National Poisons Information Service CPD Event – Birmingham, UK, 24-25 April 2024

5 July 2024

The National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) met in April for a two-day Continuing Professional Development event hosted by the Birmingham Poisons Unit at the Park Regis Hotel, Birmingham.

In attendance were colleagues from all four UK NPIS units (Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Newcastle), the UK Health Security Agency, the National Poisons Centre Dublin, the National CBRN Centre and other government agencies.

The first day consisted of presentations focused on CBRN (chemical, biological, radiation, nuclear) incidents and the role of different agencies in these events. These included talks on current biosecurity considerations, long-term consequences of nerve agent exposure, ambulance service decontamination, management of radiation casualties and an overview of the National CBRN Centre. There was also a great talk on the challenges to clinical toxicology presented by the use of artificial intelligence.

Presentations on the second day included topics such as the use of high dose insulin in intensive care, ECMO and cardiotoxicity, an outbreak of isonitazene toxicity in Birmingham, when to dialyse patients, heavy metal poisoning and exotic snake envenomation. Our own Professor James Coulson and scientist Nathaniel Keymer (pictured) gave excellent talks on cyanide exposures and the use of programming language Python in the analysis of poisons centre data, respectively.

The event was a great success and an excellent networking opportunity for NPIS staff and attendees from other organisations. The presentations and discussions helped participants to collaborate and develop their understanding and awareness of current and emerging trends in toxicology.