This among other great arti-

cles in this Euromeds edition.

Once again I would like to

thank everyone who wrote an

article for their contribution.

Looking forward to your arti-

cles for the next edition!

Europeanly yours,

Jeetindra Balak

Secretary General 2009/10

Me resting in Vienna

Dear EMSA members,

Much has happened since

the last Euromeds edition!

EMSA had two very good and

important meetings. One of

them is the EMS Council 7

which took place in Vienna,

Austria. The other one is the

National Coordinators and

Enthusiasts Meeting (NCM)

which took place in Istanbul,

Turkey.

Both meetings were very good

organized by an OC.

It was fantastic to meet moti-

vated students from all over

Europe at these meetings.

You can read more about the

EMS Council in this Eu-

romeds.

During the NCM EMSA mem-

bers also had the chance to

take a sip of EMSA’s newest

project, the training system!

With great guest trainers we

held 9 trainings at the NCM in

Yeditepe!

In this Euromeds edition you

can find an article about the

EMSA Taskforce. If you are a

local coordinator of your FMO

you probably got an question-

naire from them. Who are

they and what are they

precisely doing? And why

is it so important that you

need to fill in that ques-

tionnaire? Read more

about this in their article.

E D I T O R I A L

0 9 / 1 0 S E C O N D 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

E M S A

T A S K F O R C E

2

B E S T B U D D Y

P R O J E C T

E M S A

M A C A D O N I A

3

E M S C O U N C I L 4

H O W T O B E A

K İ C K A S S

S T U D E N T

5

E M S C O U N C I L 7 6

S U M M E R

S C H O O L A T H E N S

7

M Y M E X İ C A N

T R İ P

8

Z İ M S 9

C P M E M E E T İ N G

R E P O R T 1 0

E M S A G A

A T H E N S 1 1

A N O U N C E M E N T S

Call for EMSA Working Group

Do you want to be more active for

EMSA on international level? If so,

our new Working Group might just

the thing for you!

As part of the EMSA working group

you will brainstorm and share ideas

with other WG members.

Other than that you will also be

actively supporting and working on

EMSA projects. WG members will

very often be project managers as

well s coordinators and will work

closely with the EEB on all strategic

interests of EMSA.

Do you think a position in the EMSA

Working Group is something for you,

contact the EEB for more

information!

emsa-eb@googlegroups.com

Call for Euromeds writer

committee

EMSA is looking for members for an

Euromeds writers committee! As it

is hard to collect articles for the

Euromeds everytime (even though

people are allowed to write about

almost everything), EMSA came up with

an idea. We want to create an

Euromeds writer committee!

As member of the Euromeds writer

committee you will write articles about

subjects that you like, and articles that

suit for example a special edition of

Euromeds.

If you are creative and if you like to

write articles, please mail me at

secretary@emsa-europe.org for more

information!

486 kg, 1.220 cm, 7 brains

Begotten by the GA„s plenary in

Heidelberg in September 2009, born

on the 25th march 2010, EMSA is

proud of her youngest offspring: The

taskforce for the future cooperation

with the International Federation of

Medical Students„ Associations

(short: TFTFCWIFMSA).

Lively, committed, savvy and with

the wilful intent to have an objective

and precisely analysing eye on the

relation between our organisation

and the IFMSA, five appointed

mahatmas from five different

countries plus two representatives of

the European Board (mahatmas as

well, of course!) have started to

elaborate recommendations for the

EEB regarding EMSA„s positioning

towards the IFMSA. Part of the

council of the Seven are

Ania Dobek , Warsaw, Poland

Atanas Banchev , Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Christoph Philipsenburg , Heidel-

berg, Germany

Maciek Gryziak, Warsaw, Poland

Özge Koc , Istanbul-Yeditepe, Turkey

Sietke Postema, Groningen, the Neth-

erlands

Verena Thiel, Munich, Germany

In regular, productive AND efficient

skype-meetings we agreed to start

our job by analysing the

organisational structures of both

IFMSA and EMSA at the same time

as we try to figure out what the

situation and the mood concerning

the relation of the two is like in the

FMOs. And therefore we essentially

need your help! Whether you are LC,

NC or even an emeritus EEBie,

we„ve designed a questionnaire that

is to be filled-in online especially for

you! We would like to encourage

every LC to start a discussion based

on this questionnaire in his/her

local group and to answer our

questions representing the whole

group„s opinion, because whatever

we recommend in the end and

whatever the EEB decides, the

success largely depends on if the

active members of EMSA are willing

to support it.

