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Transcript of 1st euromeds 2010
Last but not least you can
also read some more
information about important
upcoming EMSA events! The
EEB thopes to see you there.
I would like to thank
everyone that wrote an
article! I’m looking forward to
your articles for the next
Euromeds edition!
Europeanly yours,
Jeetindra Balak
Secretary General
Picture: 2nd EEB meeting London
FLTR: Tin Knezevic, Jeetindra
Balak, Tim W. Rattay
Dear EMSA members,
In front of you there is a new
edition of Euromeds! The first
edition of 2010!
2010 started great for the
EEB. We are extremely active,
we have been sending over
2700 mails in January and
February!
Nevertheless I’ve found time
to create this Euromeds
for you all! In this edition
we have some truly inter-
esting articles!
Do you, for example, know
what CPME is and what
CPME does? The EMSA
Permanent Officer (David
Herr) has written a nice
article about CPME.
In this Euromeds there is also
an article from SDS Founda-
tion, whose mission statement
is “To unlock the real potential
of people through education
and entrepreneurial develop-
ment of an underprivileged
community in need”. Curious
what this is all about, be sure
to read the article.
E D I T O R I A L
0 9 / 1 0 F I F T H E D I T I O N
E U R O M E D S
European Medical Students’ Association
OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER
I N T H I S
E D I T I O N
C P M E = D O C T O R S
V O İ C E İ N
E U R O P E
2
E M S C O U N C İ L 3
E M S A G A /
E M S C O N 2 0 1 0
4
S D S
F O U N D A T İ O N
5
F O R E N S İ C
M E D İ C İ N E
6
P W G & C P M E
C O O P E R A T İ O N
9
5 0 Y E A R S
H E L M S İ C
1 0
T İ M S 1 1
S O C İ A L L İ V E
A N D M E D İ C A L
E D U C A T İ O N
1 1
S U M M E R
S C H O O L A T H E N S
1 2
A N O U N C E M E N T S
EMSA NCM HOST 2010
EMSA has finally found a host for the
NCM. The exact date of this NCM is
12-16 may 2010.
Be sure to keep this date free in your
agenda, as the NCM is going to be
held in Istanbul, Turkey! The OC is
very busy with the organisation of
this great EMSA event, so keep an
eye out for further updates regarding
this meeting!
EMSA GA HOST 2010
The EMSA GA 2010 will be held in
Athens, Greece. The exact date of
this biggest EMSA event is 8-12
September 2010!
Be sure to read more about Athens
and the EMSA GA and EMS Con in
this Euromeds.
For more information and updates
visit their website:
www.emsaga2010.athens.helmsic.gr
EMS Council 7
This event will take place from 21-25
April 2010, and the early registration is
already open! The theme of this years
EMS Council will be: “Healthcare in
Europe: European Health, links to
education, cooperation, prevention and
equity”
For more information and registration
visit the EMS Council website:
ems.amsa.at
T H E P R E S C A N 1 3
İ W D 1 4
An introduction to the work of CPME and
to the EMSA „Permanent Officer“
Brussels is the capital of Europe.
Although the health related decision-
making authority of Brussels is
actually limited, there is still a
number of important health topics
on EU level that are highly relevant.
Brussels is also the capital of
interest groups and lobbyists. In
order for the doctors' opinion to be
heard as well, they have founded
representations in Brussels, too.
I want to highlight CPME in this
context. The Standing Committee of
European Doctors (French: Comité
P e r m a n e n t d e s M é d e c i n s
Européens) is composed of the most
representative National Medical
Associations (NMAs) of 27 countries.
These 27 do not completely coincide
with the 27 EU Member States, as
three (namely France, Italy and
Spain) have unfortunately recently
resigned from CPME membership
due to internal disputes. On the
other hand, Switzerland, Iceland and
Norway are also members of CPME.
Because of its composition of
National Medical Associations,
CPME benefits from a certain
representivity. Due to this and its
long-lasting political engagement on
EU level, it has a quite good
reputation at the Commission and
other Institutions as well as
stakeholders.
CPME mainly works with regard to
external relations, but also by
coordinating exchange of opinion
and best practice between the
NMAs. CPME's working structure is
dominated by Working Groups
which have just recently been
introduced as the new way of work.
They aim at guaranteeing a
targeted, efficient and quick
response on topics that have been
set on the agenda by the
Commission, for example. Yet topics
can also be founded by internal
approach, of course. In general,
CPME works on a wide scope of
issues. There are Working Groups
dealing with European Medical
Workforce, eHealth, Cross-border
Healthcare, Health Inequalities and
many others. Also issues like
Climate Change & Health or
Prevention and Non-Smoking are
tackled.
In order to do so, the working group
members, doctors from NMAs and
associated organisations like EMSA,
elaborate policy documents that are
discussed and adopted by the
„Executive Committee“ (EC). The EC
therefore is the actual decision-
making body, together with the
board.
The EC consists of the newly-elected
president, Dr. Radziwill from the
Polish Medical Chamber, and five
other members.
Adopted policy papers are then used in
Brussels in order to communicate
European doctors' opinion towards the
C o m mi ss i o n , th e P ar l i a m en t ,
stakeholders, and the like. Another way
to engage is to be proactively involved
in joint projects. Important to mention
here is the „European Network for
Patient Safety“ (EUNetPaS), where
CPME is in charge of one working
package and of the organisation of the
final conference in July.
