Transnational Project Coordinators Introductory Guide 2013 - 2014

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Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................... 3 Introductory Guide Key .......................................................................................... 6 The role of an IFMSA Transnational Project Coordinator ....................................... 7 The Asian Collaborative Training on Infectious Diseases, Outbreak, Natural Disaster and Refugee Management (ACTION) ....................................................... 9 Breaking the Silence............................................................................................. 10 Build up Your Bones ............................................................................................. 11 Crossing Borders for Health ................................................................................. 12 Daphne ................................................................................................................ 12 Dying a Human Thing ........................................................................................... 13 Eating Disorder Awareness .................................................................................. 14 Female Genital Mutilation ................................................................................... 15 First Gynaecological Consultation ........................................................................ 15 Go SCORP............................................................................................................. 16 Good Medical Practice ......................................................................................... 17 Healthy Planet International ................................................................................ 17 HY-5 Campaign on Hand Hygiene......................................................................... 18 IlluminAIDS .......................................................................................................... 20 Mr and Mrs Breastestis ........................................................................................ 20 Northern European Cooperation for Sex Education (NECSE) ............................... 21 Organ Donation Awareness ................................................................................. 22

Research Workshop ............................................................................................. 24

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Rainbow Project................................................................................................... 23

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Peace Test............................................................................................................ 23

Scientific Opportunities Database ........................................................................ 24 SCORA Twinning .................................................................................................. 25 SCORA X-Change .................................................................................................. 25 Sexual Education for Sex Workers........................................................................ 26 Sexual Health and Peer Education ....................................................................... 27 SmileX .................................................................................................................. 28 Sudan Tropical Exchange Program ....................................................................... 28 Surgical Suturing ComBat..................................................................................... 29 Teddy Bear Hospital ............................................................................................. 30

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WHO Simulations ................................................................................................. 31

Introduction Dear IFMSA Family, After a whole term of office for our beloved Initiative / Transnational Project Coordinators, the time has come for the call for new Initiative and Transnational Project Coordinators for the term 2013-2014.

Being an Initiative/Transnational Project Coordinator provides you with the opportunity to actively share in changing the world, implementing change in terms of your own project and unifying the world in our strive to solve common problems faced by our communities.

So, do you think that you are up to the challenge? Do you think that you possess the required motivation?

Is the only obstacle you foresee is the unclear Job Description? Or is it the process that confuses you and might hinder the process of putting your plans into action?

If you have similar obstacles on your mind, it is time to get to know more about the Job as well as the process of the selection to help you make your mind.

Firstly, Initiative Projects: What is IFMSA Initiative?

An IFMSA Initiative is a project or series of projects centrally coordinated under the responsibility of the IFMSA Executive Board. It is designed to carry out the core principles and objectives of IFMSA as outlined in the Constitution.

What are the current IFMSA Initiatives?

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Think Global Initiative (thinkglobal@ifmsa.org) Global Health Equity (globalhealthequity@ifmsa.org)

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Would you like to know more about those initiatives?

Please feel free to contact our Initiative Coordinators through the previously mentioned Emails with CCing projects@ifmsa.org  

Think Global - Mike Kalmus-Eliasz - thinkglobal@ifmsa.org.

Global Health Equity - Altagracia Mares De Leon - globalhealthequity@ifmsa.org.

Who can apply?

Basically any interested IFMSA Family member with a relevant field of work and motivation to take over the job. For the required documents please scroll down to the required documents section to have a brief overview over the requirements for the application process.

Secondly, Transnational Projects: What are IFMSA Transnational Projects?

An IFMSA Transnational Project is a project, which involves more than one organization (of which, at least one is an IFMSA National Member Organisation).

They consist of a network of projects interacting with similar issues, with similar methodologies operating jointly at either the national or international level and engaging in transnational partnerships within IFMSA for mutual strengthening.

What are the current IFMSA Transnational Projects?

You'll be able to find an updated list of IFMSA Transnational Projects attached to this Email with a short description of each project.

Would you like to know more about those projects?

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Please feel free to contact us at projects@ifmsa.org to provide you with all the required information about IFMSA Transnational Projects.

Who can apply?

Basically any IFMSA Family member can apply for the position through the same application process and required documents that are mentioned below under 1 condition which is that your NMO is a part of the project. If you want to identify if your NMO is a part of this Transnational Project or not, please feel free to check the attached document.

What are the required documents to apply for Initiative / Transnational Project Coordinator?