The next step of the masterplan will

consist of drafting possible

s c e n a r i o s o f c o o p e r a t i o n

(considering the information you will

have given us) and evaluate them.

Finally, we hope to be able to

present the fruit of our work already

at the next General Assembly in

Athens.

Background

The IFMSA is a world-wide operating

organisation representing medical

students„ of 97 countries (January

2009), founded in 1948. EMSA,

founded in 1991, is active in

geographical Europe and currently

represents medical students of 26

countries. It is obvious that the fields of

action of two similar medical students„

organisations must overlap somehow,

e.g. in the question of the justified

representative of Europe„s medical

students towards the WHO and other

organisations as well as similar and

parallel-existing projects in the field of

medical education and other fields of

action. For some time, members of

both organisations have been

discussing options of collaboration to

avoid and resolve this ambiguous

situation, yet it has been a difficult

process to approach the two

organisations. As one step to find out

the best way these two organisations

can cooperate, EMSA has decided to

make up the TFTFCWIFMSA during the

General Assembly 2009 in Heidelberg.

Christoph Philipsenburg

EMSA Taskforce

FLTR: Ania, Atanas, Christoph, Maciek, Özge,

Sietke and Verena

E M S A T A S K F O R C E

Page 2 E U R O M E D S

Page 3 E U R O M E D S

B E S T B U D D Y P R O J E C T — E M S A M A C A D O N İ A

Imagine being blind and not being

able to see all the beautiful things

the world has to offer…Close your

eyes and just for a moment put your-

self in a position of an orphan, a

child with no one out there in the

world, except his roommates, shar-

ing the same destiny. And now be-

sides all of this, think of yourself as

someone who is continuously unwel-

comed everywhere and also often

part of the others‟ people jokes. The

life can be very cruel and unfair

sometimes…

Trying to convince this kind of chil-

dren that the world isn‟t such a bad

place to live in, a group of medical

students, members of EMSA-

Macedonia, after finishing their

training lesions with professionals

(the main teacher of the school and

also the school a psychologist), or-

ganized a project named “Best

Buddy Project”. This project had only

one major aim, to improve these

children‟s life and socialization, as

well as to increase their self-esteem.

In order to achieve this, the students

started visiting the children twice a

week or sometimes even more, on a

regular base, in a period of two

months.

I was also part of the team and di-

rectly involved in the project. There-

fore I would like to share mine and

the others‟ experience, trying to

make you feel the energy and emo-

tions we all experienced and devel-

oped during that period of time.

We worked with a group of around

20 children, all of them attending

primary school, for people with dis-

abilities in this case-sight impair-

ment. I remember as it was yester-

day the first day we went to the

school. A group of smiley faces wel-

comed us as we entered the school

yard. Little frightened and excited at

the beginning, the children didn‟t

need a lot of time to start communi-

cating with us. Each of the students

chose his/her buddy among the chil-

dren. In fact, it was more a sponta-

neous two-way matching than a one-

way choice.

The first day we all introduced our-

selves and they did the same. They

were so happy. I am really not capa-

ble of describing the feeling, so sin-

cere, so pure, and so special in any

way. Our mutual connection and

understanding were becoming

deeper and more promising with

every additional visit. We organized

their outdoor and indoor activities,

trying to offer them something new

and interesting all the time we spent

together. Once we took them to the

city moll, where they all could have a

nice and relaxing evening in the

main candy store, having the chance

to taste some of the newest cakes

and sweets. And all of this was com-

pleted by the music produced by

store‟s band, dedicating a song spe-

cifically to our new friends. There

was also a time we took them to the

new and trendy Action Park in our

city, where they could enjoy all the

games and activities provided there

and maybe for the first time experi-

ence the happiness of being enter-

tained just like other “normal” kids.

Besides the social program we also

had a plan of how to fulfill their

school time. We organized classes of

reading, singing, studying, and in

that way we tried to make their regu-

lar everyday life more interesting.

We also managed to improve their

creativity skills by organizing lessons

of drawing, painting and

creating some products.

The time passed and the

end of our project arrived.

For the closing day we ar-

ranged a small theatre

where the main actors

were our little friends.

Some of our colleagues,

professors and friends also

took part in the event, all of

them surprised, happy and

satisfied from all what we had done.