When it comes to the translation of
policies into concrete action, the CPME
secretariat in Brussels is responsible. It
not only coordinates the internal
decision making process, but also
arranges meetings with EU officials and
other interest groups. Furthermore, the
secretariat staff attends conferences
and keeps track of the relevant
developments in Brussels. As Secretary
-General, Lisette Tiddens-Engwirda is
head of the secretariat.
CPME and EMSA have been cultivating
an atmosphere of intense and
productive cooperation for years –
obvious by the fact that EMSA uses the
postal address of CPME for its official
correspondence. Most important,
EMSA is represented in the CPME
office personally by the so called
„Permanent Officer“ (the name might
undergo revision in the future, though).
The Permanent Officer is an EMSA
student living for six months in
Brussels, working at the CPME
secretariat.
C P M E — D O C T O R S ’ V O İ C E İ N E U R O P E
Page 2 E U R O M E D S
At this point I would like to introduce
myself to you as the current EMSA
„PO“. Since January it is my honour
to work for EMSA and CPME in
Brussels. My main task is primarily
to foster the partnership between
CPME and EMSA and to ensure a
good information flow from the EU
institutions. Ultimately, the heart of
EU policy shall beat within EMSA! At
the same time, I support CPME in
various workings on site. Amongst
others, I attend conferences and
write reports on them, help at
administrative things, at the
preparation of presentations, at the
organisation of the patient safety
conference, or sometimes at writing
documents like e.g. our „Appeal to
the Commission“ a few days ago.
Thereby, a good collaboration with
the Liaison Officer towards
European Medical Organisations
(EMO-LO), Luis Machado, is crucial.
To introduce myself shorty in
person: my name is David Herr and
I am a 6th year medical student in
Münster, Germany. As I always had
a strong interest in health policy,
economy and ethics, I am very glad
to have the opportunity to assume
this exciting task for EMSA –
especially during these interesting
times, with a new European
Commission just elected.
Whenever you have questions or
suggestions regarding Brussels or EU
related topics, please do not hesitate to
contact me! I am happy for exchange
and ideas! In this spirit, I hope that we
can contribute to EMSA being up to
date and involved in all the current
policy issues!
David Herr
EMSA Permanent Officer
Page 3 E U R O M E D S
E M S C O U N C İ L — F R O M A T H E N S T O V İ E N N A
A journey in time…”
“The Cradle…”
How true are those words… These
days when we think of Athens, we
mostly think of tourism… Of ancient
ruins… Perhaps even of the eco-
nomic crisis… But if we let the
thought linger there for a moment or
two we remember the Golden Time
of Pericles, the idea of Democracy
and the Cradle of the Western Civili-
zation…
The golden age of ancient Athens
was long gone when I first set my
eyes on the Acropolis… But once I
did it for
the third
time, an-
other era
had be-
gun… A
time in
which my
path and
that of
EMSA would be entangled in a story
most interesting.
“The Spark…”
It seems many years have passed
since the 5th EMS Council… And yet,
it was only 2 summers ago…
Eager young minds, an interest-
ing subject and an inspiring
atmosphere resulted in one of
the best experiences of my life!
And, of course, in the “Athens
resolution on the care for the
terminally ill”… A document that
would very much influence my
life in the years to
come…
“The Flame…”
Some would say
that the Muses lin-
gered for quite a
while… I tend to
think that the ex-
perience, knowledge and the friends
I have made in Athens changed me
and that this change is what re-
mained… A passion was born. One
that would be my drive in the work
for EMSA, in the field of palliative
care and in policy making. Call me a
hopeless romantic, but something in
me still believes that one can indeed
leave this world a better place than
it was when one was born…
“The Squeal…”
In just a few weeks time new eager
minds will converge on yet another
challenges as well. Europe is uniting,
the public is aging, the economy is
changing. How will this effect
Europe? How will this affect health-
care? How will this affect YOU?
Can we be the catalyst of change? I
believe we must!
So do not miss this great opportu-
nity! Join us, voice your opinion and
be heard!
Registrations for the 7th European
Medical Students’ Council are now
OPEN!
For more information, visit
ems.amsa.at!
Tin Knežević
President 2009/10
Eureaopean Medical Students’
Assocaition (EMSA)
Page 4 E U R O M E D S
E M S A G A & E M S C O N 2 0 1 0
A T H E N S , G R E E C E
n September of
2010 something
wonderful is going
to happen in a
beautiful city of
Greece… Medical
students from all
over Europe are going to gather in
Athens from 8 to 12 of September
for the 20th General Assembly of
European Medical Students’ Asso-
ciation!
Greece is closely related to medi-
cine. Actually medicine was born
here! Everyone knows Hippocrates,
the father of medicine. Athens is the
biggest city of Greece with many
historical monuments spread around
its roads.
The most
popular of all
i s t h e
A c r o p o l i s .
Without a
doubt, the
fact that the annual GA of EMSA will
be held out in such a place is some-
thing more than special.
At the same time the EMS Congress
2010 will take place on the issue of
regenerative medicine. During its
three sessions lectures will be organ-
ized by distinguished scientists in
this field. Thus we will have the op-
portunity to be informed on this rap-
idly evolving field of medicine. Lastly,
we will also express our opin-
ion on both dangers and bene-
fits that arise from the field of
regenerative medicine. This is
important because it will di-
rectly influence us as future
doctors. Beyond the scientific
part we have also organized
an amusing social program,
including welcome dinner,
national food and
drinking party and
many more surprises.
We will try to intro-
duce you into the
Greek way of enter-
tainment! A tour to
the historical center of Athens has
already been organized for those who
love ancient Greece. Moreover, an
excursion to beaches nearby and a
beach party there is a great idea since
the weather in Athens is still warm in
September.