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A filled into Technical Data Card (attached) A signed and stamped candidature form (attached) Relevant Curriculum Vitae (max. 2 pages) Motivation Letter (max. 200 words) Brief plan of action (max. 2 pages)

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Karim M. Abu Zied, Projects Support Division Director Mobile: (+20) 10-9728-6030 | projects@ifmsa.org | Skype: karim.abuzied International Federation of Medical Students' Associations

Introductory Guide Key As we may know, IFMSA Transnational Projects are IFMSA official projects that involves minimum of 2 organizations, at least one of which is a National Member Organization (NMO). Based on this, and in order to make it easier for you to identify whether your NMO is involved in the project you’re interested in or not, IFMSA Projects Support Division asked for application forms for the enrollment of NMOs in IFMSA Transnational Projects. Of course, most of the NMOs/Transnational Project Coordinators have supported this initiative and the collected application forms are all available for you through the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/26yzoyuufblwnfp/WRPdVOV-g-.

Currently, you can view the following document and identify if your NMO is participating the project you are interested in applying for the position of its Transnational Project Coordinator position. In case the project is in progress within your NMO or your NMO has always participated in the project and on the other hand you are not able to find your NMO’s title beside that project, kindly get in touch with your NMO president to get in touch with us through projects@ifmsa.org in order to make sure that your NMO has filled into an application form so that you are able to apply.

For some of the projects, you will not be able to find any NMO title by its side. In this case, it means that the Projects Support Division did not receive any application form for this NMO. The ideal way to proceed with this is the same procedure as mentioned above.

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Shall you have any inquiries, please feel free to contact us at projects@ifmsa.org

The role of an IFMSA Transnational Project Coordinator

Work with the Projects Support Division (PSD) in ensuring the quality of the project and that it continues to meet its vision, aims and goals.

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Acts as the main liaison between the PSD and people involved in the project.

Thus providing an active channel of communication to address mutual needs.

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Identify and address areas for improvement.

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Consider a strategic plan for the project for at least 2-years.

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Develop specific resources, materials such as marketing and promotions, and trainings.

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Collaborate with the PSD Director and relevant officials in the external representation of the project to establish beneficial links with externals for the project.

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Provide information, support and assistance for interested NMOs wanting to set up the project.

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Actively pursuing opportunities that will be of benefit for the project e.g. recruiting new NMOs, grant applications etc.

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Facilitate networking and sharing ideas from different NMOs involved in the project.

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Cooperate with the Projects Proposal Review Committee (PPRC) in assessing the quality of the project.

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Submit meaningful, accurate and timely half yearly reports by 1st of December 2011 and 1st of May 2012.

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Contribute to at least 1 edition of IFMSA Publication.

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Please find below a brief list of core tasks and responsibilities that apply generally to a Transnational Project (TNP) Coordinator. This list is not exhaustive and complete, and in addition to these tasks and responsibilities outlined, each TNP will have specific needs for a TNP Coordinator (TNPC).

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Develop and maintain effective handover methods.

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Identify and mentor likely successors to your role.

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Provide feedback and input to PSD.

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Identify the end date of the Transnational Project and update the PSD Director with any changes in the timeline of the project.

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Seek opportunities to present the project, especially at Projects Presentations and Projects Fairs at National Assemblies, Regional Meetings and General Assemblies.

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The Asian Collaborative Training on Infectious Diseases, Outbreak, Natural Disaster and Refugee Management (ACTION) ACTION-Project aims to provide a chance to learn “Disaster Medicine” for medical students in the world especially in Asia-Pacific and raise future leaders who can work initiatively under disasters and emergency situations regardless of border.

Our activities can be divided to three obvious purposes.

First, to promote medical students to get interested in “Disaster Medicine” and make a chance to learn that. Second, to inform medical students in all over the world of latest trend of “Disaster Medicine” and disaster in itself, via IFMSA networks. Third, to cultivate good partnerships with other countries, which play a crucial role on the spot of international medical stage in the future.

So far, we take followings, four actions.

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Training camp on every summer in another Asian country Academic seminar in some country Publication - PP,PF, Newsletter Provide Training session and Workshop in the student congress

NMOs Involved:

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AMSA-Philippines FMS-Taiwan IFMSA-China IFMSA-Japan IFMSA-Thailand LMSA-Libya

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Breaking the Silence “Breaking the Silence” aims to establish a better way to interact and relate in the deaf/hard of hearing patient - doctor relationship. In a context in which hearing loss in its most severe form, affects an estimated 22.5 million Europeans and 28 million Americans, the number of work-related difficulties, educational delays, social stigmas and exclusion the economic impact of hearing loss is very high.

Also, the difficulty that doctors encounter when trying to obtain the history from the deaf patient is well known. If a patient is deaf from birth or before speaking, he also loses automatically the ability to speak.

For this reason, “Breaking the Silence” has been developed in many countries. Breaking the Silence as a transnational project aims to create and promote a common platform for teaching medical students and young doctors how to communicate with the deaf patient.

This will be done by: 

Organizing Sign Language courses and Workshops for the benefit of students, young doctors and medical personnel in each of the countries participating in the project and for the IFMSA.

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Conceiving basic sign language courses online.

The objective of creating basic sign language courses online that are addressed to medical students and medical personnel, is based both on the need to broaden our target as well as on the need to offer ongoing support for the students participating in the courses.

