From 16 – 19 October, the Chief Medical Officers of UIC and of the specialist health care providers met for the annual UIMC conference in Rome. UIMC, the International Union of Railway Medical Services, is an autonomous special group under the aegis of UIC.

Topics of the scientific congress with participants from more than 30 countries covered advances in railway medicine such as health risk assessment, ergonomics, safety risks of alcohol and drugs and traumatic incidents. Another part of the congress focused on insights into the management of railway medical services and organisational changes in the delivery of occupational medicine.

The congress was very well organised by the FSI Medical Service under its director Dr Gennaro Palma. Ing. Maurizi Gentile, CEO of RFI SpA, and Dr Claudia Cattani, President of RFI Spa, welcomed the international guests in Rome, presented their organisation and attended parts of the conference.

A new management board of UIMC was also elected. Dr Christian Gravert, Chief Medical Officer of Deutsche Bahn in Germany, is the new Chairman of UIMC. Dr Armand Casolin, CMO of Sydney trains, was elected Vice Chairman; Dr Steward Turnbull from Melbourne Metro was elected Secretary General. The other new members of the Management Committee are Dr Gennaro Palma (RFI Italy, Past President), Dr Renate Kuhn (CFL Luxembourg, Treasurer), Dr Luc Vantrappen (HR Rail, Belgium), Dr Valerie Jouannique (RATP, France), Dr Timothy McCormick (TOMC, USA) and Dr Alexandra Hedenetz (Vienna Transport, Austria).