That was maybe the end of the pro-

ject but at the same time a great

beginning of a beautiful friendship,

which brought many new perspec-

tives in our lives. We still arrange

visits and try to spend at least part

of our free time playing with the chil-

dren and proving them they matter

to us.

I hope that the story won‟t end here,

only on this piece of paper. This at

the same time is a message to all of

you medical students, to use your

knowledge and background provid-

ing support to this kind of children in

your countries. Believe me, you

won‟t regret it and you‟ll have an

experience you will never forget.

Vera Stankovic

EMSA-Macadonia

Dreams

New regulations within Europe make

it increasingly easier to work and live

in other countries of Europe. This

ensures that for many people "their

dream" can come true by buying a

house in a vivid village in Italy where

the sun shines even brighter and

longer...or a small cottage in the

mountains in Austria, where life is

more quiet and nature is magnifi-

cent ...or maybe a houseboat at a

beautiful lake in France...

Doctors are also having dreams and

for them it is easier to earn more

money in wealthy European coun-

tries. Besides that, "city life" is very

appealing, with nearby restaurants,

cosy bars and shops and of course

the enhanced career opportunities!

However, these dreams do have a

downside, because while many doc-

tors leave for more prosperous coun-

tries and for the exciting city life,

there is a risk of a shortage in poorer

European countries and rural areas!

As a consequence of this, "Access to

Healthcare" might be limited in some

situations.

The EMS council in Vienna was all

about the right of 'Access to Health-

care ".

Some of the topics discussed in-

cluded "free movement of doctors in

Europe" and "unregistered migrants

and rights to Healthcare."

“Free movement of Medical Doc-

tors in the EU"

A new European law to accomplish

the statement "New European La-

bour Markets, Open to All, with Ac-

cess for All" makes this mobility pos-

sible. Since the 70s, the EU has

worked hard to equalize Medical

Education for medical students and

to make certificates and diplomas

valued in different European coun-

tries (Bologna process).

Primarily, physicians from Central

and Eastern European countries are

attracted to the rich Western and

Northern European countries. West-

ern Europe has already caused a

"brain drain" from countries of the

continents Africa and Asia in the

l a s t f e w d e c a d e s .

Currently there is no absolute short-

age within poorer European coun-

tries due to the emigration of doc-

tors. One of the reasons for this is

the present language barrier. Yet,

this situation might change in the

future...

Motives for migration can be attrib-

uted to various push-pull factors.

Push factors which may cause

health professionals to leave their

country are low payment, poor work-

ing conditions, lack of health care

resources, limited career prospects,

economic instability, a hazardous

work environment and the preva-

lence of infectious diseases like

HIV/AIDS.

Pull factors which make a country

attractive to health professionals

are better payment (and thus the

possibility to provide for relatives),

better working conditions, a well-

equipped health care sector, good

chances for further qualification,

positive career prospects, and politi-

cal and economic stability (1)””

LIkewise, limited access to Health-

care could exist in rural areas,

which are less attractive due to re-

duced career prospects and less

facilities.

Solutions: Opinion dr. Jörg

Pruckner- Vice President CPME

(Austria)

During the EMS Council, Dr Pruck-

ner, Vice-President (Austria) of the

Standing Committee of European Doc-

tors attended our discussion. Dr. Pruck-

ner also works as a GP.

His advice regarding the impending

shortage of professionals in rural areas

was that it should be more possible to

combine working in a rural area and

living in the city. For instance physi-

cians could work for a few days a week

in a rural area and the other days they

could live in the city or even work there.

He also claimed that the rural areas

should be enriched with more social

facilities to make them more appealing.

Also he pleaded that doctors who

worked in a rural area should receive a

higher wage. "In Austria, doctors who

are visiting patients in the mountains

receive a higher salary. The mountains

can not be reached by car, only by foot,

therefore there salary is only fair, be-

cause they work harder."

In addition, a fund within Europe was

also discussed. More wealthy countries

could support poorer European coun-

tries with this fund, to equalize the

salaries of Healthcare professionals

and to guarantee the quality of Health-

care in whole Europe.

Dr Pruckner stated as well, that mo-

mentarily there is no crucial "brain

drain" within Europe.

However, we have to be prepared for

this in the future.

Unregistered Migrants

The Global Commission on Interna-

tional Migrants estimated in 2005 that

most likely there are between 4,5 and

8 million unregistered migrants living in

Europe. Problems arise when they are

seeking for medical help. Patients do

not dare to visit a doctor because of

their fear of being emigrated and

E M S C O U N C İ L — L İ M İ T A T İ O N S O N A C C E S T O H E A L T H C A R E

Page 4 E U R O M E D S

because of the high costs, which they

can not afford.