NMOs Involved:

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FASMR-Romania HelMSIC-Greece IFMSA-Brazil IFMSA-Poland

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Build up Your Bones “Build Up Your Bones” project consists of few activities and target groups: one of them are children that we educate in attractive ways (Bony- a mascot of the project, colorful books about Bony, etc.) how important it is to have strong bones. Other target group are parents and elderly people, especially women in post- and menopausal age. We provide them with information about prophylaxis of osteoporosis, they can also measure the risk of the fracture with FRAX method.

Main goals:  

To raise awareness of osteoporosis.

To assure the right education and prophylaxis among the society and explain to them the medical, social and economic problem resulting from the complications of osteoporosis

We have got:  

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Successful cooperation with Polish Osteoarthrology Society which is supporting our further actions.

By 43 local actions IFMSA-Poland and TurkMSIC since 01/10/2011, we have reached more than 5000 people in kindergartens, Seniors Club and during events in the shopping malls.

We used multimedia presentation, or speech, we also have FRAX calculator.

Furthermore “Build up Your Bones” is taking concrete steps against osteoporosis by organizing a celebration of World Osteoporosis Day (20th of October)

NMOs Involved:

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No application forms received, kindly contact your NMO president and get in touch with projects@ifmsa.org.

Crossing Borders for Health “Crossing Borders for Health” is an international network of students whose mission is to remove barriers to healthcare for refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants.

Article 25 of the UN declaration of Human Rights declares that the right to healthcare should be assured in every country, for the entire population and we believe this statement applies to all individuals, regardless of immigration status.

Unfortunately, in many countries, migrants often receive substandard levels of healthcare, if they receive any at all.  We believe that health is a universally recognized fundamental human right and that as future health professionals we are in the unique position to promote and defend the right to health for vulnerable populations.  Through education, direct assistance and campaigning for policy change, we aim to realize our belief that migrants receive the highest standard of healthcare, irrespective of immigration status.

Crossing Borders for Health is an initiative to centrally coordinate projects in different countries to share resources, best practice guidelines, funding, in order to hopefully resolve these issues in the future.

NMOs Involved: No application forms received, kindly contact your NMO president and get in touch with projects@ifmsa.org.

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Few people understand the extensive impact of the problem of violence. There is a widely held stereotypic view that violence only occurs in run-down districts, and concerns women with low educational status. However, one in three women experiences physical or sexual violence from a partner in her lifetime, 80% stay with their abuser, and very few ever take legal action. These abused women are five times more likely to need mental health services and three times more likely to need other health services. Violence causes severe health deterioration across all mental and physical health measures.

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Daphne

Doctors are often a first point of contact for women suffering from the effects of domestic violence; they should routinely inquire about physical, sexual, and psychological abuse as part of the medical history.

“Daphne” was created to launch a huge campaign against sexual violence to increase the knowledge awareness and effectiveness of prevention of violence. The project is addressed to medical students- future doctors, to prepare them to respond appropriately to the issue of family violence. We want medical students to be aware of societal misconceptions eg. the belief that abuse is a rare occurrence; that abuse does not occur in "normal" families; that abuse is a private problem best resolved without outside interference; and that victims are responsible for the abuse. We speak out loud about the problem to break the silence of abused victims.

NMOs Involved:  

IFMSA-Poland SISM-Italy

Dying a Human Thing "Dying a human thing" is a project addressed to all medical students who are interested in working with terminally ill patients. We want to teach future doctors how to give support to dying people.

Through workshops with specialists we give answers to questions like:  “How to reveal fatal diagnosis to a patient?”  “How to talk to a family of a dying patient?”  “How to support my patient?”

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This year we will be approach the project in many other ways such as the unexpected death of a young healthy person, the death of a new born, as well as the death of a terminally ill patient; we will try to help medical students by giving them tools that will help them deal with the most difficult and uncomfortable situation of announcing bad news.

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Sometimes the most obvious questions are the most difficult ones. The aim of the action is to create future doctors who will be ready to work with terminally ill patients. The project consists of workshops in small groups that are led by specialists who cooperate with terminally ill patients in their everyday life.

NMOs Involved:    

ASSOCIAMED-Tunisia IFMSA-Brazil IFMSA-Egypt IFMSA-Poland

Eating Disorder Awareness The problem of eating disorders is often underestimated, quite unmatched by the extent to which it is prevalent. Actually, in some countries there is a rising threat of an epidemic. Unfortunately the majority of our societies is ignorant of this problem. The reason of such a low social awareness of this issue is the lack of widespread information.

“Eating Disorders” (ED) is an umbrella transnational project aiming to unite medical students in a fight against eating disorders. Through our initiatives we want to provide medical students with knowledge and skills to help their patients, as well as to raise awareness of the problem among the general public.

