Organ donation and transplanation in Europe: European Regional meeting of the IFMSA
Medical students Vanessa Jessop from Edinburgh University, Simon Lex from Dundee University, and Tammy Towers from Manchester University, were part of the UK delegation to the 5th European Regional Meeting of the IFMSA in Croatia. They tell us all about it here. And what an amazing venue!- Rhona
Brijuni National Park
Last weekend Croatia played host to the 5th European Regional Meeting of the International Federation of Medical Student’s Association. The conference was held in the Brijuni National Park, with over 200 delegates from across Europe. The theme of this year’s meeting was `Organ Donation and Transplantation in Europe´.
This was the first time that the European Medical Students Association (EMSA) and IFMSA have hosted a joint meeting; a significant step towards increased collaboration between the two organisations.
On Friday morning delegates enjoyed lectures from Drs Mirela Busic and Igor Povrzanovic on aspects of organ donation. Dr. Busic discussed the benefits of international cooperation in meeting the demand for donor organs and the public impact of networks such as Eurotransplant.
Dr. Povrzanovic discussed the gap between supply and demand for organs, stating that the average patient in Europe waits 3 years for an organ. He too commented on the success of international registers such as Eurotransplant and The Anthony Nolan Trust . He also discussed organ trafficking, but claimed that this was not a problem within the EU.
He explained that the donation system in Croatia, unlike the UK, operates on a system of presumed consent and praised the efficiency of this system. Earlier this year the British medical Association (BMA) stated its support for the introduction of a similar system in the UK
The final speaker of the morning, Prof Srdjana Culic, discussed the history of bone marrow transplantation and outlined the different forms of stem cell transplantation.
The lectures were followed by a workshop on `Paternalism in Bioethics´ with Professor Nada Gosic. The workshop examined the paternalism inherent in medical practice and suggested that as medical professionals we demand the subordination of individuals outside medicine. Professor Gosic warned of the dangers of disrespecting individuality and professional uniformity of viewpoints.
Throughout the weekend the three delegates from Medsin-UK attended separate Standing Committee sessions. Vanessa Jessop joined the Standing Committee on Human Rights and Peace (SCORP), Tammy Towers went along to the SCO-Public Health (SCOPH) sessions, and Simon Lex attended the SCO-Medical Education (SCOME) sessions.
The SCORP sessions included presentations from different country projects, activities aimed at raising human rights awareness, and training in conflict resolution. The National Exchange Officer for Sweden detailed her work with “Undocumented Migrants’: Access to Healthcare”, a project with similar objectives to Medsin-UK’s campaign Defend Primary Healthcare. Having established links with Sweden, it is hoped that these two projects can support each other through exchange of ideas and information, helping to strengthen the campaign across Europe.
The SCOPH sessions had a theme event for each day. The theme for the first day was smoking. Delegates discussed international anti-smoking projects aimed at encouraging smoking cessation and preventing uptake of smoking, highlighting successful actions by medical students in their home countries. It was recognised that country-specific approaches, where students were able to exercise cultural sensitivity, were more likely to have a positive impact. It was agreed that the introduction of a public smoking ban in all European countries, as in the UK, was definitely something to aim for. Day 2 focused on alcohol awareness, with presentation of statistics illustrating the scale of the problem of alcohol abuse across Europe, followed by brainstorming sessions on how to tackle this growing problem. SCOPH also hosted the first joint meeting between the IFMSA and EMSA about ‘Teddy Bear Hospital’, a project common to both organizations.
The SCOME sessions focused mainly on The Bologna Process, an initiative to create a European Higher Education Area by 2010. We also shared amongst the group different medical education projects within our countries and variations between our curricula.
Other speakers at the conference included Dr Vida Culic who talked about transplantation in individuals with Down’s syndrome and Professor Petar Orlic of the Kidney Transplantation Center in Split.
Throughout the weekend there were also small working groups on topics such as the psychological and religious aspects of organ transplantation, how to educate the public about organ donation and organ theft. A summary of the discussion within each of these working groups was fed-back to the conference delegation.
Though much is to be gained from such formal sessions it is the informal conversations over dinner or coffee that are often the most valuable aspect of these conferences. Ideas sparked from these chance meetings often highlight the great potential for collaboration between European National Member Organisations as well as giving us many ideas to take back to the UK. Vanessa Jessop: vanessaannjessop@gmail.com, Simon Lex: lexsimo@gmail.com, and Tammy Towers
Bookmark on delicious | Digg