Events

FREE for SOM Members (please log in on the SOM website first). 

This exclusive webinar will remind delegates of the different formats by which cannabis is available, some legal others not.  Confusion about prescription cannabis and off-book prescribing will be addressed.  CBD products are in vogue for all ailments but when is CBD not CBD?  Finally, the different approaches to workplace policies will be shared.
 
Chair: Dr Dominic Gonzalez
 
Speaker:

Helen Vangikar is an independent Toxicology Consultant who has worked in the field of analytical chemistry and toxicology since 1988.

Since 1990 Helen has commissioned two laboratories from concept to accreditation, successfully gaining United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025.  Both laboratories complied with the United Kingdom Laboratory Guidelines for Legally Defensible Workplace Drug Testing to which she contributed as a founder member.  This document later became the foundation of the European Workplace Drug Testing Society (EWDTS) guidelines.

Since 1994, Helen has developed a number of training courses, including her well respected Medical Review Officer (MRO) courses gaining Faculty of Occupational Medicine accreditation, for occupational health professionals.  These courses have been delivered to UK and International delegates, within the UK and overseas.

Currently Helen is a Technical Assessor for UKAS assessing ISO/IEC 17025 and a number of supporting documents.  In addition she is the technical lead for the Society of Occupational Medicine Special Interest Group on workplace drug and alcohol issues, currently discussing prescription cannabis, CBD and ADHD medication.
 

FREE for SOM Members (please log in on the SOM website). You will then be sent the join link.

FREE WEBINAR

Reflecting our strong affiliation with ANZSOM via our Memorandum of Collaboration, we are pleased to collaborate with ANZSOM to deliver the "Learning Together" webinar series. These webinars are held twice a year and feature a speaker from each of the Societies. Information on our upcoming webinar is provided below.

PRESENTERS / TOPICS:
Dr Will Ponsonby – Artisanal and small scale gold mining
Dr Ponsonby will present on artisanal and small scale gold mining, including the use of mercury, female and child labour and the health effects observed. This information will be taken from the WHO literature review. 

Dr Peter Connaughton – The cost of extraction: Protecting miners from traditional and emerging risks
Dr Connaughton will discuss current approaches to traditional risks such as heat, ultraviolet radiation and hand injuries. He will also present on the growing challenges including mental health and wellness, and will discuss successes, failures and opportunities in each of these areas.

Biographies:

Dr Will Ponsonby is a Past President of the UK Society of Occupational medicine (2018/2019) and has a breadth of experience in occupational medicine across the energy and resources sector. After qualifying in Birmingham UK in 1986, he trained in general practice and emergency medicine.

From 1996 he ran the medical service for Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC)/BP in Baku Azerbaijan. He was then International SOS Regional Medical Director for Russia and Kazakhstan for 4 years. While subsequently working for Shell he became board certified in occupational medicine in 2002.

Will remained at Shell until 2015, before taking on the role of Chief Medical Officer for Rio Tinto, which he held until 2018, based in London and Singapore, He has run his private occupational health consultancy practice since 2019 and is Senior Lecturer in Occupational Medicine University of Manchester. 2 years ago, the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland established an introductory online training course for Occupational Medicine. He was appointed as program lead. This course provides training in Occupational Medicine to doctors across the globe.

Dr Peter Connaughton is an occupational physician in Perth, Western Australia and he has consulted to Rio Tinto Iron Ore for the past 16 years. He is the honorary Secretary of the International Occupational Medicine Society Collaborative, which now has members from over 50 countries and is actively collaborating with the WHO and the ILO.

Peter is a Past-President of AFOEM (serving from 2016 to 2018) and he remains a member of the "It Pays to Care" working group. Peter initially trained in OEM at the Institute of Occupational Medicine, Edinburgh. He is a former Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle. His special interests include fostering international collaboration in OEM and assessing the value and impact of occupational health strategies.

Chair: Dr Lanre Ogunyemi, SOM President

FREE for ALL. Register online. You will then be sent the joining link.

FREE for ALL (please log in on the SOM website first). 

Accelerating women’s health and opportunities in the workplace. 
At the current rate of progress, it will take until 2158 (five generations from now) to reach full gender parity in salary according to the World Economic Forum. Focusing on the need to Accelerate Action emphasizes the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. It calls for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face. How can we accelerate action in the workplace for better outcomes? What are the workplace barriers?

Chair: Emma Persand
Emma’s work and expertise have been recognised by many, she was jointly awarded SOM’s ‘Outstanding Occupational Health Practitioner of the Year’ 2024, and gained the prestigious title of Queen’s Nurse in 2022. She is chair of the Women’s Health at Work Network, working collaboratively to develop inclusive work practices to build a better and safe workplace over the life course of women, non-binary and intersex employees.