There are several projects organized within the Eating Disorders Transnational Project, such as:      

Fashion Show against anorexia and bulimia Peer Education Lessons Workshops for parents Workshops for Medical Students ED Campaigns Conferences

Through the Eating Disorders project, we want to expand our activities to reach more and more communities, and develop collaboration between international medical students.

IFMSA-Poland MMSA-Malta

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NMOs Involved:

Female Genital Mutilation “Female Genital Mutilation” (FGM) awareness project is founded to fight against harmful practices that lead to serious damage and complications to mutilated females.

This project is working in most of the poor developing countries due to religious and cultural beliefs.

As medical students our mission is to: 1. Improve the knowledge about FGM among medical students and staff and community through health education, health campaigns and health days, 2. Produce medical students (future health care professionals) highly aware of the health problems that face mutilated females, and well trained on providing necessary health care to this vulnerable group, 3. Reflect the humanitarian activities of our students to the world, and establish collaborations and exchange of expertise with medical students worldwide, 4. Change the mistaken ideas about FGM in the community and the world.

NMOs Involved:  

IFMSA-Egypt MedSIN-Sudan

First Gynaecological Consultation

“First Gynaecological Visit” "Early Prevention of Breast Cancer and Cervical Cancer” Reproductive health problems that they may face beginning from the second decade of their lives

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“First Gynaecological Consultation” is a project created by SCORA Team of IFMSAPoland, addressed to the young girls attending high schools or the last year in secondary schools (age 14-18) who are faced with their first gynecological consultation.

The aim of the action is to share knowledge in 45 or 90 minute lessons about their:

We try to help the girls in solving problems like:    

Fear before first gynecological examination Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Infection Incompetence in the self-breast examination Lack knowledge about prevention of uterine cancer

We decided that the "peer education" method will be the best way to reach the teenage girls, particularly when talking about sometimes embarrassing, difficult or private matters. We try to include information about contraception methods as well. We want the young girls to associate a gynecological examination with a step into the health future, not an unpleasant duty.

NMOs Involved:   

IFMSA-Brazil IFMSA-Poland SloMSA-Slovakia

Go SCORP “Go SCORP” is an exchange project within IFMSA concerned with humanitarian work, launched by the joint efforts of the Romanian and Lebanese NMOs: FASMR and LEMSIC. It aims to establish a database that unites all the humanitarian projects run by the various Standing Committees on Human Rights and Peace around the world. This database would be accessible to all SCORP members. Consequently, they would be able to travel to the country of their choice and participate in the projects of interest to them.

FASMR-Romania IFMSA-Egypt IFMSA-Poland

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NMOs Involved:

Good Medical Practice Medical ethics is a system of moral principles that apply values and judgments to the practice of medicine. As a scholarly discipline, medical ethics encompasses its practical application in clinical settings as well as work on its history, philosophy, theology, and sociology. As a part of a doctor’s medical education, the topic of medical ethics and its application should be an integral part of his curricula and his professional life later on.

However, the problem lies that teaching about human rights is viewed to be “political,” confrontational, or “unnecessary to professional practice,” leading to the stigmatization of such learning.

It is also observed that human rights are frequently sublimated within bioethics teaching because of the conflation of the two by curriculum developers and may be relegated to the “hidden curriculum” on the assumption that practitioners will role model a rightsbased approach.

At the same time, Clinical practice shoes a large and horrifying percentage of unethical conduct, professional lapses, and patient abuse.

This project aims to revive the importance of teaching medical ethics throughout awareness campaigns aiming at medical students for all components of Good Medical Practice as well as advocating for its integration into medical curricula.

NMOs Involved:   

BMSS- Bangladesh IFMSA Mexico IFMSA-Egypt

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Climate Change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century, threatening to destabilize vulnerable populations and disrupt efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

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Healthy Planet International

A) Education and mobilization.

We believe that knowledge and education is central to any organization in public health and we have always focused on educating our members. We do not just raise awareness about climate change, but we aim to deliver meaningful information on climate change and public health so that students understand the issue scientifically.

B) Reducing the carbon footprint of the health sector.

We work closely with the NHS Sustainability Development Unit to reduce the carbon emissions of the health service. There are three key benefits: 1. Good for patient health, 2. Cost effective and reduces health service costs, 3. Good for the environment and significantly helps mitigate climate change without compromising patient care.

C) Advocacy Make sure that the policies of our governments and international institutions work in the best interests of an equitable deal on climate change to protect global public health, especially of the most vulnerable and least accountable.

NMOs Involved:  

IFMSA-Quebec NMSA-Norway

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The “Hand Hygiene Campaign” is a campaign with the vision of improving hand care and hand cleansing through the focused work of a group of dedicated trained students and specialists targeting the most vulnerable to infections. These include health care workers in health care institutes, medical and nursing schools as they are the future of health care and they will insure the continuity of the campaign, pre-school and school age children and young adults and the food services constitutes our third target group.