This brings situations with terrible

consequences, not only for adults, but

also for children.

Doctors of the World, better known as

Médecins du Monde, initiated in 2008

an European network, called „HUMA

network‟. It aims to improve access to

Healthcare for unregistered migrants

and asylum seekers. They con-

tacted EMSA to support their decla-

ration. This declaration will be dis-

cussed during the General Assem-

bly of EMSA. During the EMS Coun-

cil we discussed how Europe can

improve „‟access to Healthcare‟‟ for

these under-exposed patients

(www.huma-network.org).

During the General Assembly of Sep-

tember in Greece, we will vote upon

the resolution of the EMS Council.

When approved, it will be presented

to our partners.

Micky Las van Bekkenkom

Medical Ethics Director 2009/10

References:

1. Buchan J. Migration of health workers in

Europe: policy problem or policy solution? In:

Dubois CA, McKee M, Nolte E, editors. Human

resources for health in Europe. Maidenhead:

Open University Press; 2006. p. 42-62.

2. Gerlinger T, Schmucker R. Transnational

migration of health professionals in the Euro-

pean Union. Cad Saude Publica. 2007;23 Suppl

2:S184-92.

Page 5 E U R O M E D S

H O W T O B E A K I C K - A S S S T U D E N T

A guideline for clinical clerkships

There comes a time in the life of every

medical student when rotations in the

hospital are due. In Germany you get

matched up in teams of two to five

students and then you are sent to a

ward to spend your morning there.

How you spend the morning depends

from the commitment of the ward,

some actually have a doctor waiting

for you, eager to tech you, others

are surprised to see students and

leave it up to you how to pass the

time.

Anyways here are some instructions

on how to make your stay during

clinical clerkships as comfortable as

possible…

Gender

First of all be a male. I know eman-

cipation and equal rights are sup-

posed to be long passed issues of

the late 60‟s, but let‟s face the fact:

Nothing makes you seem as compe-

tent as being male. Your position gets

even better if you happen to be the

only man in your student group and

finds its perfection if the women sur-

rounding you are pretty blondes. To

put it in a nutshell - no studying what-

soever could ever make you seem as

smart as such a lucky catenation of

facts.

Punctuality

I know rotations in the hospital start

early… but yet it is not always the

early bird that catches the worm.

As studying medicine in a quite de-

manding task calculate your powers

well. Only a well rested doctor who is

alert and a awake is a good doctor.

Therefore sleep as long and as much

as you can. If that means you will be

running late, don‟t worry- you just

have to do it right. Never arrive at the

ward only five minutes late; you might

bump into the last doctors leaving the

changing room just while you storm

in. If you run late go ahead and allow

yourself to have an extra cup of cof-

fee. So if you arrive round about half

an hour late the morning conference

will be just over and you wait outside

and just pretend to you were the first

one exit the room. Another possibility

is to pretend that you were at the rest-

room, or an even better option is to

carry around a tablet with blood ex-

aminations and pretend you just

came out of the patient‟s room.

During the ward round

This is a great opportunity to impress

the chief resident. If you not happen

to have any extraordinary knowledge,

do not worry you still can make a

good impression. It is quite easy, lis-

ten to what the chief talks about with

the other residents. Then pick up a

difficult expression you overheard

during their conversation. (That is a

crucial point where most mistakes

can be made so caution!) Choose a

word that is for sure a medical ex-

pression which was not discussed

during lectures or classes, and ask

a question about it.

E.g. “What does ECF-A mean?” You

can be sure the chief resident will

give you an extra credit to be soooo

interested in the eosinophilic chemo

-tactic factor of anaphylaxis….

The name tag

You want to be remembered…. But

only for the good things. So here is

the trick: wear a name tag , a big

name tag, so that your name is eas-

ily readable even for a nearly blind

professor. Whenever you ask an

“intelligent” question, accomplish

some work or bring some cake, be

sure to wear it. But if you ask a criti-

cal question, stumble in late or

messed up a procedure and have to

confess it now, flip the nametag to

the inside of your pocket.

You see clinical internships are not

so hard as they seem. Just behave

right and everything will go well.

Vroni Koeppen

EMSA NC Germany

Page 6 E U R O M E D S

From dusk till dawn

It was... Different.