Are you sure you want to miss this
unforgettable experience?
Waiting to see you all in Athens!
For further information visit our web-
site
www.emsaga2010.athens.helmsic.gr
or contact us at
On behalf of the OC, Oikonomopou-
lou Niki
The ordinary student organiza-
tion arranges social drinks and
organizes parties for its mem-
bers. At times, the party is tre-
mendously successful, everyone says
it’s super cool, and whoever absent is
considered to be a fool. Inebriety level
is often used to gauge the successful-
ness of such event, which makes the
line “I don’t remember what hap-
pened last night, but I know I had
great fun.” very common the morning
after a memorable party. However,
the one discussed here is not your
ordinary student organiza-
tion. The name is Sustain-
able Development Solu-
tions (SDS) Foundation
and, yes, it is actually a
foundation.
Over a year ago six busi-
ness students from six
different countries de-
cided that they want to
contribute something to
the society aside from
their full-time job as text-
book-readers and/or for-
mula-memorizers at Rotterdam
School of Management (RSM) Eras-
mus University. The main goal is to
put the knowledge learned in class
into practice (Well, that is one reason,
another is perhaps because there was
some kind of electrical fire in their
brains that made the number of as-
signments they’re having oblivious for
a moment). This goal is best ex-
pressed in their mission statement:
“To unlock the real potential of people
through education and entrepreneu-
rial development of an underprivi-
leged com-
munity in
need.”
The most
i m p o r t a n t
c o m p o n e n t
from SDS
Fou ndat ion
lies in sus-
tainability, but not the tree-
hugger kind of sustainability, this
one refers to sustainable economic
activity. Hence, they neither fancy Al
Gore, nor lose any sleep because of
the leaked Climategate emails, but
they do put Muhammad Yunus’
Banker to the Poor in between the
latest FHM Top 100 and Tiesto’s
Elements of Life CD. They aim to
break a cycle of poverty by funding
education and start-up costs of
young people who are less fortu-
nate; they believe that teaching
them how to fish, instead of giving
them fish, is the way to go.
At present, they are collaborating
with Romanian Orphanage Minis-
tries (ROM), a non-profit foundation
that provides shelter and education
for orphans in Oradea, 435 km from
the capital city of Bucharest. During
the reign of Nicolae Ceausescu, the
birth rate exploded, partially due to
the ban on contraception and abor-
tion. After a few decades of poverty,
many of these children were aban-
doned by their parents. The current
government regulation forces these
orphans to get out of the orphanage
once they reach the age of 18.
Many of them are still unable to
survive on their own at that stage
and this is where ROM
serves its purpose.
ROM bridges the gap
between the time they have to leave
the orphanages and the time they are
ready to contribute to the economy
and SDS Foundation is working with
them to achieve this goal through vari-
ous fund-raising events.
SDS Foundation organized an event
called “Run around the World” on the
15th of November 2009. In this event,
people from practically all around the
world ran for a specific dis-
tance and got someone to
sponsor them for every kilo-
meter they covered. The
runners covered the kilome-
ters in Sydney, Milan, Rome,
Munich, London, New York,
Amsterdam, Hong Kong,
Beijing and, of course, Rot-
terdam. This event turned
out to be a huge success in
terms of both marketing
campaign and financial gain.
“Run around the World” is
one event out of many oth-
ers these students have in mind. Fu-
ture projects can be as cool as the
trailer for Iron Man 2 and conducted
in various locations at once, and the
number of locations is aimed to ex-
ceed the number of Tiger Woods’ al-
leged mistresses. To achieve the lat-
ter, SDS Foundation is looking for pos-
sible cooperation with EMSA to en-
hance the scope of future projects
using EMSA’s broad network across
Europe.
So feel free grab a pen and a piece of
paper to jot down any wonderful ideas
you have in mind and contact
[email protected] or visit
our website at www.sdsfoundation.org
for more information!
Millardi Nadesul
Page 5 E U R O M E D S
S D S F O U N D A T I O N
Because of my curiosity towards the work field of forensic medicine, I’ve interviewed dr. Kees Das, he is head of the department of forensic medicine in Amsterdam and started his career as forensic doctor.
What contains the work field of a
forensic doctor?
When a forensic doctor is on duty, he
waits until he gets calls. The calls can
be very divers, for example a pris-
oner, who needs a doctor. This is not
really forensic, but a great amount of
the work load. Real forensic work
contains external post-mortem ex-
aminations and research of sexual
offenses, the simple blood test for
drunken drivers, assessment of peo-
ple under the influence of various
substances. Office hours for injuries
or statements for injuries. Besides,
you also have other forensic doctors,
such as forensic pathologists, toxi-
cologists and psychiatrists.
Wat was your motivation to choose
forensic medicine?
Actually this was pure coincidence. At
that time I had heard little of this
work field as many. I started this
work in ’86. When I graduated, I first
studied general medicine and I
worked as a General Practitioner for
ten years in Amsterdam. At one point,
I wasn’t able to find a practice, there
were 800 seekers at the time. By
chance, I heard that people were
needed within this work field. And I
thought, I’m an observer already, so I
will apply myself for it.
I was not gripped by the work imme-
diately, on the contrary, I found it
rather disgusting.
But this work field also has interest-
ing aspects. I do not regret it, else I
wouldn’t be here.
In this work field you
are dealing with
cases and you think,
what is going on?