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HY-5 Campaign on Hand Hygiene

The Campaign is divided into phases for each of the target groups aiming to achieve a better hand care and rising interest among each of the groups by conducting workshops on hand hygiene and trainings on its techniques; adding to that distributing publications on the latest advances in this field.

In a different aspect of this campaign we target the administrations of hospitals, restaurants, schools and the federal ministry of health, in order to implement new policies and regulations achieving the sustainability of the campaign.

The methodology used in this campaign is very simple:  Workshops in each of the target group which will aim at improving the target group’s awareness about the risks of poor hand hygiene and the best techniques to improve it  Posters, leaflets distributed in high risk areas within target group’s areas (Bathrooms, examinations areas in hospitals and kitchens in food handling department).

All of these actions should add up to reach our goals and vision, and we will ensure that we have achieved each and every one of our objectives by conducting several series of surveys at the start and the end of each activity held, compiling all the data and processing it in order to see where the campaign is headed towards and if we need to make any changes in future actions.

This is a simple easy to implement campaign that can be adopted by any group of active students to reach a better status of hand cleansing and reduce mortality and morbidity that is in direct and indirect relation with poor hand hygiene.

NMOs Involved:

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IFMSA-Egypt

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IlluminAIDS Zero Discrimination against People Living with HIV/AIDS! This is in short the vision this project aims at. Through peer-education, advocacy, input to medical curricula, and international collaboration, we aim at decreasing the marginalization, discrimination, and inappropriate treatment people living with HIV/AIDS encounter in the health-care settings. The “IlluminAIDS” project has been active since March 2011 and so far, we have been able to establish a lot of progress at the national levels and the international one.

NMOs Involved: 

MMSA – Malta

Mr and Mrs Breastestis “Mr and Mrs BreasTestis” is a SCORA project that involves medical students to interact with the patients, as well as general population and high school students through peer education while promoting prevention and early detection of these reproductive neoplasms (breast, cervix, testis and prostate).

Vision of Mr and Mrs BreasTestis is:  Every female and male to live healthy lives free of reproductive neoplasms,  Their communities and physicians sensitized, equipped and supportive,  Their reproductive rights well respected.

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It is a reproductive neoplasms prevention project that aims to assess and to educate medical students’ and public knowledge on Reproductive Neoplasms, and to foster interdisciplinary and multi-sector approach to prevention / health promotion, in order to develop a coherent response to current global cancer burden.

The project has many interesting activities such as:  

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Peer education lectures and workshops for medical students and for high schools.

Clinical activities for medical students with doctors at internal medicine department and oncology department where they can get involved and get to know oncology patients and how to approach them.

Big campaigns for these four cancers, such as “Run for the cure”.

NMOs Involved:      

CroMSIC-Croatia FASMR-Romania IFMSA-Egypt IFMSA-Mexico LMSA-Libya MMSA-Malta

Northern European Cooperation for Sex Education (NECSE) “Northern European Cooperation of Sex Education” (NECSE) projects is held annually in March or April, NECSE is a 4-5 day conference where members of various peer-led sex and relationships education projects can get together to share teaching methods and ideas, network, and teach others about their respective cultures.

NECSE is attended by members of 12 countries: UK, Finland, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Estonia, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway.

NECSE is normally attended by 50-70 students, held over the Easter weekend, and in a remote location to encourage group bonding.

In 2011 Finland presented a conference exploring sex, gender and culture.

In 2012 the UK will explore sexual morality.

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The method of exchange is the main purpose of NECSE- every country brings their own sex education lessons or games to teach to the rest of the group, to allow sharing and improvement of teaching methods. In addition to method exchange, keynote speakers present on topics surrounding the conference theme.

NMOs Involved: 

IMCC-Denmark

Organ Donation Awareness The main goal of the “Organ Donation Awareness” project is to educate medical students about the process of organ donation and organ transplantation. Medical students which receive some education on this issue are more likely to have a positive approach to the organ donation process, and will be capable of providing their parents, friends and communities with all the information needed while deciding to become organ donors. The duration of the project on the transnational level (since 2005) gives us confirmation that we're doing the right activities in the right places (lectures, workshops, public oriented campaign, promotion within the students) and hope that it will continue.

NMOs Involved:

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AMSB-Bulgaria ASSOCIAMED-Tunisia FASMR-Romania HelMSIC-Greece IFMSA-Brazil IFMSA-Iran LMSA-Libya MMSA-Malta TurkMSIC-Turkey

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Peace Test The “Peace Test” project is based on an internationally conducted survey that uses a questionnaire that measures youths’ attitudes towards human rights, violence, war and multiculturalism. The theory behind the questionnaire is called “the theory of moral disengagement” which helps to understand how and why people commit violent acts.

The main goal is to:    

Raise awareness of these issues among students and through that be one method of preventing violence and promoting tolerance and equality.

Open discussion both among the youth and the general public about the topics mentioned above.