Coming to the venue was an adven-

ture in itself. Arriving second was

strange. Being ne of two participants

that actually arrived for the next cou-

p l e o f h o u r s w a s f u n n y .

The rest of the day was cool. Shifted

the opening ceremony, had a short

EEB meeting, had some laughs...

Mostly at the expense of Ejafjolajo-

kul.

Island should enforce a „No smok-

ing“ law...

Many of us had to... Adjust our travel

plans. But those of us that made it to

Vienna, had an amazing experience!

If I were asked to pick my favourite

day, it would have been the first

working day... The brainstorming ses-

sions, the fear of the enormousness

of the subject, the games we played

trying to keep it... Fun. :-) And the

Roman Night as the crowning jewel

of the day! Wow!

Location, location, location

Or... Work, work, work... The second

day was more... Challenging. One is

supposed to form what he/she

wants to say... It's like a surgery

really. Can be ugly, but it has to be

done. ;-)

Now that I think back, the surgery

was kinda fun... As Frankie would,

more or less, put it: „We've worked,

we've laughed and cried, we've had

our fill, our share of writing, but now

with those days gone, we find it all

so amusing!“

Well... At least I do... :-)

Hamster Olympics

The third day was the day when we

realized we did 80% of the work in

20% of the time (first day)... And we

needed the remaining 80%

of the time to finish the re-

maining 20% of the work-

load...

It started, if I remember cor-

rectly, with plenary sessions.

After all, one has to talk

about the quorum (which we

did not have), the future

(which is a blur) and the IR

(which is a mess)... Fun!

No... Really... Fuuun... Ok, ok... You

g o t m e . I l i v e s a r c a s m . . .

To be honest, though, the session in

which we talked about the vision of

the future of EMS Council was a

rather fruitful one. I remain in hope

that the ideas will in time become

reality...

We spent the rest of the day debat-

ing... Words. Should it be „should“ or

„might“ or „have to“? Do we „kindly

ask“ or do we „strongly support“ or

do we „demand“? What is the defini-

tion of Europe? (Which is much more

difficult to answer then one thinks... I

thank Catharine the Great for her

definition! hehe)

In the end it was all about the Ham-

ster Olympics... Or was that on the

second day... Hmm... Well... It really

makes little difference now... The

important thing is that an amazing

document was created! Through

blood, sweat and tears, but created

nevertheless! :-)

And with everything said and done,

with this report write, all that is left to

write is that…

It was an EMSastic experience!

Tin Knezevic

EMSA President 2009/10

E M S C O U N C I L 7

Page 7 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

This fall let HelMSIC …

LECTURES

ENTERTAINMENT

TRAININGS

MEDICINE

FUN

EDUCATION RE-

SEARCH

LABS

STEM

CELLS

YOU!

This year HelMSIC gives you one more

reason to visit Greece. So this year

apart from the beautiful beaches, the

sea, the ancient sites and the greek

frenzy way of entertainment an one-

week summer school focused on

Regenerative Medicine waits for you

in Athens from 6 to 12 September

2010!

The last few years more and more ad-

vances in regenerative medicine are

achieved. From enabling the regen-

eration of damaged tissues and or-

gans we have reached to the level of

trying to make permanently damaged

organs to function again. As the years

goes by more clinical applications

have been set in use and hopes for

curing previously untreatable diseases

have been raised.

From all the above it is undoubted that

in the near future –when we will be

doctors- its use will be expanded. Be-

ing a medical student it should be one

of our first priorities to try to be up to

date with new advances in medicine

since we will have to use them in the

near future.

If this is one of your priorities then this

summer school is the one you should

attend this year! Given that you are an

undergraduate medical student (2nd

year or above) with a good knowledge

in English and having an interest of

exploring the fascinating new world of

Regenerative Medicine then visit our

website and APPLY! Apply and be one

of the 40 lucky participants that will

have the chance to unveil the myster-

ies of stem cells by not only attending

lectures given by experts covering all

the aspects and uses of regenerative

medicine, but also by visiting labs in

Biomedical Research Foundation of

the Academy of Athens and learning

what working with stem cells is like. In

our website you can already find a pre-

liminary educational program.

Don't miss the chance to be

part of this event!

But as the saying goes “all work and

no play makes Jack a dull boy” so ex-

cept of all the theoretical and practical

educational events there are a lot of

social program „s events scheduled

for you. Beach party, traditional greek

night with folk music and dances,

tours, clubbing, national food and

drinks party are just some of the

events that will take place ;) In addi-

tion to this it is obvious that the main

goal of this summer school is to be

good doctors for years but in Septem-

ber we are not going to learn just

about medicine but also get ready to

learn about a different country, a dif-

ferent culture and civilization.