Together with the
police you find out
what happened. That
is quite some detec-
tive work and it is
never boring…
In the past, we were
called police doctors
and there was little
knowledge about this discipline only
in the United States and Germany.
But slowly but surely forensic medi-
cine was also built up in the Nether-
lands.
Wat are the interesting aspects of
forensic medicine?
Of course I have seen a lot of re-
markable cases, but what if you
have to do the external post-
mortem examination of Pim Fortuyn
(ed. important Dutch Politician shot
in 2002), this is something you
would not forget easily of course. I
haven’t done this examination, be-
cause it occurred in another town.
But it are often those cases which
are complicated. With which you
look at a wound and then you have
to combine certain aspects and
score out other aspects and then
you think okay this is what probably
happened.
The best part is when the police is
there and says “there is nothing
wrong, he just naturally deceased.
And you look at it and think criti-
cally.. “mmm I have a different view
on that..”
With which other disciplines does a
forensic doctor cooperate?
Especially the po-
lice, because often
when someone is
found dead, the
police are called
first.
If someone dies at
home and the Gen-
eral Practitioner
can’t decide if it is a
natural death, then
he can call us as
well. You have to
receive information of the medical
and social history of the GP. You also
work with the General Department,
but more on a distance. You have to
report to the Justice Department and
sometimes you have to show up for
questioning in courtroom. You also
deal frequently with employers of the
ambulance, they where the first ones
who were present and can often tell
you what happened and how the set-
ting was, when they arrived. And the
pathologist, in some cases the body
goes to The Hague for an autopsy.
You get the report later, sometimes
there was a gun or a knife involved
and then the report is rather obvious,
but sometimes there may be some-
thing that is not seen on the outside,
for example a bleeding of the brains,
thorax or abdomen.
Regarding the cooperation what goes
well and which aspects need im-
provement?
In general it is good. But to give an
idea, in the Netherlands about
150.000 people die each year and
with only 10.000 people there is a
coroner involved. With the other
140.000 people an external post-
mortem examination is done by the
treating physician or General Practi-
tioner among others. It isn’t unimag-
inable that something will
Page 6 E U R O M E D S
F O R E N S İ C M E D İ C İ N E
be missed.
And with the 10.000 cases a year at
which there is a coroner, an autopsy
is done with nearly 500 people,
which is very low. This amount could
be much higher if it were for me. Be-
cause there are many cases for
which you can’t decide with the na-
ked eye what happened. But when
police and Justice Department are
thinking, well, it is not a crime, then
they often let it be, what is a pity.
I am convinced that when more
cases would be examined, more
could come to light, especially in the
field of toxicology. It is often not even
acknowledges that there is a criminal
case. For roughly half of all murders
an offender is never found, these are
a lot of unsolved cases
How do you feel about the coopera-
tion with the General Practitioner?
When we have contact, the coopera-
tion is alright. But I think a General
Practitioner should involve a coroner
more often. It happens much too of-
ten, that GP’s doubt the cause of
death, but they are thinking, what-
ever… That is much too easy.
Do you think there should be more
education about forensic medicine?
Training on forensic medicine should
be treated more during the education
of general practice. Often it is only an
afternoon, that is not much. There is
also too little education on this field
in the medical curricula. Spectacular
images are entertaining of course,
but the work field involves a lot of
thinking. It is not that you can see
everything on the outside, on the
contrary. In many cases you have to
think about what actually happened
and if the data you’ve received fit.
For example a case of someone of
50 who is found dead, and has dia-
betes. It is interesting that someone
has diabetes, but you do not simply
die on this disease, so there has to
be more…
How do the police reacts to your
cooperation?
Sometimes, the police take control
and they want to tell us how it all
fits together and sometimes you
have people with little experience
and we take control. Mostly both
sides are experienced. You need the
skills of both work fields, when you
combine these together you be-
come wiser. That's in general the
idea. If a police officer says “here
you have the corpse on the table,
we have already stripped it for you,
can you tell us what happened.”
Then you obviously don’t have any
clues, because you have to know
the setting and the medical history
of the patient. You have to know
what someone has been drinking,
been sleeping, been doing to draw a
picture. At first, it is mainly gather-
ing information, exchanging and
then you can structure a logical
story.
Does forensic medicine in the Neth-
erlands diver with this discipline in
other countries?
I know this for certain, because
every country arranges this disci-
pline in its own way. As we have
arranged it with a civil coroner, oth-
ers have not. In England or Ger-
many, any doctor could perform an
external post-mortem examination,
and if he says I doubt about the
cause of death, then the police will
bring the body to a pathologist who
performs an autopsy.
So an intermediary coroner with
experience in the field of forensic
medicine doesn’t exist.
How does the family reacts to a sec-
tion?
If there is a reason for it, then the
family doesn’t bother, but if it would
be done like a standard procedure,
then you will receive a lot of protests.
It isn’t hard to imagine this. For ex-
ample a man of about 80, who is
found dead in his bed, then you also
don’t know the cause of his dead.
When you tell the family we have to
take him to a pathologist for a sec-
tion, just to be sure. Then you would
also say if you were family “hell, no””.
Do you also cooperate with other
countries within forensic medicine?
Not often, occasionally there are in-
ternational conferences in Germany,
Belgium and England. But real struc-
tural cooperation doesn’t really exist.
I have the impression that the pathol-
ogy is at a higher level in England
and United States than in the Nether-
lands. The Netherlands could learn
from these countries. This is mainly
caused by the amount of pathologists
in the Netherlands, when you are
having a few it is hard to find good
pathologists. In England and the
United States, there are people who
perform about 2 autopsies every day
and have a lot more experience and
knowledge. It lies mainly in large
numbers.