Reduce the level of support both to individual and collective violence, and to promote peaceful alternatives.

Form an international network of involved students and to use their results for international comparison.

NMOs Involved:  

FASMR-Romania HelMSIC-Greece

Rainbow Project For ages, people have been suffering from discrimination and prejudice due to their sexual orientation and gender identity. This is why we are trying to make a change in people ́s attitudes and mentality towards those with sexual orientations other than a heterosexual one, and their prejudices facing diverse gender identities. Thus, “For a Homophobia Free World” aims to promote acceptance towards non-heterosexual orientations around the world.

HelMSIC-Greece IFMSA-Brazil IFMSA-Quebec

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NMOs Involved:

Research Workshop The “Research Workshop” is a course designed to teach medical students how to become GOOD consumers and producers of research. Nowadays, research has become essential in medicine. Without research, medical practice would be outdated, and we -as students- would not be able to pursue competitive medical programs. In other terms, research has now become a pre-requisite for excellence. Unfortunately, in most of our medical curricula, there is no formal teaching of the proper way of conducting research. Therefore we believe that SCORE plays a vital role in trying to fill this gap, as is dictated by SCORE’s ultimate aim of promoting research.

To achieve its purpose, the Research Workshop was designed to be an interactive course, and thus can only accommodate a maximum of 25 highly motivated students.

The course syllabus is designed by experienced SCORE members who are knowledgeable about research, with the guidance of faculty members well established in research.

Through its syllabus, the course takes the student from having a topic of interest, to   

Formulating a specific research question, Designing an experiment to prove the hypothesis, Writing the research proposal that will be used to apply for ethical committee approval and/or funding at the end of the course.

NMOs Involved: No application forms received, kindly contact your NMO president and get in touch with projects@ifmsa.org.

Also, we aim at involving more and more NMOs, so that they could use this database to present and promote their scientific activities for medical students.

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“Scientific Opportunities Database” is a project comprised of a network that contains information concerning various scientific manifestations related to the entire medical community from all over the world, such as congresses, meetings, workshops and others.

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Scientific Opportunities Database

NMOs Involved: 

FASMR-Romania

SCORA Twinning “SCORA Twinning” project is a cooperation of SCORA teams involved in peer education from 2 to 3 different NMOs through training and twinning during 3 to 4 days.

Training offers experience and exchange methods, as well as a way to gain skills in facilitating group discussions in order to develop strategies to handle delicate teenage issues.

Twinning means making new friends and future collaborators through familiar environment in small groups, hosting guest participants in their homes and bringing together different cultures through time spent intensively together.

NMOs Involved:   

CroMSIC-Croatia FiMSIC – Finland IFMSA-Serbia

SCORA X-Change What is it?

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“SCORA X-change” is a 3 – 4 week long unilateral exchange program for medical students, focused on sexuality , reproductive health and rights related issues, and provides opportunities to get informed about the medical services of the hosting country’s healthcare system and civil society related mainly to HIV/AIDS , as well as the country's prospective about HIV/AIDS global epidemic.

Why SCORA X-change?

This program offers a chance to medical students to learn, gain experience and expand their knowledge, build practical skills and share ideas with local students and healthcare professionals, in the areas of HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health as well as other SCORA related issues.

This exchange aims on providing medical students with the opportunity to share experiences, learn about the situation in different countries and compare it to their home country.

SCORA X-change is not a purely scientific experience; it is also about exploring new cultures, meeting new people and gaining friends from all over the world. During your clerkship, a social program is also organized in order to give you the chance of sightseeing and exploring the countries culture.

NMOs Involved:     

ASSOCIAMED-Tunisia FASMR-Romania IFMSA-Poland MedSIN-Sudan SISM-Italy

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The “Sexual Education for Sex Workers (SESWO)” project aims to educate commercial sex workers in sexual and reproductive health and rights issues, to teach them the most relevant things that they need to know to be able to care for themselves and for the people they work with. Furthermore it emphasizes women’s empowerment by making them aware of their rights and thus becoming responsible for their lives. We try to make the sex workers understand the importance of prevention of STDs and HIV and health issues such as constant gynecological and psychological check-ups and consultations.

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Sexual Education for Sex Workers

NMOs Involved: 

FASMR-Romania

Sexual Health and Peer Education Mission Our mission is to create awareness amongst teenagers worldwide about their choices on the subject of sexuality, relationships and puberty; as well as to reduce the frequency of STI’s and unwanted pregnancies.

Aims and objectives The aims of SHAPE are the following: 1. To make teenagers aware of their choices with respect to sexuality, love and puberty.

2. To make before mentioned subjects discussible with teenagers.

3. To decrease the frequency of STI’s by promoting safe sex and correct usage of condoms.

4. To decrease the frequency of unwanted pregnancies by giving information on available contraceptive methods.

5. To create and further develop teaching abilities and the competence in the field of sexology in future doctors.

Methods: 1. Peer Education.