Dare you to miss this

event?

We can’t wait to

meet you in Athens!

For more information and applications,

just visit our website:

www.rmss. athens.helmsic.gr

or contact us via email :

stem@athens.helmsic.gr

On behalf of the Organizing Committee,

Georgios Tsaknias

Ever since I started medicine I imag-

ined myself studying for some time in

a Latin American country. And finally,

after having passed every exam and

absolving all required internship, I

planned my last year of Medical stud-

ies. In Germany, the last year consists

out of twelve month practice in Inter-

nal Medicine, surgery and one elective.

The day of my departure drew nearer:

In the beginning of December I was

finally sitting in the plane to Mexico via

New York City. Unfortunately, one of

the cursed snow storms crossed my

way in NYC and so I was crammed to-

gether with other passengers in the

boarding area at Newark Airport wait-

ing for another Job‟s messages of de-

layed flights.

Although I might have been a desper-

ate waiter for the next flight, I was also

a fortunate traveler that was booked

for a five star hotel with a consuming

voucher by the airline.

One day later as presumed I arrived in

Monterrey. The next day my internship

started and before I could throw over

my white coat, I had to present myself

at the University‟s office for Interna-

tional Programs. I was fairish provided

with information how to get to the hos-

pitals and what to do or what not to do

in the city.

And this Monterrey should be my new

place of living. The city is located in the

North of Mexico and its surrounding

has approximately 7 million inhabi-

tants. Conclusion: It was the biggest

city I have ever been living in and it

was amazing… big, dirty,

crowded, to make it short-

Monterrey is not a Latin-

American beauty.

Working in the hospital was

also so much different from

Germany. Every Morning I

got up at five and I started

working at six. Every morn-

ing I controlled the vitality

signs and the operating

wounds of my patients, wrote their

indications anew and finally pre-

sented them to my resident and

later to my doctor- the so called

“Externos”.

Externos are the doctors are the

“real” doctors. Everything below an

“ E x t e r n o ” - t h e

“Residentes” (residents) and

“Internos” (students in their last

year of medical education) and “Pre

-Internos” (…) is still considered to

be a student and learns. And does

the work… The Internos do the pa-

perwork- taking ECGs, ordering X-

rays and runs, runs, runs. The Resi-

dente operates and makes his In-

terno run.

Another thing that was

slightly different to all of my intern-

ships I had before was that I sud-

denly had to stay every third night in

the hospital for a night shift. Night

shift always meant working in the

ambulance or guarding our patients

in the operating room. In these

nights I saw knife wounds, amputa-

tions and everything was every time

accompanied by purulence. But

these were the nights. In the day-

time I cared about the diseases that

were born out of violence and obe-

sity.

The basic diet consists out of dead

cow, tortilla and Coca Cola- carbohy-

drates, proteins and tons of sugar.

And people didn‟t have to struggle

only with carbon dioxide and sugar-

induced hick-ups and temporary

hyper agility but also with diabetes and

disease related diabetic feed, obesity,

hemorrhoids, cholecystitis.

During my stay in Mexico I changed my

hospital after two months. The first

one was a hospital for the working

class, the second for the people with-

out any income and the poor. In the

second hospital I had to learn that

many of the patients came from far

away. Some of them took the burden

to travel for more than seven hours by

bus just to have a doctor look at his or

her wounds again. I also had to experi-

ence that some operations couldn‟t be

performed because of the lack of in-

struments or material. One night,

when I had a night shift again, I was

operating with a traumatologist. Before

us on the operating table was a twenty

year old young man with a fracture of

his radius. He had broken his arm in a

car accident- of which he couldn‟t be

blamed. So the two of us were stand-

ing in the middle of the night before

this young man- the wound was really

severe and the only thing we could do

for him, was cleaning the wound with

water mixed with antibiotics and close

the wound again. There was no mate-

rial to stabilize his radius, because this

young man basically couldn‟t afford to

buy it.

The Mexican government guarantees a

basic health insurance for the poor.

They have the right to receive treat-

ment against conditions that threaten

their lives; anything that goes beyond

has to be paid by them.

Another aspect that was

totally new for me was that

one member of the family

always has to stay with the

patient in the hospital.

