Use of morbidity and mortality conferences to analyze causes of death at sea: a useful tool in the process of training in maritime medicine.

BACKGROUND. Morbidity and mortality conferences (MandMC) are collective reviews of records of patients, whose evolution was marked by an undesirable event: death or the occurrence of complications. The MandMC aim to improve the quality of care. This article intends to present three cases analyzed in MandMC in the French Telemedical Assistance Service (TMAS). MATERIAL AND METHODS. Three cases were selected according to the occurrence of a death at sea or according to particular cases of pathology on board. The case presentation was done in plenary session in our French TMAS, describing the facts, analyzing the defective processes, and suggesting possible improvements for each case. RESULTS. Description of 3 cases: Gastroenteritis in Papua New Guinea with septic shock; traumatic brain injury on a training boat with organizational and evacuation problems, and fever in the Gulf of Guinea with negative thick blood smear test. CONCLUSIONS. The MandMC tend to develop in all medical fields and are of particular interest in maritime medicine. The achievement of MandMC in our TMAS highlighted some difficulties in our daily work: diagnosis difficulty in tele-consultation and organizational or operational difficulties related to maritime medicine. However, we hope that the proposals for improvement will be applied to improve the quality of maritime medical care.