Dear friends,

On behalf of our organising team I would like to welcome you to Helsinki in May 2012.  As you all know, it is the best time of year, spring is at it’s best, with only a little snow and volcanoes erupting seldomly!

The venue Congress Paasitorni  is in the heart of the Helsinki City, in a refurbished Jugend-style building close to the sea.

Our goal is to bring together people from the Nordic and other countries in order to get to know one another  better. This aspect will be taken into account when planning the programme, both scientific and social. We will run some parallel sessions for smaller groups  in order to focus on specific and practical  problems in every day care.

Another  goal is to focus on some  topics we think are important.  The ”Catastrophe” session is intended to figure out how we are currently prepared for a burn disaster in any Nordic country. In addition, the idea is to plan in a smaller group how to promote Nordic co-operation in this kind of situation.

The ”Terminal care” session focuses on the difficult decision-making  frequently encountered in burn care. We expect  vivid participation  and discussion. Go for it!

In addition we have arranged an ESMB course to be held on Tuesday as a pre-congress course, the day before the NBM.  This is meant for all burn professionals that are involved in the first 24 hours of burn patient treatment. A similar course  was arranged successfully during the EBA meeting in Hague recently. Although there exists a similar ABSL training in Sweden we think that this is worth trying. More details can be found at our website as soon as we receive the final confirmation.

Helsinki is also The World Design Capital in 2012 with a lot to see and experience.

The standard of the Nordic Burn Meeting has increased every time  and I hope this goes on and on. Stay tuned, we will update the net site continuously.

Welcome to Helsinki, you will never forget it!
Jyrki Vuola , Chief of the Helsinki Burn Centre