Medics worldwide: news and opportunities from the IFMSA

Emily Spry, International Federation of Medical Students' Associations

Multidisciplinary team: why bother?

For many medical students, our interactions with other healthcare students and professionals may be brief and based on a limited or stereotypical understanding of what the other professions are really for. Four healthcare students are seeking to bridge some of the traditional distance between medics, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals. Healthcare students worldwide are invited to attend the Worldmaps conference in Malta later this year. The programme will focus on patient centred care and what improving our level of multidisciplinary work could achieve for our patients (www.worldmaps2005.org).

Health for all... in Chile

In an exciting election, the medical students of Chile won the opportunity to host hundreds students from around the world for the IFMSA March meeting 2006. IFMSA-Chile is a very recent member of our international network and has started a national blood donation drive.

The president of Chile, Ricardo Lagos Escobar, and World Health Organization director general, Dr Lee Jong-wook recently launched the Commission on Social Determinants of Health, a new body to spearhead action on the social causes behind ill health. This will tie in nicely with IFMSA-Chile's desire to get future doctors to consider what role we can take in tackling health inequalities in our own countries and across the world (www.who.int/social_determinants/en).

Travel and educational opportunities

IFMSA European Regional Meeting 21-24 April, Bitola, Macedonia. All European medical students are welcome for three days of building new skills and meeting new friends (www.imssc.org.mk/euregme2.html; email: rceurope@ifmsa.org).

IFMSA General Assembly Meeting 1-7 August, Hurghada, Egypt. Contact your national medical student association if you would like to represent your country at this meeting. See www.ifmsa.org/members. If you would like to attend and your country is not a member of the IFMSA, please contact secgen@ifmsa.org. To find out more visit www.am2005-eg.com.

Worldmaps, Malta - The first global student conference for medical, pharmacy, and other healthcare students. 7-12 November 2005. Topics include patient centred care, interdisciplinary work, education, and public health. Places are strictly limited. (www.worldmaps2005.org; email worldmaps@mmsa.org.mt).

Bulgaria - Fourth Medical Scientific Conference for Students and Young Doctors, 5-7 May 2005, University of Medicine, Pleven, Bulgaria; (www.vmi-pl.bg/meddays05; email students@vmi-pl.bg).

Romania - MEDIS 2005, 19-22 May 2005, Timisoara, Romania; Scientific and cultural programme (web www.ssmt.ro/medis2005; email med@umft.ro).

Ghana - June-July 2005. The Ghana Health and Education Initiative, a non-governmental organization, is seeking four volunteers for three two-week sessions working in a development project (www.ifmsa-usa.org/Ghana; email ecwei@post.harvard.edu). To join the mailing list visit www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ghei.

Germany - 13-23 October 2005, 16th European Students' Conference, Charité, medical faculty of Humboldt University and Free University in Berlin; deadline for abstracts 15 June 2005 (www.esc-berlin.com; email info@esc-berlin.com).



studentBMJ 2005;13:177-220 May ISSN 0966-6494