Every minute of the day

there was one person

around the sick; in the night

they

Page 8 E U R O M E D S

M Y M E X İ C A N T R İ P

Page 9 E U R O M E D S

spread out their camping mattress or a

blanket on the ground next to the sick

person‟s bed. During the meal times

they fed the sick, they helped us – the

Internos- curing their wounds and they

kept the spirits of their beloved person

alive. Some of the patients were lying

in the hospitals since weeks and so it

happened quite often that we not only

got to know our patients very well but

also their relatives and friends that

were around. For me it seemed that

they do not only care for their sick

person but also for the ones that

are there for curing- doctors, nurses

and students.

The four month in Mexico were

loaded with work, I had periods

when I slept only 24 hours a week.

But every minute I was awake work-

ing in the hospital or getting to know

people and country was worth it.

Constanze Born

Liaison officer towards WHO_europe

2009/10

Z I M S

ZIMS - Zagreb International Medical

Summit is a student lead project, run

as a section of EMSA Zagreb, that

brings together medical students and

young doctors, worldwide, but mostly

from Europe.

It is a place of constant exchange of

knowledge, presentation of scientific

papers and acquisition of new knowl-

edge from colleagues and invited pro-

fessors in medical science.

ZIMS is the only conference where

young students and not yet affirmed

scientists have access to the world of

publishing, thus becoming the only

conference in Europe where the book

of abstracts is published as a supple-

ment to a prestigious medical journal,

'Liječnički Vjesnik', which is

however indexed in EMBASE /

Index Medicus. Not to mention

that the best works are pub-

lished as a full texts! Conse-

quently, the highest quality of

an abstract, which goes through

strict criteria process, is manda-

tory. As we know how important

presentation of a project is, we

expect you to represent your work

either orally or as a poster. Further

on, general idea of ZIMS is to pro-

mote city of Zagreb as a cultural

and youth centre, and therefore

field trip, workshops and evening

gatherings are important part of the

programme.

ZIMS 9 took a place from November

12-15th 2009. 164

students and young

doctors from 20 coun-

tries participated. 250

abstracts were submit-

ted and 70 of them

accepted and pre-

sented. ZIMS 9 organiz-

ing committee had 21

member. 14 distin-

guished doctors, scien-

tists and professors formed Scientific

Jury. After exceptionally successful

ZIMS 9 we are very proud to invite you

to participate in ZIMS 10 which will

take place in Zagreb, Croatia from No-

vember 11-14th, 2010. This year ZIMS

will last four days – three full days of

scientific presentations, poster ses-

sions and workshops and one-day field

trip. 10th ZIMS offers more scientific

papers, more posters and more fun

than any ZIMS before! Allow us to be a

part of your new, plentiful, life experi-

ence; to help you to acquire medical

knowledge, bound with colleagues

from all over the world, enjoy Croatian

beauty and hospitality. Come to Za-

greb and experience science!

We are looking forward seeing you at

ZIMS10!

Dear EMSA readers,

On the 16th and 17th of April took

place one more CPME board and

General Assembly meeting in Brus-

sels. The chosen venue was the

Bloom Hotel, a modern and fancy

hotel nearby the city centre. Despite

the flight problems due to the vol-

canic ashes I managed to arrive in

Brussels for the meeting. Unfortu-

natelly many delegations were un-

able to send representatives because

of the flight cancelations. After some

emails CPME Board decided to go

ahead with the meeting, in spite of

not having the quorum needed. How-

ever, there was one urgent issue to

decide and vote upon, the election of

the new CPME secretary-general, the

substitute of Ms. Lisette Tiddens Eng-

wirda. To solve this situation, most of

the absent delegations gave proxies

to the present delegations, but just

for this specific issue. EMSA repre-

sentatives were supposed to be the

President Tin Knezevic and myself as

EMO-LO. Tin flight was cancelled and

he couldn‟t attend the meeting.

As the meeting had no quorum it was

short and with no much discussion

on the various topics.

The meeting started at 8.30h with

the agenda:

1. Roll call

2. Procedural matters

3. Approval of the agenda

4. Approval of the minutes of the

Board meeting in October 2009, Win-

chester

5. CPME President‟s report

6. CPME Secretary General‟s report

7. Minutes of the Executive meet-

ing in October 2009, Winchester

8. Outcomes of the CPME Working

Groups

9. Internal affairs

10. Financial matters

11. President‟s Committee

12. International Calendar

13. Any other business

14. Next meeting

Closing

As we didn‟t have the necessary

quorum many of the topics had few

discussion and we ended the meet-

ing as 12h.

