The aviation and medical sector, regulated within the framework of national and international norms, is one of the challenging sectors that requires devotion, tolerates no errors even if the norms are put aside and is of critical importance for society. In this sense, the aviation and medical sectors have similarities.

Academic competence, continuous development, team collaboration, risk understanding, and knowledge sharing are the main common similarities for both sectors.

It is necessary to protect the health of flight crews and to be able to conduct healthier flights, for both airline passengers and crew members. Thanks to valuable medical science professionals, as these individuals are gathered together for the sake of flight safety, we are enabled to understand each other in every sense and to take the opportunity to develop this synergy.

Our duty as enthusiastic professionals of Turkish civil aviation is to continuously improve our existing knowledge and experience and one of our important goals is to ensure the improvement of cooperation established in order to increase contributions from medical world to the aviation sector.

In line with the above mentioned target, with the congresses, workshops, courses and training hosted by or held with the participation of the personnel of our aviation authority - the General Directorate of Civil Aviation, our universities (University of Health Sciences, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Antalya Science University, Ufuk University), aviation medical centers, airlines (Turkish Airlines, Pegasus Airlines) associations (Aviation Medicine Association, Turkish Airline Pilots Association), the training of the personnel required for Turkish Civil Aviation Medicine and the resolution of major issues are provided. In this context, the national congresses held until today, the last of which was the 5th Turkish Aerospace Medicine Congress held in Izmir on October 4-6, 2019, as well as the support given within the framework of scientific papers and main sponsorships have paved the way to organize refresher training for these personnel and to bring the Turkish Civil Aviation Medicine to its rightful place in the world by bringing together all aviation personnel.

In a world where flight safety is accepted as starting with “healthiness”, we can say that the system established to provide flight safety is more advanced than in most European countries and can be observed among the top ten list in the world. Since it is time to introduce the competency and capacity of the Turkish Aerospace Medicine to the world, the Turkish Aerospace Medical Association applied for the nomination of Turkey to organize the 2nd ICAM (International Conference in Aerospace Medicine) in Istanbul-Turkey in 2022, after the 1st ICAM to be held in Paris in 2020.

If such a world-wide prestigious aerospace medical conference takes place in our country, developments in aerospace medicine will be conveyed to the world from Istanbul, and we will have a chance not only to remind our guests, who will experience the magnificence of our 3rd airport, about the tourism potential of our country but also to share the achievements of our country in aerospace medicine with the world. Moreover, this situation has created a motivation and excitement in all of the above-mentioned institutions and organizations reporting their full support for the appropriate promotion of our country.

A video presentation was prepared by the Turkish Aerospace Medical Association to ICAM officials explaining the advantages to organize the congress in Istanbul and illustrating the visuals of congress centers, hotels, social programs and touristic sites. M.D. Roland Vermeiren, Head of Health Department of Eurocontrol and amongst the decision makers, who made a presentation about air traffic controls by participating in the 5th Turkish Aerospace Medicine Congress held in Izmir, expressed his explicit support for ICAM 2022 to be held in Istanbul. Upon the positive feedback received during bilateral meetings with authorities, an official application was made for Turkey’s ICAM 2022 candidacy.

We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the development of Turkish Civil Aviation Medicine and this nomination process, and we wish that the outcome of ICAM 2022 will be beneficial for our country.