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UK Student Report 2004

Medsin has had a vast amount of support over the last few years from Medact. Still, most Medsin members do not know what Medact does or how they can get involved. This year we are looking to build a stronger partnership with Medact. By getting more involved in the advocacy work of Medact, the British students are hoping to be able to voice their concerns about the injustice and inequality that negatively impacts the health of the world’s populations. They are developing a Medsin Alumni group that will be closely linked to Medact. This will provide a way for Medsin members to stay in touch with each other after graduation.

Finally, the students are aiming to provide support and guidance to those who may be considering the less conventional career paths in areas such as humanitarian aid, tropical medicine and public health.

The Nuffield Trust invited Bryony Whipp (Medsin-UK President) and Emily Spry (IFMSA President) to attend a trilateral conference (UK, US and Canada) in Washington DC in April 2004. The delegates spent three days looking at how global health issues should be incorporated into education, research and service. All countries agreed that there was a need to integrate global health education into the medical curriculum and were keen to support student initiatives to take this forward. Emily Spry and Bryony Whipp are currently looking at ways of coordinating and scaling up students’ efforts through the IFMSA.

In October 2003, a group of students from all over Europe and Chris Willott and Jaime Miranda from the International Health and Medical Education Centre at University College London met to discuss integration of global health into the undergraduate medical curriculum. The students were mainly drawn from IFMSA and IPPNW students’ groups. The aim of the group is to work together to increase the number of global health courses being taught in the undergraduate medical curriculum. The main method being used to achieve this aim is a website, www.globalhealtheducation.org, which will be going online in the summer of 2004.