In what concerns the first 7 topics

there was almost no discussion, just

some doubts from the members

about one or two specific issues.

About the WG Outcomes, some of

the rapporteurs were present and

updated us about the ongoing work

of the working groups, however

some of the initially proposed WG

were not yet working or won‟t work

at all. Some of them had meetings

already some of them didn‟t. In this

period I realized the two most im-

portant and widely discussed topics

will be the Recognition of Profes-

sional Qualifications and the Euro-

pean Working Time Directive. We

should be updated about these two

particular topics of discussion, as

CPME will be working on both.

After the coffee-break we reach the

most important topic of this meet-

ing, the election of a new secretary

general, as Ms. Lisette is leaving

CPME. CPME President, Dr. Radzi-

will updated the members about the

selection process. They interviewed

some candidates and Ms. Berger

was, according to the CPME secre-

tariat, the most suitable candidate

despite being a laywer. She has al-

ready worked in other European insti-

tutions and is experienced with Euro-

pean lobbying. Her name was ap-

proved by the members present and

they were using proxies for the miss-

ing members, to have the quorum.

Also at topic 11 there was an update

about the Domus Medica situation. A

meeting had been schedule for the

15th of April but it was cancelled

some days before because some

member couldn‟t attend. We are now

discussing the possibility of having a

shared building in Brussels for all the

European Medical Organisations.

The meeting closed by Dr. Radziwill

at 12h.

During the dinner Friday night and

during the Saturday meeting I always

try to promote EMSA especially to the

EMO‟s (European Medical Organisa-

tions). I improve our relations with

AEMH (European Association of Sen-

ior Hospital Physicians) who invited

us to their conference in Lisbon, in

May. I also approach UEMO

(European Union of General Practi-

cioners) President, Dra. Isabel

Caixeiro, and at the end she an-

nounced her wish to invite me (as

EMSA representative of course) to

the UEMO Conference on Primary

Health Care Trends. This conference

will be in Brussels, was recently post-

poned to September and will be or-

ganized within the Belgian Presi-

dency of the EU. They want the stu-

dents perspective so this invitation is

Page 10 E U R O M E D S

C P M E M E E T İ N G R E P O R T

for being a speaker at the confer-

ence. Finally I had a small meeting

with Bernardo in which we‟ve talked

about our changing structure (the

WG, website) and I updated him

about our work. We also discussed

some of our common projects.

It was a great pleasure to meet

David, our Permanent Officer, de-

spite we hadn‟t much spare time. It

gave us the possibility of discussing

some topics, some of our work and

how can we improve.

I returned to Portugal by bus because

of the flights cancellations. I must

say…. It was also a different experi-

ence!

Luis Machado

Liaison officer towards European Medical

Organisations 2009/10

Page 11 E U R O M E D S

E M S A G A A T H E N S

Next EMSA GA is the upcoming event.

The hurt of Europe beats in Athens

on the 8-12 of September 2010. Our

annual general assembly is a great

opportunity not only to discuss the

important and vital issues of our as-

sociation, but also to meet each

other from all over Europe. It‟s also a

chance to share ideas and experi-

ences, to cooperate extensively, to

learn and cultivate our skills, and of

course a way to have fun and party!

So, all of the organizing committee

invites you to the Next EMSA GA! Just

take the decision to visit Greece and

explore our great civilization, from the

ancient times through modern his-

tory, get impressed by our way of

entertainment and admire the value

of our hospitality.

The EMS Congress will take place in

tandem with the EMSA GA. Related

to the Regenerative Medicine, it will

present us this foremost field that

will prevail in the future. Well-known

experts will explain us the funda-

mental ideas of stem cells and their

applications in medicine, both quite

challenging and essential subjects

to all students who keep abreast of

the progress in science.

The registration will open soon.

Hope to see you all in Athens this

September.

For more information visit our web-

site:

www.emsaga2010.athens.

helmsic.gr

On behalf of the organizing commit-

tee,

Ioannis Tomos, Niki Oikonomopoulou

EMSA – c/o Standing Committee of

European Doctors (CPME) – Rue

Guimard 15 – B1040 Brussels -

Belgium

Web: www.emsa-europe.org

E-Mail: eeb@emsa-europe.org

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

NCM 2010 OC and EEB in Istanbul, Turkey

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: eeb@emsa-europe.org) or visit our website at: www.emsa-europe.org.