Goran Mijaljica, Secretary General of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations gives his take on the European Regional Meeting  of IFMSA in Brijuni, Croatia-RhonaOnly a few weeks from the March Meeting in Mexico, IFMSA had it’s European regional meeting held in Croatia, in conjunction with the NCM of the European Medical Students Association.

The breath taking archipelago of Brijuni, a national park comprised of 14 islands, hosted more than 250 medical students from across Europe. The theme of the meeting was Organ donation and transplantation, and I had the privilege of coordinating the theme sessions, as well as to invite external speakers. Being a coordinator of the IFMSA transnational Organ donation project for 2 years (2005., 2006.), I was really happy to see that this theme was chosen for this meeting!

The first lecture, ‘Organ donation and transplantation in Croatia’, was given by Dr. Mirela Bušić, the national transplant coordinator from the Ministery of Health and Social Welfare. Concluding her presentation, Dr. Bušić quoted the WMA Statement on Human Organ Donation and Transplantation: “Medical students and practicing physicians should seek the necessary training for this task, and the appropriate authorities should provide the resources necessary to secure that training”.

Dr. Igor Povrzanović, the president of the Croatian donor network spoke about the “Experience and aims in organ procurement”. Dr. Povrzanović talked about the registries of organ donors in different countries, models of organ procurement, legislation regarding organ donation and some international organizations for organ donation.

The following lecture was given by Prof. Srđana Čulić, pediatric hematologist from the University Hospital Split. In the lecture titled “Stem cell transplantation”, she gave an overview on the medical procedures associated with bone marrow and stem cell transplantation in children and adults, and various donor programs of bone marrow donors throughout the world.

Dr. Vida Čulić, pediatric geneticist from the University Hospital Split, gave a presentation “Transplantation in children with genetic syndromes”, with a special emphasis on patients with Down’s syndrome. She concluded with the latest news from the area of xenotransplantation - pigs genetically engineered for compatibility with the human immune system, which opens new possibilities in treating life threatening diseases.

These two presentations brought our attention to the issues of organ donation and transplantation in children and the specific treatment of those patients, especially the children with genetic diseases.

Prof. Nada Gosić, from the University of Rijeka School of Medicine, held a workshop for medical students - “Paternalism and bioethics”, with an emphasis on the bioethical issues regarding transplantation medicine.

I also held a short presentation, “Informed Vs Presumed Consent”, after which the participants were divided into small working groups, discussing various bioethical issues concerning organ donation ( how to acquire consent from patients, stem cell transplantation, brain death, transplantation from mentally impaired persons, etc.).

On April 12^th, Prof. Petar Orlić, surgeon - urologist from the University of Osijek, spoke about “Kidney transplantation”. Prof. Orlić spoke about various urological aspects of kidney transplant, including: the connection between kidney failure and transplantation, the surgical technique, graft rejection, immunosuppressive therapy and graft survival rate.

After the lecture, participants presented the discussion from the workshops held on the first day of the meeting. Following their presentations, participants attended two workshops: workshop on Religion and organ donation, facilitated by Melhim Bou Alwan (former coordinator of the Organ donation project), and the workshop on “How to educate students about organ donation and transplantation”, facilitated by Ivan Svaguša, also a former coordinator of the Organ donation project.

On the last day of the meeting, Iva Rinčić, MA, from the University of Rijeka School of Medicine gave a presentation “Organ donation and transplantation: policy actions at EU level”, where she presented the current European policies on organ donation and transplantation. Goran Mijaljica: mijaljica@gmail.com

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