IICMP

2019 Bursary Recipient – Katie Eustance – "The 11th Congress of the International Organisation of Societies for Electrophysiological Technologies (OSET) "

IICMP

2019 Bursary Recipient – Katie Eustance – "The 11th Congress of the International Organisation of Societies for Electrophysiological Technologies (OSET) "

Katie Eustance received a 2019 IICMS respiratory bursary to attend
“The 11th Congress of the International Organisation of Societies for Electrophysiological Technologies (OSET)
In September 2019, I had the opportunity to attend the 11th Congress of the International
Organisation of Societies for Electrophysiological Technologies (OSET), hosted in Porto,
Portugal. I was interested in attending as I saw it as a good chance to gain an understanding of areas of neurophysiology, I don’t typically encounter in my day-to-day work, such as
intraoperative monitoring or polysomnography (typically carried out here by respiratory
physiologists). Prior to the Congress I was somewhat anxious about what was in store – having only graduated in 2017 I was concerned that perhaps I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the other attendees and speakers with much longer and more varied professional experience than myself. I found however that this was not the case at all. There was a vast range of topics covered by the speakers, and it soon became clear to me that everyone, like myself, was there to learn.
While I can’t summarise all of the interesting workshops and topics presented and discussed at the OSET Congress in this reflective piece, there were several highlights for me personally. One such presentation covered multimodal EEG with SPECT, PET, or functional MRI, which nicely demonstrated alternatives to invasive recording as part of a work-up for epilepsy surgery. I found it interesting to see how EEG can be used in conjunction with these other diagnostic tests and it was interesting to see how the EEG fitted in as a piece of the bigger puzzle, when we rarely get to see that bigger picture for the patients we see in our busy clinics.
Another topic I found compelling was transcranial magnetic stimulation, covered by several speakers they discussed not only uses for TMS within a neurodiagnostic setting but also for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders. I particularly enjoyed this talk as although we may encounter patients with such disorders in our clinics, we are not involved in any treatment and often once they leave our clinic, we are left to wonder how they fared with their diagnosis and relevant treatments. I was intrigued to see another side of the patients’ experience and to see how equipment and technologies that we use are being utilised in other areas for very different purposes and by other healthcare professionals.
Aside from what I learnt from the presentations, and possibly my favourite aspect of the
Congress, I learnt so much from the other attendees throughout the week. I was fascinated to
hear how other departments are all doing much the same thing but in their own very different
ways. I really enjoyed hearing about how physiologists in other countries around the world are trained, what tests they carry out and how their departments are run. I was surprised to find that they were equally as curious about what I could tell them about how we do things here in Ireland.
It was an amazing opportunity for physiologists to learn from each other in a relaxed and
welcoming environment, and I met many lovely people who I plan to stay in touch with and learn
 
This September, I had the opportunity to attend the 11th Congress of the International
Organisation of Societies for Electrophysiological Technologies (OSET), hosted in Porto,
Portugal. I was interested in attending as I saw it as a good chance to gain an understanding of
areas of neurophysiology I don’t typically encounter in my day-to-day work, such as
intraoperative monitoring or polysomnography (typically carried out here by respiratory
physiologists). Prior to the Congress I was somewhat anxious about what was in store – having
only graduated in 2017 I was concerned that perhaps I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the other
attendees and speakers with much longer and more varied professional experience than
myself. I found however that this was not the case at all. There was a vast range of topics
covered by the speakers, and it soon became clear to me that everyone, like myself, was there
to learn.
While I can’t summarise all of the interesting workshops and topics presented and discussed at
the OSET Congress in this reflective piece, there were several highlights for me personally. One
such presentation covered multimodal EEG with SPECT, PET, or functional MRI, which nicely
demonstrated alternatives to invasive recording as part of a work-up for epilepsy surgery. I
found it interesting to see how EEG can be used in conjunction with these other diagnostic tests
and it was interesting to see how the EEG fitted in as a piece of the bigger puzzle, when we
rarely get to see that bigger picture for the patients we see in our busy clinics. Another topic I
found compelling was transcranial magnetic stimulation, covered by several speakers they
discussed not only uses for TMS within a neurodiagnostic setting but also for the treatment of
neuropsychiatric disorders. I particularly enjoyed this talk as although we may encounter
patients with such disorders in our clinics, we are not involved in any treatment and often once
they leave our clinic we are left to wonder how they fared with their diagnosis and relevant
treatments. I was intrigued to see another side of the patients’ experience and to see how
equipment and technologies that we use are being utilised in other areas for very different
purposes and by other healthcare professionals.
Aside from what I learnt from the presentations, and possibly my favourite aspect of the
Congress, I learnt so much from the other attendees throughout the week. I was fascinated to
hear how other departments are all doing much the same thing but in their own very different
ways. I really enjoyed hearing about how physiologists in other countries around the world are
trained, what tests they carry out and how their departments are run. I was surprised to find that
they were equally as curious about what I could tell them about how we do things here in Ireland.
It was an amazing opportunity for physiologists to learn from each other in a relaxed and
welcoming environment, and I met many lovely people who I plan to stay in touch with and learn
more from.
It was thoroughly enjoyable and extremely informative, and attending an international conference
like this would give anyone who was interested an excellent chance to network and to learn. I
have been able to share with my colleagues both new information on the topics I learned about,
and some ideas that we could use to better our department. In broadening my own knowledge I
hope to become a better asset to my own department and a better, more informed teacher to
our future students. Overall I can not recommend attending an OSET Congress enough, and I
look forward to attending the next one!