Which qualities should medical stu-
dents have to become a forensic doc-
tor?
It is important that you can easily
perform a diagnosis, therefore work
as a GP at first for a few years or at
the emergency department. The
most important part is, but that ap-
plies for every doctor, that you have
to trust your own opinion.
At first, every doctor doubts his opin-
ion, but at some point you have to
Page 7 E U R O M E D S
trust that it is how you think it is. But
a couple of years will pass before you
will get this feeling.
Besides this, criminals are not the
most reliable types and are inventing
a lot. Some can fool you around eas-
ily and you must be able to look
through it, human knowledge is im-
portant.
I always say: General practitioners
and company doctors are easily
fooled around, but don’t notice it,
they are buying too much of their
patients..
Micky Las van Bennekom
Ethics Director
European Medical Students’ Associa-
tion
Page 8 E U R O M E D S
Page 9 E U R O M E D S
P W G A N D C P M E C O O P E R A T İ O N
Dear EMSA members and enthusiasts,
First of all allow me to introduce my-
self. My name is Luís Machado, I’m
from Coimbra, a small but nice univer-
sity city in Portugal. I’m 24 years old
and I’m a 6th year medical student.
Since last April, in the NCM in Bulgaria,
I became more and more enthusiast
about EMSA and with the opportunity
to participate on a European level. In
October I was appointed by EMSA
European Board for the position of
Liaison Officer towards European
Medical Organisations.
I’d like to share these last months,
which have been a wonderful and mo-
tivating experience. Working on Euro-
pean level is giving me the opportunity
of developing new projects, meet fan-
tastic people and contact with other
Medical organisations as well, sharing
the same objective: to have an Euro-
pean voice for Medical Students all
around Europe.
This year we are going to start some
cooperation projects with PWG, Perma-
nent Working Group of European Jun-
ior Doctors.
PWG is a European Medical organisa-
tion that represents the interests of
the European Junior Doctors
around Europe. It is one of the most
important partnership for EMSA and
we planned a workpackage of projects
to be developed in collaboration!
The projects agreed on are:
1. Bologna Process 3rd cycle
Goal – joint policy with recommenda-
tions on the organisation of the
3rd cycle in Medicine
2. Scientific Research during medical
school and PGT
Goal – joint policy with recommenda-
tions on the importance of medical
research during UGT and PGT.
3. MEDINE 2
Goal – to define working strategy
within the network.
Which working packages to collabo-
rate, sharing of information.
4. EU Directive on the recognition of
professional qualifications (2005/36)
Goal – joint recommendations as to
what to change in the directive when it
comes to the revision phase (expected
2011)
5. Workshops
Goal – development of a team and a
template to deliver workshops to medi-
cal students and junior doctors in lead-
ership training and coping with transi-
tion between medical student/JD
6. Euromedmobility
Goal – have the students part of the
project done.
7. Networking between medical stu-
dents and JDs at the national level
Goal - Facilitate the contact between
organisations that represent medical
students and JDs at the national level.
We are looking for some motivated
people and manpower to work on
some of these projects. You can join
our workgroup by sending an email to
our Vice-President Ania through the
email address vice.president@emsa-
europe.eu. You can also just contact
me to [email protected] and
work just in one project you’re inter-
ested as my assistant and part of the
Workgroup as well!
Trust me, you won’t regret it! You will
have the chance of meeting lots of
new people and working on policies on
a European level.
On the other hand, we are working to
keep and improve our good strategic
partnership with CPME. Recently, Euro-
pean Medical Organisations (EMO)
agreed on Domus Medica, a future
platform of cooperation between all
EMO’s, in which EMSA is included.
This last month CPME constituted the
Working Groups for 2010 and EMSA is
included as well, with some appointed
EEB members in the Working Groups.
We are now developing a CPME infor-
mative monthly newsletter. You are
going to receive the information about
CPME policies, adopted positions and
papers.
More news on this soon, after CPME
meeting on 16th and 17th April in Brus-
sels. You will be updated!
Don’t forget you can be part of this,
just email me to emo-lo@emsa-
europe.eu!
Europeanly yours,
Luís Machado
European Medical Organisations Liaison
Officer (EMO-LO) 2009/2010
European Medical Students' Association
(EMSA)
email: [email protected]
msn: [email protected]
skype: luismiguel.machado
www.emsa-europe.org
Faculdade de Medicina
Universidade de Coimbra
Rua Larga 4º andar
3004-504 Coimbra
Portugal
Making a journey back in time, travel-
ing 5 decades in the past, one meets
some medical students at the Medical
School of the National & Kapodistrian
University of Athens who had an un-
precedented idea: to create a commu-
nication network with their colleagues,
medical students across the world. A
network that had already started to
form a few years before, in 1951, the
international network that we know
today as the International Federation
of Medical Students’ Associations –
IFMSA. It was the birth of the Hellenic
Medical Students’ International Com-
mittee, the birth of HelMSIC.
