit hall checking out products and talking with people. The posters were also excellent, lots of research and project papers. I had the honor of helping to grade the posters, which I really appreciated since it made me read everything, great work! Lots of presentations by Marcia Ryder, Denis Maki, Jack LeDonne and others. The day ended with two meetings with CareFusion panel in one location and Teleflex Medical/Arrow panel out on the constructed beach (an area of sand and recliners near a cafe made to look like a beach!). The Dutch event was also held out by the beach. I know a bit more about the Teleflex panel since I moderated a great group of folks, Marcia Ryder, Sheila Inwood (UK), Jack LeDonne, Mauro Pittiruti (Italy), Giancarlo Scopettulo (Italy) and Tim Spencer (Australia). The discussion on Vessel Health and Preservation was animated and included points about device selection from Marcia, Team development by Sheila, Ultrasound application by Jack, EKG usage by Giancarlo and Antimicrobial application by Tim. Great discussions and good presentations. Ton Boxtel did a fantastic job organizing so much of the WOCOVA and deserves much credit! The dutch event included raw herring (Lynn Hadaway passed on the raw fish!), dutch pancakes, deep fried fish balls, cheese sticks and much more. In the end we Americans wanted a bit more to eat and so dashed off to have dinner. The evenings are long here and before you know it you find it 10pm and it is still light, by 11 it is dark but agains is light by 5:30am during the summer months. Even walking around here you must be careful to sidestep the bicycles since they are everywhere, even late at night. Time for me to sleep, Nitey nite!

A huge thanks to Nancy for taking time from your obviousy full yet fun days to give those of us back home a glimpse into this exciting new forum. We're very anxious to hear where the next congress is.