Karen Messing: the design of work 25 mins and short Q and A
Karen will ask how women can navigate the workplace contradictions between protecting their health and attaining equality.  She will briefly present the current gender divisions among professions, tasks, and work activity, as well as the gendered interface between work and home demands.  She will briefly cover the major biological sex differences relevant to work.  She will describe several situations where women are forced to choose between becoming ill at work versus describing women-specific problems, making them vulnerable to accusations of not being “up to the job.”  She will present solutions that have been found in Canada and elsewhere.

Karen Messing is a Canadian geneticist and ergonomist. She is professor emerita in the department of biological sciences at the University of Quebec at Montreal and a member of the SAGE (Santé, Genre, Égalité) research team. She is known for her three books and many journal articles on gender, sex, occupational health, and ergonomics. She was given the Governor General’s Award for supporting women’s equality in 2009, the Yant Award of the American Industrial Health Association in 2014, and named an Honorary Fellow of the International Ergonomics Association in 2024, She was inducted as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2019.

Krystal Wilkinson: Work life inclusion – 25 mins and short Q and A
Krystal will discuss two strands of her research relevant to women’s health at work.  The first concerns broadening our thinking about the ‘work-life interface’ beyond the juggle of work and young children, to consider a range of issues across the life course.  The second concerns women’s reproductive health, and specifically the intersection of physical and mental health issues.  She will draw on research in different occupational settings, including male dominated industries such as Policing and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

Krystal Wilkinson is an Associate Professor in Human Resource Management, based at the Centre for Decent Work and Productivity at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research focuses on health and wellbeing at work and tackling inequalities.  Current and recent research projects have focused on solo-living staff; those navigating complex fertility journeys; maternity management; mental health in pregnancy and post-birth; women’s reproductive health; and mental health.  She has published in leading academic journals in her field including Human Resource Management Journal and Work, Employment and Society, and featured in global media outlets. Krystal is passionate about knowledge exchange and is working with various stakeholders to raise awareness and create resources, including the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), national charities, campaign groups and employers. She is a Chartered Member of the CIPD and the first ambassador for the Maternal Mental Health Alliance.

Heejung Chung: Flexible working and women’s well-being – 25 min and short Q and A
Does flexible working – namely having more control over when and where you work/homeworking - really provide a better work-life balance, enhance worker’s well-being and gender equality? Flexible working can make workers work longer and harder. For men, this means more overtime, for women, this can mean more time at work and more time spent on childcare and housework. This explains why although part-time work can improve well-being outcomes of women, remote and flexible schedules do not. However, this is not inevitable, and we can change the context in which flexible working is used to make it better – including redefining the “standard worker” model to fit with the needs of modern-day families. This talk will bring together a body of research on this topic to talk about what we can do to make flexible working work well for workers’ well-being. 

Heejung Chung is the Director of the King’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership and Professor of Work and Employment at King's College London. She is a comparative labour market researcher with a focus on flexible working, home/remote working, future of work, and (intersectional) gender equality. She has over two decades of experience of research and teaching and have worked with both national and international government agencies. She has published over 100 publications, including her recent book The Flexibility Paradox (Policy Press, 2022) and report Flexible working arrangements and gender equality in Europe (European Commission, 2024). 

Q and A – 15 mins
A fact sheet will be produced following the webinar.
 

FREE for ALL. You will then be sent the joining link.

Register here - https://my.demio.com/ref/8v1QrYLA6dQpeeeV 
 
For some Medical Professionals, the complexities of pension tax while planning for retirement can be confusing. With inflation reducing from the highs of the last couple of years, the impact of the McCloud judgement and recent changes with the introduction of flexible retirement within the NHS Pension mean that opportunities exist for many that were not available before. Understanding how these changes impact you as a Medical Professional is essential to ensure that the right decisions are made to mitigate taxation and maximise pension income.

To help you with these difficult and confusing decisions over a course of an hour we will discuss. 
•    An update on the Mcloud Judgement and the Remediable Pension Savings Statements (RPSS)
•    What is the Annual Allowance, how is it calculated and what if you exceed it?
•    The Scheme Pays facility. 
•    The lump Sum allowance (LSA) and the Lump Sum and Death Benefit Allowance (LSDBA)
•    Flexible Retirement

 Take advantage of the chance to learn and get your pension tax and retirement questions answered by the experts. Register now https://my.demio.com/ref/8v1QrYLA6dQpeeeV for your place on this valuable webinar, helping you achieve the best possible future for you and your family.