HelMSIC celebrated its 50-year anni-
versary in all 7 cities of Greece with a
medical school in 2008, 50 years after
the first exchange of medical students
that left Athens for 1 month and went
to practice in Berlin. Last December, it
was time for the local committee of
HelMSIC in Alexandroupolis, north-
ern Greece, to join the celebrations
and celebrate at the same time its
10 years of existence, its 10 years
of volunteerism and
activities. A special
event took place on
December 16 th
2009, at the main
amphitheatre of the
University Hospital
of the Democritus
U n i v e r s i t y o f
Thrace, Alexandrou-
polis with the par-
ticipation of many
medical students,
Alumni and univer-
sity professors and
staff. A unique pho-
tography exhibition took place at
the same time, with a collection of
photographs dating back 50 years
of HelMSIC’s history and 10 years of
H e l M S I C -
Alexandroupolis’
contribution. A 30-
minute interview
followed the event
at a local TV-
station, where
medical students,
HelMSIC’s National
Alumni Director
(NAD) and one of
HelMSIC’s Honor-
ary Life Members
presented the
work being done
all those years at
the local committee, offering so much
to the local community of northern
Greece.
HelMSIC-Alexandroupolis is also an
FMO of EMSA since its establishment,
in 2000 and is active in most EMSA’s
pillars, organizing Teddy Bear Hospital,
Twinning Project, Anti-tobacco training
seminars and medical education ac-
tivities throughout each academic
year.
Dr. Konstantinos M. Roditis
National Alumni Director of HelMSIC
2006/2010
European Integration Director, EMSA
European Board 2006/2007
Post-doc Fellow, Max-Planck Institute
for Heart & Lung Research, Bad Nau-
heim, Germany
Page 10 E U R O M E D S
5 0 Y E A R S H E L M S İ C
1 0 Y E A R S H E L M S İ C - A L E X A N D R O U P O L İ S
Page 11 E U R O M E D S
T E C H N O L O G Y İ N M E D İ C İ N E A N D S U R G E R Y ( T İ M S )
Technology in Medicine and Surgery (TiMS)
Conference
Saturday 13th February 2010
Location: Imperial College London, South
Kensington
Have you ever thought of yourself as
an inventor? Thought of new ideas
which could be at the forefront of
medical innovations? Well on Saturday
13th February, I was fortunate enough
to go to the first ever TiMS conference
organized by Imperial College School
of Medicine (ICSM) Surgical Society.
Their main aim is dedicated to con-
necting medical students with extra-
curricular surgical training and educa-
tion. I arrived at Imperial College, col-
lected my delegate packs which con-
tained lots of freebies including pens,
notepads and 3D glasses!?! TiMS
ethos is to inspire the next generation
of medical thinkers and innovators
and expose them to the frontiers of
medical technology and innovation.
This event brought together students,
doctors, engineers and scientists from
many diverse fields and allowed stu-
dents to pitch ideas to an expert panel
of judges. With a vibrant atmos-
phere buzzing full of ideas and in-
ventors, the introductory talk was
delivered by the prestigious Profes-
sor the Lord Ara Darzi via RP7 Ro-
bot.
The competition entrants included
Cambridge University who invented
a replacement to the orange stick
tongue depressor, University of Ab-
erdeen who invented a new derma-
tological membrane used in plastic
surgery and Imperial College Lon-
don who invented a new online pro-
gramme which enabled basic medi-
cine to be instilled in all students.
It was amazing to see how much
other medical students had
achieved and how creative and in-
novative their ideas were. We also
heard from several top inventors
including Mr Roger Armour, inventor
of the lens-free opthalmoscope,
Professor Dale Harrow who de-
signed the new SmartPod Ambu-
lance, Professor Josh Silver who
invented self-refraction with adap-
tive lens eyeglasses for developing
countries and also Mr Barry
Paraskeva, surgeon at St Marys Hospi-
tal who pioneered Single Incision La-
proscopic Surgery.
We also got the chance to experience
3D anatomy from Primal Pictures
which was very educational as you
were able to add certain layers, much
like dissection but at your own conven-
ience.
TiMs was a very enjoyable day where I
had the opportunity to meet students
and professionals alike from across
the country and learn about innova-
tions and their suitability to clinical
practice. I hope to attend more confer-
ences like this in the future and hope
that you will also be inspired to think
of new ideas of your own…….
Kavita Aggarwal
S O C İ A L L İ F E A N D M E D İ C A L E D U C A T İ O N G O H A N D İ N H A N D
It is a nice thing to dream of being a
medical student while lying down on
the grass on a bright sunny day and
feeling warmth of the sun and soft
breeze on your whole body. It is nicer
to know that you are actually a
medical student when you slowly close
your eyes and fall into a sweet sleep
on that grass. Nevertheless, between
sleep and awake, you have to get up
hastily to catch your lesson and that’s
the reality itself.
One of the hard conditions that
exhausts a medical student is
undoubtedly, the Schedule which
includes lots of clinical and
theoretical lectures. It is a heavy
burden to carry, both physically and
mentally. One of the most difficult
things is feeling connected in. Long
and tiresome studies are the most
important responsiblities this
burden requires; hence, more and
more time should be spent on
studies and repititions pile up.
Adjusting to these time requirement
as a medical student brings sleeping
problems on. Think of a sleepless
night after a tiresome schedule, it is
certainly a dangerous game which
pushes the lines’ of the student.
On the other hand, this may not be as
drastic if a medical student can go on
his/her routines without abandoning
his desires. When we take into
consideration the necessity of
studiying and intensive schedule, the
most simply, it is enough to unify his/
her outer life apart from being
student and the necesities of medical
education.
It is the strong evidence for social
life and medical education’s going
hand in hand together to see a
medical student, by attending
medical congress, conquering new
cities with tens of new faces also
assisting his education within a
scientific program, by taking charge
in social support projects, gaining
experince and knowing many other
students who have the same
collage life. Of course it is a
requirement to spend time
p a r t i c i p a t i n g c u l t u r a l ,
entertainment, sportive activities
and paying attention to self
development which should be taken
independent ly f rom student
requisitions.
