Europe Newsletter - April 2014

Volume 2 - April 2015

A Message from the Coordinator Follow IFMSA

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International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA)

International Secretariat:c/o Academic Medical CenterMeibergdreef 15 1105AZAmsterdam, The NetherlandsPhone: +31 2 05668823Email: [email protected] [email protected]: www.ifmsa.org

This is an IFMSA Publication© 2014 - Only portions of this publication may be reproduced for non political and non profit purposes, provided mentioning the source.

Almost half of the term has passed and a lot has happened as well!

The European Team has been working a lot on developing the structure of the region, at the same time that we are developing the three main pillars of the region: our national member organizations, the Regional Meeting that will take place in Denmark and the external representation.We had the chance to have the region together during the two amazing Regional Sessions last March Meeting in Antalya, Istambul, and we’ve seen our region growing with the inclusion of the Cyprus Medical Students’ Association (CyMSA)!We are now investing a lot of efforts, together with the amazing Organizing Committee, on the European Regional Meeting in Aalborg, Denmark, and the Pre-EuRegMe in Aarhus! There, we’ll have more or less 200 medical students for all over Europe learning from each other and sharing experiences that will certainly change their lives.We also attended several external meetings, such as the 2nd Annual EU-US Trade Conference and 8th TTIP Round in Brussels; the Conference of INGOs of the Council of Europe; the Eu Health Policy Forum and the Plenary of the Joint Action on Health Workforce Planning and Forecasting of the European Commission.We expect you to continue following our work and may you have any question, comment or suggestion about the IFMSA European Region, just let us know! We are here for you!

Warm regards,

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NMOs involvement SWG

Imagine an IFMSA where all NMOs feel comfortable raising their voice in any situation.

When not being able to follow the discussions, when proposing an amendment, when our cultural differences lead to misunderstandings; professional and personal etc.

The NMO Involvement SWG is working towards increasing the NMO involvement within IFMSA and gaining a well-balanced representation and participation of all parts of the world. We started before AM14 and have since then had working groups with members from all regions. We were actively working on identifying the barriers to NMO involvement during AM14 and the regional

meetings of Asia-Pacific, Africa, EMR and Americas.

European NMOs were interviewed online. The main barriers are related to finances, language, cultural differences, preparation and communication. We published an in depth report just before MM15, read the full version here: http://bit.ly/1GAwKWu.

During MM15 we started focusing on solutions to the barriers. What changes could increase NMO involvement? We will keep working on this from now on till AM15.

Furthermore, NMO involvement was put to the centre of attention several times during MM15,

and we believe that we already experience a higher degree of NMO involvement and greater diversity in the participation. It is very motivating, and we hope to see even more improvement in the future!

If you are interested in taking part in the SWG, please send me an email. Any feedback, comments or ideas are much appreciated.

Marie Hauerslev

IOGs and Regulations SWG

On January a call was sent for a new SWG focusing on Internal Operating Guidelines and Regulations within the European Region.At first glance it may seem just boring bureaucracy, but what

are we really talking about?

IOGs can be condiered a sort of ”good practices” and advices that will help the Regional Coordinator, the Regional Team and the NMOs to have

some structured and defined procedures for their work in Europe.

Regulations, on the other hand, are strict processes and mechanisms that set more

specific rules to be followed in order to grant an inclusive, equal and democratic participation of the NMOs in the European activities.

At the moment there are no specific IOGs or Regulations for the European Region –except for the EuRegMe- so that it’s not really clear how the work should be organized year by year. Closing this gap is the main goal of the SWG, that could be reached only with the active involvement on the NMOs.

This is the reason why, so far, a bottom-up approach was adopted. During the MM15, NMOs’ presidents were asked to

brainstorm on specific topics in order to collect some inputs that were then shared during the European sessions.

The SWG will work on them to define some concrete proposals that will be soon shared on the server and then discussed at the upcoming EuRegMe.

So be prepared, because your ideas, opinions, critics and

suggestions will be essential to elaborate common rules and guidelines that will set the frameworks of the European Region.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be pleased to answer them!

Stefano Guicciardi

European Session at March Meeting 2015

During the IFMSA General Assembly March Meeting 2015, the European Team has organized two Regional sessions.First of all, we have to say that the attendance was amazing and we believe that everybody had a really good time while they were building their NMOs and the region itself!

On the first day, we had time to discuss a regional perspective on the topics that were previously approached on the Presidents and Standing Committees’ Sessions. After that, we had several parallel sessions in which we tackled global health issues and

their contextualization in the European Region. The first session ended with the presentation of proposals for Regional External Representation priorities.

The second day was very interesting as well and started with the presentation of the outcomes of the IOGs SWG, followed by the voting on the Region’s External Representation priorities.Afterwards, the EuRegMe OC had the chance to contact with the members and to explain the amazing details of the meeting. The European National Member Organizations had the opportunity to present

International Events in which IFMSA members could participate. The sessions ended with a presentation of the Quality Assurance methodologies studied by the Trainings Support Division for the capacity building work of our federation and an intervention by the NMO Involvement SWG.

In our perspective, these sessions were very fruitful and we just cannot wait to see their continuation on the EuRegMe and August Meeting 2015 Macedonia.

