The ILS Drowning Report Committee, along with Lifesaving Commissioner B. Chris Brewster and Medical Committee Chair Steve Beerman M.D., met in Geneva on 12 October with representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Their goal was to fully understand the WHO reporting system for unintentional injuries and to determine, based on that information, how best to proceed in issuing the ILS World Drowning Report. Present at the meeting were Drowning Report Committee Chair Ortwin Kreft, as well as Committee members Peter Agnew, Barbara Byers, Stuart Bailey and Alessandro Sabatini.

The ILS Drowning Report Committee, along with Lifesaving Commissioner B. Chris Brewster and Medical Committee Chair Steve Beerman M.D., met in Geneva on 12 October with representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Their goal was to fully understand the WHO reporting system for unintentional injuries and to determine, based on that information, how best to proceed in issuing the ILS World Drowning Report. Present at the meeting were Drowning Report Committee Chair Ortwin Kreft, as well as Committee members Peter Agnew, Barbara Byers, Stuart Bailey and Alessandro Sabatini.

The ILS representatives were received by Dr. Margie Peden, PhD., Coordinator of the WHO Unintentional Injuries Prevention section and Technical Officer Ian Scott. They were provided a detailed presentation on WHO statistics gathering by Dr. Colin Mathers, PhD. After a very informative presentation and discussion, the Committee convened two days of meetings to finalise their strategies. Implicit in this discussion was a goal of finalising a report for the review of the Lifesaving Commission by 1 June 2007.

ILS thanks the members of the Committee for their continued dedication to this important project. It is now anticipated that the first World Drowning Report will be issued in 2007.