2. Training of peer educators.

3. Providing a structured lesson.

NMOs Involved:

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HelMSIC-Greece IFMSA-Brazil IFMSA-Quebec

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SmileX With the “SmileX” project we try to solve some problems divided into 3 main topics: 1. Health: For the World Health Organization, it is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

We need to fight diseases completely, and we think that a smile could help just about everybody. We already want to fight the stress that patients experience in hospitals that has a very large negative impact on the treatment process 2. Healthcare system: Hospitals today are not the ideal place to find health.

Doctors fight with diseases but moreover with economic budget. They want to be efficient but they have lot of patients and few time for each of them. We aim to introduce in the treatment protocols some love in all sorts of ways: “clownerie”, poetry, magic tricks or simply hugs and smiles.

Educational model: We want to teach to the future doctors how to be happy, funny and optimistic to care about people and not be afraid of the physical approach. We want to teach medical student how to approach patients in an unconventional way, not only pediatrics but also adults and oldest.

NMOs Involved:    

FASMR-Romania IFMSA-Brazil IFMSA-Spain SISM-Italy

Sudan Tropical Exchange Program

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Furthermore, STEP aims at providing community support to target groups affected by such endemic diseases. This is achieved mainly, by organizing health education, free clinics and other activities in the Medical Mission.

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The main objective of the STEP program is to offer basic knowledge about tropical diseases endemic in certain parts of Africa, and capable of spreading to other countries.

We consider this important to all future doctors, especially those who are having their under graduate training in the developed world or those who want to pursue a career in tropical medicine. By combining theory, clinical practice and laboratory work we hope to supply students with a concrete introduction to research in the tropical diseases.

NMOs Involved:   

MedSIN-Sudan SISM-Italy IFMSA-NL

Surgical Suturing ComBat In accordance with the Hippocratic tradition, our mission is to provide an intensive cocurricular supplement providing competency-based education and training for medical students during their undergraduate studies, by promoting the science, research and art of surgery in order to improve the standards of surgical practice and empower future physicians in our communities.

This project, in its essence, should pose as a co-curricular supplement for medical students, regardless of their year of study, increasing their ability to develop practical skills and competences in the “art of healing”. Modules are designed to address the lack of structured basic surgical skills training courses for future physicians, not necessarily targeting only those who intend to follow a career in surgery.

Project aims to introduce participants to safe, basic surgical techniques that are common to all surgical practices in medicine. It is important to stress work in smaller groups and the use of peer-learning, accompanied by a high tutor to participant ratio.

The modules are delivered using a series of tutor demonstrations and presentations, followed by workshops with hands-on sessions where participants work and practice on animal/cadaverous tissue or skin models. Tuition and supervision is provided throughout by faculty professors or residents of surgery/trauma.

Project itself aims to give a broader perspective to the issue of competence-based education in medical curricula for both learners and teachers, address patient safety and increase knowledge by promotion of research in this field.

CroMSIC-Croatia IFMSA-Czech

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NMOs Involved:

Teddy Bear Hospital “Teddy Bear Hospital” (TBH) is a Public Health project addressed to children in the pre-school age (3-6 years) aiming to take away their fear of physicians and hospitals.

Also, it gives a good opportunity for medical students to work with children.

TBH tries to familiarize children with hospital environment in a friendly and playful way.

For achieving this goal, trained medical students will act as teddy doctors, while the children involved in the project have to be the parents of their teddy bear or doll. So, now the children are the “adults” responsible for their teddy bear patients which will be treated in the “Teddy Bear Hospital”.

The hospital can be organized in a decorated colorful tent on a big square in the city Centre, as well as in a school's GYM, a hall in a kindergarten or in a Hospital or University.

Before their visit to our “hospital” the nanny or nurse should discuss and talk with the children about “being ill”, physicians and hospitals. The children should think about diseases for their dolls which will be treated later in the “Teddy Bear Hospital”.

Then, they have to explain the history of the present illness of their teddy bear to a teddy doctor. Together they make an anamnesis and after this the teddy doctor does a “physical examination” (e.g. palpation, auscultation…) and further diagnostics (e.g. “XRay”).

Finally the teddy doctor writes a prescription and the child can get some “medicine” sweets in the “TBH- Pharmacy”.

AMSB-Bulgaria ASSOCIAMED-Tunisia BeMSA-Belgium FASMR-Romania FiMSIC-Finland FMS-Taiwan HelMSIC-Greece IFMSA-Brazil IFMSA-Japan IFMSA-Poland IFMSA-Spain IMCC-Denmark MMSA-Malta

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NMOs Involved:

WHO Simulations The “World Health Organization (WHO) Simulations” Transnational Project aims to foster interest in global health and health policy, which are areas often neglected in the health education curriculum. Our team aims to help students appreciate the impact of health policy on the health of populations and individuals, in a world where health care delivery and health inequities has proven repeatedly as one of the most contentious political issues worldwide. With this in mind, our International Committee provides support to NMOs to establish simulations of the World Health Assembly of the WHO. These simulations provide participants an engaging, enjoyable way for students and young professionals to appreciate the sociopolitical factors that influence health outcomes.