To sum up, medical education
requires a qualified social life and a
steady studying program. By
enabling ourselves to be acitve in
such kinds of medical conferences,
congresses or meetings, the
requirements of this hard education
would not have averted the habits
and necessities of a human life.
Finally, we can find some time for
lying down on the grass on a bright
sunny day in order not to postpone
our study plan.
Aylin INALTEKIN
İdris TAS
From EMSA-Yeditepe
Page 12 E U R O M E D S
S U M M E R S C H O O L A T H E N S
HelMSIC invites
you at a one-week
summer school
focused on Regen-
erative Medicine
that will take
place in Athens from 6 to 12 Septem-
ber 2010. You may all have heard
the ancient greek myth about Prome-
theus, a titan who stole the fire from
the Gods and gave it to humans.
Zeus then punished him for this
crime by having him bound to a rock
in the Caucasus mountain while an
eagle, sent also by Zeus, was biting
Prometheus liver. However, every day
the liver grew back to be eaten again
the next day. This was a first refer-
ence to regenerative power and
shows its high importance from an-
cient years.
Today, regenerative medicine consti-
tutes an application of the knowledge
gained from regenerative biology in
order to enable the regeneration of
biological structures such as restor-
ing structure and function of dam-
aged tissues and organs. It is also
working to create solutions for organs
that become permanently damaged.
The goal of this medicine is to find a
way to cure previously untreatable
injuries and diseases. What if it was
possible to harness the power of
the body to heal and then acceler-
ate it in a clinically relevant way?
This question shows off why this
field is one of the most challenging
issues nowadays.
So, if you are an undergraduate
student of Medicine (2nd year and
above) with an advanced knowledge
in English and an interest in this
promising field, this summer school
is a great opportunity not only to get
deeply involved with it, but also to
gain practical experience from ex-
perts and world wide
recognised scientists.
Lectures will be hold
from experts focused
on several aspects
including stem cell
sources, medical appli-
cations, stem cell
banks, scaffolds,
breakthrough research,
future expectations and
ethical issues. Apart
from this theoretical
part, there would be
also a practical one with
laboratory visits.
Little we could say about our social
program. Athens is the capital of
Greece and an important cultural
centre!! It’s also a chance to come in
contact with the greek civilisation,
culture and of course entertainment.
Let us regenerative you in Athens in
September 2010!
For more information, just visit our
website
http://rmss. Athens.helmsic.gr
o r c o n t a c t u s t o e m a i l :
On behalf of the Orga-
nizing Committee,
Ioannis Tomos
This year’s Leadership Summer School (LSS’10) taking place in Ljubljana, Slo-venia from the 16th to the 25th of July 2010 will be the third one of its kind, but for sure a truly unique experience for every participant…
The LSS is a joint project of different
student organisations from the
“Informal Forum of International Stu-
dent Organisations” (IFISO). This net-
work exists in its current form since
2000 and consists of student organi-
sations ranging from technical, psy-
chological to natural subjects. With
the project LSS’10 IFISO wants to
enable about 80 students to share
their knowledge in the field of leader-
ship and improve their skills through
workshops given by highly-qualified
trainers.
For this great occasion the Organisa-
tion Committee (OC) in Ljubljana in-
vites students from all over Europe to
participate in this week of hands-on
practise and learning. Besides the
OC, which is responsible for all local
work, the event is being prepared by
the Coordination Team (CT), which
makes sure everything else such as
website information is being taken
care of. Together, the OC and the
CT, want to make this event
“unforgettable and enriching for all
participants”!
To ensure the unique experience
comes true the workshops given by
trainers from the different organisa-
tions will be very diverse, and ex-
plore topics like “intercultural com-
munication”, “leadership styles”
and “effective meetings”. Addition-
ally a number of team games will be
included to strengthen the team
development between the partici-
pants and make the sessions as
interactive as possible.
For more information please:
Have a look at the website:
www.leadershipsummerschool.org
You also will find more infor-
mation about the application process
and how you can be a part of this
great event.
Contact the Coordination
Team: Sofia, Vlad, Luka and Timon
Page 13 E U R O M E D S
L E A D E R S H İ P S U M M E R S C H O O L — R E P E A T İ N G T H E S U C C E S
T H E P R E S C A N — P R E V E N T İ V E H E A L T H C A R E
Everyone believes that health has a
high priority. The phrase “being
healthy is all that matters” counts for
almost everyone. If you are young or
old, if you live in Europe or in India,
health is a universal value, and we
will do anything to guarantee its qual-
ity. A recent development could im-
prove the quality of life increasingly,
but raises important ethical ques-
tions as well.
In the past, we only visited a doctor
when we were not feeling well (or had
aspecific complaints, like tiredness).
Nowadays “prevention” within health-
care is much more important than
healing. One of these new techniques
for prevention in health care is called
“the Prescan”. The Prescan is a
preventive research program, which
is carried out in hospitals in the
Netherlands, Germany, England and
Austria. The preventive check-ups
are done by several specialists, who
use sophisticated imaging tech-
niques such as CT and MRI scans to
examine the entire body. Moreover,
an ECG can be performed as well to
discover (upcoming) heart defects
and laboratory research can be
done to measure blood values. With
this preventive research program, a
patient will have more clarity about
his health, possible abnormalities
and disorders that could rise in the
future.
