By Geoff Watts, London

"If you ask medical students about their public health teaching you often get the answer that it's rubbish, or they don't enjoy it or get much from it," says Claire Procter, a medical student at Newcastle and currently president of Medsin, "but students really do want to learn about international health issues."

A couple of schools already offer an intercalated bachelors degree in international health--the Royal Free and University College Medical School and Leeds University Medical School. Medsin would like to see more such courses--and, in the meantime, a bit more global health in the curriculum for all students. Asked if these requests find a sympathetic response from medical schools, Ms Procter claims that they do. In one case at least, Medsin has even helped out with ideas about what to put into a course.

Local action

Although motivated by the bigger picture in health, Medsin is realistic about what its student membership can actually achieve. "Medsin is an organisation for raising awareness about humanitarian issues," says Ms Procter, "It's all about educating ourselves on the different things that affect peoples' health and on what we're going to have to know working as doctors in a global society. But it's also about taking action on projects locally." Hence Medsin's slogan--global vision through local action.

The name of the organisation was originally an acronym for Medical Students International Network, but is now simply its brand name, since the group includes not just medical students but students from other healthcare disciplines.

The local actions that the organisation promotes comprise a clutch of projects and campaigns that are typically started by one branch of Medsin and which, if they prove successful, can be taken up by other branches. The national network spreads the word.

Several Medsin projects focus on what Ms Procter calls "marginalised groups"--refugees and the homeless. A Medsin project called Homed, for example, helped recruit students to take part in a recent count of people sleeping rough in London.

Another, entitled Marrow, is the student contribution to the Anthony Nolan Trust. "Its aim is to get students on to the bone marrow register," says Ms Procter, "This is one of our oldest projects and really strong. I think about 25% of people on the Anthony Nolan register now have come through Marrow groups."

The basic life support scheme has students going out into schools to teach cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Sexpression, a peer led education project, aims to tackle teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases: "It involves students who've had training on sexual health issues visiting schools and passing information on. They also talk to other students about sexual issues."

The organisation operates on a shoestring. Students fund themselves, sometimes helped with expenses for travelling and the like by their medical schools. It gets a bit of outside assistance; the BMA, for example, helps out with printing and sponsorship of the national conference. But Ms Procter can still only dream of a regular source of income.

Open access

Although originally created by and intended solely for medical students, Medsin is now open to others doing any health related degree--or indeed to any student sympathetic to its aims. "In medical careers we're always being taught about the importance of multidisciplinary teams and working together," Ms Procter explains, "A lot of people want to get involved in health issues. There are lots more people out there who could make a real difference to our projects."

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