At a WHO simulation, participants act as delegates from designated UN Member States or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to discuss health issues in regional and plenary sessions. The simulations provide a forum for participants to actively develop public speaking skills, debate key issues in global health and contribute to a written declaration that will be submitted to the WHO in Geneva. Over the course of a simulated WHO conference, delegates research, debate, and apply their diplomacy skills to formulate resolutions in keeping with their respective countries’ health policy.

Delegates eventually vote on resolutions to devise a consensus document. Previous topics of discussion in past simulations have included maternal and child health, pandemic preparedness and access to essential medicines.

NMOs Involved:

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ASSOCIA-MED Tunisia IFMSA-Quebec IMCC-Denmark

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Albania (OMA) Algeria (Le Souk) Argentina (IFMSA-Argentina) Armenia (AMSP) Australia (AMSA) Austria (AMSA) Azerbaijan (AzerMDS) Bahrain (IFMSA-BH) Bangladesh (BMSS) Bolivia (IFMSA Bolivia) Bosnia and Herzegovina (BoHeMSA) Bosnia and Herzegovina - Rep. of Srpska (SaMSIC) Brazil (DENEM) Brazil (IFMSA Brazil) Bulgaria (AMSB) Burkina Faso (AEM) Burundi (ABEM) Canada (CFMS) Canada-Quebec (IFMSA-Quebec) Catalonia - Spain (AECS) Chile (IFMSA-Chile) China (IFMSA-China) Colombia (ASCEMCOL) Costa Rica (ACEM) Croatia (CroMSIC) Czech Republic (IFMSA CZ) Denmark (IMCC) Dominican Republic (ODEM) Ecuador (IFMSA-Ecuador) Egypt (EMSA) Egypt (IFMSA-Egypt) El Salvador (IFMSA El Salvador) Estonia (EstMSA) Ethiopia (EMSA) Finland (FiMSIC) France (ANEMF) Georgia (GYMU) Germany (BVMD) Ghana (FGMSA) Greece (HelMSIC) Grenada (IFMSA-Grenada) Haiti (AHEM) Hong Kong (AMSAHK) Hungary (HuMSIRC) Iceland (IMSIC) India (MSAI) Indonesia (CIMSA-ISMKI) Iran (IFMSA-Iran) Israel (FIMS) Italy (SISM) Jamaica (JAMSA) Japan (IFMSA-Japan) Jordan (IFMSA-Jo) Kenya (MSAKE) Korea (KMSA) Kurdistan - Iraq (IFMSA-Iraq/Kurdistan) Kuwait (KuMSA)

Kyrgyzstan (MSPA Kyrgyzstan) Latvia (LaMSA Latvia) Lebanon (LeMSIC) Libya (LMSA) Lithuania (LiMSA) Luxembourg (ALEM) Malaysia (SMMAMS) Mali (APS) Malta (MMSA) Mexico (IFMSA-Mexico) Mongolia (MMLA) Montenegro (MoMSIC Montenegro) Morocco (IFMSA-Morocco) Mozambique (IFMSA-Mozambique) Nepal (NMSS) New Zealand (NZMSA) Nigeria (NiMSA) Norway (NMSA) Oman (SQU-MSG) Pakistan (IFMSA-Pakistan) Palestine (IFMSA-Palestine) Panama (IFMSA-Panama) Paraguay (IFMSA-Paraguay) Peru (APEMH) Peru (IFMSA Peru) Philippines (AMSA-Philippines) Poland (IFMSA-Poland) Portugal (PorMSIC) Romania (FASMR) Russian Federation (HCCM) Rwanda (MEDSAR) Saudi Arabia (IFMSA-Saudi Arabia) Serbia (IFMSA-Serbia) Sierra Leone (SLEMSA) Slovakia (SloMSA) Slovenia (SloMSIC) South Africa (SAMSA) Spain (IFMSA-Spain) Sri Lanka (SLMSA) St-Kitts and Nevis (IFMSA-SKN) Sudan (MedSIN-Sudan) Sweden (IFMSA-Sweden) Switzerland (SwiMSA) Taiwan (IFMSA-Taiwan) Tanzania (TAMSAz) Tatarstan-Russia (TaMSA-Tatarstan) Thailand (IFMSA-Thailand) The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (MMSA-Macedonia) The Netherlands (IFMSA-The Netherlands) Tunisia (ASSOCIA-MED) Turkey (TurkMSIC) Uganda (FUMSA) United Arab Emirates (EMSS) United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Medsin-UK) United States of America (AMSA-USA) Venezuela (FEVESOCEM) Zambia (ZAMSA)

www.ifmsa.org medical students worldwide