ARF & MV Pathway Directors

• Leo HEUNKS MD, PhD Professor, Pneumologist-intensivist, Department of Intensive Care, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• Lise PIQUILLOUD MD, PhD Deputy ICU Physician, Adult Intensive Care Unit, University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland; Senior lecturer University of Lausanne, Switzerland; Chair elect ARF section ESICM

Course Directors Level 1:

• Luigi CAMPOROTA MD PhD FRCP FFICM Consultant Intensivist at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, Greater London, United Kingdom
• Oriol ROCA MD PhD Head of Intensive Care Medicine Department, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge, Barcelona, Spain

Endorsement: The course is endorsed by the Acute Respiratory Failure Section, ESICM.

• To review the fundamentals of the physiology of gas exchange and respiratory mechanics
• To understand the principles of the basic modes of mechanical ventilation
• To learn the basic principles of assessing lung mechanics
• To discuss the main aspects of the process of weaning from mechanical ventilation

• Fundamentals of physiology gas exchange and respiratory mechanics (equation of motion, dynamic and static compliance, elastance, plateau pressure, driving pressure, resistance, and their measurements, lung volumes and Pressure -Volume curves)
• Concepts of basic modes of mechanical ventilation (mandatory/controlled; Assist/control; Assisted; spontaneous ventilation).
• Volume-controlled modes and pressure-controlled modes (excluding APRV)
• Concept of “stress-relaxation” and P0, P1, P2 on pressure waveforms
• Concept of scalars (pressure-time and flow-time curves) vs loops
• Assessment of lung mechanics, identification of small airway closure and recruitability concepts
• Fundamentals of prone position
• Respiratory drive, inspiratory effort, work of breathing and dyspnoea
• Assessment of readiness to wean and spontaneous breathing trials
• Use of NIV and HFNC post-extubation (selecting interface, settings and patient selection)

A total of 5 fellowships will be conducted in centres around Europe, giving fellows the opportunity to experience management of acute respiratory failure and mechanical ventilation in real-life settings and learn directly from experts. Fellowship-related costs (accommodation and travel) up to 1000 EUR/fellow will be reimbursed by ESICM.

Eligibility for fellowships:

• Must be a member of the ESICM (so join us now if not already a member!)
• Must attend at least 2 levels of the Acute Respiratory Failure and Mechanical Ventilation pathway within 1 year
• Fellowships will be awarded on basis of attendance at the course and highest performance in the post-course evaluation.

Fellowship center and mentor:

• Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge, Sabadell, Spain – Oriol ROCA and the local team (February 24-28, 2025)

Note! Priority will be given to those participants who haven’t benefitted from a fellowship on this topic before.

• Junior intensivists seeking a thorough approach to Acute Respiratory Failure & Mechanical Ventilation: monitoring and managament
• Any practitioner who wishes to review the foundamentals of this topic

ESICM members from the Emerging Nations and Eastern Europe (see list of countries here) are entitled to an discount on registration fees. To qualify, participants must be active ESICM members for the current year. To become a member, please see more information here.

The Foundation Course in Acute Respiratory Failure and Mechanical Ventilation, Virtual, Belgium 03/04/2025 – 04/04/2025, has been accredited by the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME®) with 12.5 European CME credits (ECMEC®s). Each medical specialist should claim only those hours of credit that he/she actually spent in the educational activity.
Through an agreement between the Union Européenne des Médecins Spécialistes and the American Medical Association, physicians may convert EACCME® credits to an equivalent number of AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Information on the process to convert EACCME® credit to AMA credit can be found at https://edhub.ama-assn.org/pages/applications.
Live educational activities, occurring outside of Canada, recognised by the UEMS-EACCME® for ECMEC®s are deemed to be Accredited Group Learning Activities (Section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

The first edition of the Foundation Course provided an introduction to Acute Respiratory Failure & Mechanical Ventilation to 94 participants from 32 countries. Here’s what they particularly enjoyed about it:

• The overall content was fascinating. Sometimes slightly difficult from a nursing point of view but having the possibility to review the lectures will allow me to go over it again and wrap my head around the things I found more difficult.
• It was very comprehensive of all the basics of MV and more, with each session providing extremely useful tips even when some of the topics were already “fully” or partially known. This was made possible by the interaction and space for questions provided.
• I really appreciated the predisposition of all the experts to answer questions from the audience.