I myself work part-time in home care
and I remember very well that I was
nursing a family of which the mother
suffered a severe brain tumor. She
was in her early 40’s and she had
three children aged three to eight. I
nursed her in her last days and it was
horrible to see what the situation was
doing to her young children. They
wanted to be with their mother con-
stantly They tried to give her lemon-
ade and played music for her, while
she could barely talk or move. Experi-
encing this, you would wish that the
brain tumor was detected at an early
stage, therefore these young children
didn’t have to say goodbye to their
mother they loved so much.
The Prescan could be an important
development in medicine, which
could improve the quality of live sig-
nificantly for many patients, but it
causes ethical questions as well.
In the first place there are the high
costs (approximately 1000 euro’s),
which will have to be paid by the pa-
tient himself and are not being cov-
ered by health insurance.
This means that preventive
health care is only confined
to people with higher in-
comes; shouldn’t it be acces-
sible for everyone?
The next ethical question which
rises is, is the Prescan really a
positive development? We have to
keep in mind that less severe ab-
normalities and disorders will also
be detected in patients. Patients
could make a great claim on health-
care, while it could be possible that
these small disorders do not have
an effect on their health now, or in
the future.
We have to consider these questions
thoroughly.
Mickuela Las van Bennekom
Page 14 E U R O M E D S
Throughout life women and men
contribute every day to society. Both
genders are supposed to play
different parts to the forthcoming of
their society, their family, their
career. The last centuries made an
extreme change to the traditional
g e n d e r p i c t u r e s , b u t s t i l l
requirements regarding health and
behavior towards risks and risk-
taking are different.
In 2010 EMSA will raise awareness
to the different roles women play in
society and to their requirements
regarding career planning, by
celebrating the
International Women’s Day on
March, 8th.
With your help and your creativity we
want to set up an annual event that
concerns about women in medicine
and women health issues in general.
The first International Women’s Day
celebrated by EMSA will deal with
young female medical students and
doctors approaching their career, the
lack of University’s support of female
students, what goes well and what
should be improved at the university
in Europe concerning female medical
students.
Regarding the chosen topic
(“Female Steps in Medicine”) we
would like to ask you to put all of
your creativity and enthusiasms in
the International Women’s Day and
organize projects such as lectures
or a Movie and Medicine. Invite a
female doctor and let her talk about
her career or a politician that works
with gender policies! Show a movie
that deals with female issues and
start a discussion after the movie!
Besides the core action on March,
8th, we ask you to distribute a
questionnaire to all of your female
medical students and pass it back
to us by the end of March (deadline
31.03.2010). This questionnaire
will be evaluated and the results will
be presented at the first issues of
the EMSA Medical Ethics Issue in
May! We would also ask you to send
us your pictures you made at March
8th, 2010 so that we can publish
them in the issues as well.
Please fill in the questionnaires
(link listed below) or send the filled-
in questionnaire by mail so that the
answers can be evaluated and be
used for a position formed by WG-
members, the Director of Medical
Ethics and the LO-WHO.
Link: http://bit.ly/agK2cF
You can find the questionnaire as a
Pdf-Form and a document with a
short résumé of all the mentioned
facts in this message at:
www.emsa-europe.org
We thank you for your interest and
we look forward to your projects held
in our university and to your filled- in
questionnaires!!!
Europeanly yours,
Constanze Born (Liaison Officer
toward the WHO 2009/2010)
Mickuela las van Bennekom (Medical
Ethics Director 2009/2010)
I N T E R N A T İ O N A L W O M A N S D A Y : F E M A L E S T E P S İ N M E D İ C İ N E
EMSA – c/o Standing Committee of
European Doctors (CPME) – Rue
Guimard 15 – B1040 Brussels -
Belgium
Web: www.emsa-europe.org
E-Mail: [email protected]
WHAT IS EMSA?
The European Medical Students’ Association (EMSA) was founded in
Brussels in 1991. It integrates medical students in geographical Europe
through activities organised for and by medical students and representing
them in Brussels. Faculties are members, not the individual countries. Since
EMSA’s foundation many medical faculties throughout Europe enrolled with
EMSA. It currently units 50 medical faculties from countries across Europe.
EMSA seeks to improve the health and the quality of care of the citizens of
Europe by acting as a conduit for increased interaction and sharing of
knowledge between European medical students in the areas of medical education,
ethics and science.
E U R O P E A N M E D İ C A L
S T U D E N T S ’ A S S O C I A T I O N
S E E Y O U I N N E X T E D I T I O N ! Acknowledgement
Articles do not neces-
sarily reflect the opin-
ion of EMSA. All arti-
cles are the copyrights
of the EUROPEAN
MEDICAL STUDENTS’
ASSOCIATION (EMSA).
We thank all of you for
your contributions.
The objectives of EMSA are:
° To form a network between European medical students to facilitate European integration and develop a sense of European
identity
° To represent and voice the opinions of the medical students of Europe
° To act as a forum for all medical students in Europe, to discuss topics related to the fields of medical education, medical ethics, and
medical research
° To promote the highest standards in European medical education and ensure the quality of healthcare in Europe
° To promote training, activities and projects related to health in Europe to the benefit of medical students and society
° To facilitate intercultural understanding by organizing social and cultural events
° To cooperate with other student organizations and with organizations representing the medical profession
A couple of the activities EMSA organises are: Teddy Bear Hospital, Twinning Project, Eurotalk, EMSA Summer Schools, EMS Council,
EMSA-skiing week, JEMSA and many more. For more information about EMSA projects you can contact the EMSA European Board
(mailto: [email protected]) or visit our website at: www.emsa-europe.org.