Alberto Abreu da Silva

Report from the SRT Vienna 2014

What do have fruitfull exchange sessions, delicious, hot Christmas punch, Academic Quality, an unforgettable NFDP and new friendships in common?

All that happened during the AMSA Austria Sub-Regional Training on Exchanges in Vienna!

From 5th to 8th of December, 2014 we organized an SRT on Exchanges in Vienna, Austria with a total number of 100 participants.

The focus of the program was laid onto Academic Quality in exchanges with the goal to provide each of our SCOPE and SCORE exchange students with the best possible learning experience when the go abroad and also to achieve recognition of our exchange programs in

more medical faculties within and outside of our region!

Additionally, NEO/ NORE and LEO /LORE trainings took place to prepare our exchange officers even better for their tasks, SWGs were held to solve current problems in exchanges and also soft skill trainings were organized!

The social program of the SRT Vienna 2014 took the participants to two different city tours and a visit to the breathtaking Vienesse Christmas markets with their shinning Christmas decorations and delicious Christmas punches and ginger bread! And of course, also a fancy opening ceremony and an unforgettable NFDP were part of it as well!

We thank all participants for coming and we are convienced that our outcomes will help our IFMSA exchange programs to improve even further!

Philipp Foessleitner

Birlik Kart: empowering the sense of belonging

Turkish Medical Students’ International Committee has recently started a new project: Birlik Kart (Card of the Union).

Birlik Kart is designed for medical students in Turkey. It is meant to be used as an affinity card both domestically and abroad. nformation on the birlik kart includes holder’s name and surname, national ID number, university, and the member ID

number. It is a double-sided printing, id est one side is written in Turkish and the other is in English.Not only does Birlik Kart proves that the holder is a medical student and a member of TurkMSIC, but it also offers special discounts for its holders, available at various bookstores, clothing, medical shops, and restaurants. To sum up, Birlik Kart is a new way to embrace the idea of being

a member of our NMO and is an opportunity that serves special offers for medical students in Turkey.”

Mehmet Serhat Yildirim

Expanding the horizon: the pursuit of medical utopia

Once a year TaMSA-Tatarstan together with the administration of Kazan State Medical University (KSMU) conducts a conference which is called “Medical clerkships: expanding the horizon”.

The aim of the conference is not only to motivate medical students to effectively obtain the skills and increase their knowledge during the internship in regional hospitals but also to share unusual cases, ways of treatment and the ideas of how the local healthcare system can be improved.Every year about 20

students from KSMU make a great contribution into the conference by delivering a presentation, where they share the abundant experience gained during IFMSA SCOPE or SCORE summer practice. Participants talk about the advantages of health care system of a hosting country, the special ways of treatment of some diseases and other highlights of their practice, which can possibly find its place in the Republic of Tatarstan.The auditorium is very different, from the 1st year medical students from different medical faculties of Russian

universities to post-graduate students, professors, TaMSA-Tatarstan alumni and current president, Arina Sozinova, deans and even rector of KSMU - all of whom participate in the lively discussion after every presentation.I believe that we are able to create perfect health care system using the knowledge and experience of our colleagues worldwide by sharing great ideas with people on a local level.

Thank you, IFMSA, for making the medical utopia real.

Ellina Mukhametshina

Increasing value, reducing waste!

The IFMSA recognizes the importance of Research skills within the Federation and our NMOs, both for our undergraduate studies and for

our future career of physicians. Research is indeed a fundamental component of Medicine and impact our studies, our discoveries and our patients. Unfortunately, many Universities fail to offer a proper training related to methodologies and integrity.A call to action is paramount as we witness a rising number of research misconduct worldwide.

Within the federation it is not only useful as baseline for research exchanges but it plays a role in all of the Standing Committees.

This is the reason why we have decided to design a study in order to assess the current status of research within

the Medical Curriculum in universities covered by National Member Organizations (NMO).

This will allow us to draw conclusions about the overall state of the problem.

We encourage you to take part in the study, this is the link of the surveyh t t p : // b i t . l y / 1 I G M n e c .

You can take active part spreading it in your NMO and organize realated sessions to discuss this issue during your local or national meetings.

Ivana Di Salvo

Human brain is the innervated universe

“Human brain is the innervated universe.” This otherworldly mystery of the human race for centuries plagued researchers continually seeking explanations of phenomena which are taking place in the brain, and the extraordinary complexity of thought processes.

Limitless possibilities of the human brain were the topic of the first 1st Lublin International Congress for Medical Students and Young Doctors “Think with your brain”, which took place on 29-30th November 2014 in Lublin, Poland.Apart from sessions on case reports, basic sciences, lectures

on neuroglia, addictions and molecular biology of the mind, participants had the opportunity to take part in wide variety of workshops. English Division Lublin organized “Diagnosis of children neurological disorders” workshop, which consisted of two parts.

Theoretical one explained basics of electroencephalography and electrocorticography, as well as the EEG-biofeedback method

– therapy used in treatment of neurological disorders, also popular among businessmen, professors, doctors who want to improve their concentration, effectivity of the learning processes.

In practical part, students were observing course of the EEG examination.Despite all of our knowledge in this matter, there’s a lot more to explore.

We hope that our conference encouraged the participants to specialize in this amazing field of medicine!

Maria Gołębiowska

See you next issue!