NZMSA is a full member of IFMSA - the International Federation of Medical Students' Associations. This page contains all of the latest IFMSA information, so make sure you check it regularly for updates. You can also subscribe to the IFMSA news feed here, and you can read more about IFMSA over here.
2012 Asia Pacific Regional Meeting
May 14th, 2012
Want to attend the 2012 IFMSA Asia Pacific Regional Meeting?
NZMSA is calling for interest from New Zealand medical students to attend the upcomingAsia-Pacific Regional Meeting for the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) in Penang, Malaysia from 13-16 September 2012 and is themed ‘Health in the Asia Pacific in 2050’
Click here for more info.
IFMSA General Assembly in Mumbai, India
May 10th, 2012
Want to attend an IFMSA General Assembly?
NZMSA is calling for interest from New Zealand medical students to attend the upcoming General Assembly for the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) in Mumbai, India from 9 – 15 August 2012 and is themed ‘Universal Health Care – The Time is Now!’ Click here for more information
IFMSA representative in the World Healthcare Students’ Symposium Joint Working Group
February 21st, 2012
The World Healthcare Students Symposium (WHSS) event shall take place every two years as a regular joint initiative of the partner organizations. This initiative is known as the Joint Working Group (JWG) and is formed by representatives of the different organizations, with approximately 10 members in total. IFMSA currently have two slots in the JWG: one for a candidate to be selected and one for IFMSA Liaison Officer to Students’ Organizations.
As a member of the Joint Working Group you will be responsible for representing IFMSA in organizing the next World Healthcare Students Symposium.
The duties of the Joint Working Group members will be:
- Planning the event programme and arranging speakers according to the timeline.
- Actively promoting the event during meetings, via email and other means of communication.
- Attending at least two joint meetings (face-to-face) before the World Healthcare Students Symposium event in 2013.
- Developing and issuing press releases and joint statements.
- Issuing calls for bids to host future World Healthcare Students Symposium events.
- Considering applications to host future World Healthcare Students Symposium two years in advance.
- Attending the World Healthcare Students Symposium event (in 2013), being present at the venue two days before the start of the event.
- Organizing the post-event report and follow up.
Candidates for this position must have access to email on a daily basis and must be medical students at the time of submitting the application. In addition, previous experience with organizing events, good communication skills, a solid knowledge of the IFMSA and how it operates, and a contagious exuberance for inter-professional collaboration are definite assets in successfully completing the expectations of this position. The two IFMSA representatives in the JWG will be allocated an annual 500€ budget to cover JWG meetings’ expenses.
Please find more information in the attached call. For further information please contact: Lukas Sveikata, IFMSA Liaison Officer to Student Organizations, at loso@ifmsa.org.
Please submit your motivation letter and CV within the attached application form to loso@ifmsa.org and secretary@nzmsa.org.nz, no later than Wednesday, 29th February 2012, 23:59 GMT + 0.
Calls for contributions to ‘PULSE’, the IFMSA Asia-Pacific publication
January 29th, 2012
Dear Medical Students across New Zealand!
The IFMSA Asia-Pacific Region has a publication called the PULSE. Pulse is a quarterly publication that showcases the talents and interests of medical students across the Asia-Pacific region. The magazine consists of articles on projects and activities conducted by the various National Member Organisations that make up IFMSA Asia-Pacific. Pulse also has articles on various health related issues and events.
Articles should be sent as a Word (.doc or .docx) file attachment before the 5th of February to:
da.pub.ifmsa.asiapacific@
We look forward to reading your contributions!
Mariam Parwaiz and Airin Aldiani
IFMSA Asia-Pacific
Invitation to participate in minimally invasive surgery program in France
November 15th, 2011
The Institute of Research Against Digestive Cancer (IRCAD) in Strasbourg, France, is pleased to invite you to participate in our new student program combining medicine, business and engineering, focussing on minimally invasive surgery and related technologies.
We hope that the students in your association will be interested in this unique and innovative program, which is completely free of charge.
Attached is the press release describing the courses. For further information, please see our website: www.ircad.fr/student
We look forward to your participation.
Kind regards,
Vivian de Ruijter
IRCAD Student President
NZMSA calls for expressions of interest in IFMSA General Assembly, March 2012, Ghana
October 6th, 2011
NZMSA is calling for interest from New Zealand medical students to attend the upcoming General Assembly for the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) in Accra, Ghana from 3rd-9th March 2012.
Pre-General Assembly workshops will be held from 28th February to 3rd March 2012 and are a great opportunity for professional development in various areas of clinical leadership.
Please see attached invitation from the NZMSA President Michael Chen-Xu and invitation package from the MM2012 Ghana Organising Committee for more information.
Please note that for application, a letter of motivation, stating why you would like to attend, and a brief CV should be emailed to: ifmsa@nzmsa.org.nz by 3rd November 2011.
- IFMSA Ghana GA Invitation from NZMSA (.pdf, 197 kB)
- IFMSA March Meeting 2010 Invitation Package (.pdf, 631 Kb)
International Conference Opportunities in Kenya and Peru
September 29th, 2011
NZMSA wishes to advise our members of two upcoming IFMSA Regional Meetings.
The first is in Kenya at the end of this year, and the second is in Peru at the start of 2012. Both are Regional Meetings of the IFMSA. More details, including the conference program me and application info, can be found on our International Conferences page.
IFMSA Copenhagen GA Blog: Entry #4
September 3rd, 2011
Rennie Qin, a 2nd year student from the University of Auckland blogs about Prof. Sir Michael Marmot’s talk on social determinants of health & the future of IFMSA in New Zealand.
After 7 whole days of conference, plenary and party until the dawn break (trust me, the Scandinavian sun rises abnormally early at 3am), 5 hours or less of sleep is finally beginning to take its toll. Still, it was no amazement to see a room full of people up bright and early for Prof. Sir Marmot’s talk, as 4 days of SCOPH session climaxes.
Sir Michael Marmot, the chair of the WHO commission on social determinants of health, is the author of the report ‘Closing the gap in a generation’ that you might remember from those beloved 1st year population health lectures. Hypothetically, two babies are born into two nearby suburbs in Glasgow Scotland, one of them is expected to live on average 34 years less than the other simply because of he is born into the more deprived suburb – such is the socioeconomic circumstances leading to huge health inequity. In order to reduce health inequity, we should proportionally improve living condition across the entire social strata, across the poorest, the poorer and the poor. Marmot proposed an action plan based on empowerment, creating social, cultural and political infrastructure for people to take control of their own lives. He spoke with passion and conviction reiterating ‘when we have the need and means of reducing health inequity, it is MORALLY wrong to not to do so, it is morally injustice’ – deep down, it is a moral question. The room fell into contemplative silence followed by an hour of heated, thoughtful and enthusiastic Q&A session in which the NZ delegates fired a few questions close to our heart. It goes back to the thought that we, as medical students, alongside of juggling medicine with social life, with hobbies or flatting, have the time, means and moral obligation to not only take action on health inequity but also to make it easier for others to do so.
Asia-Pacific delegates (including Josephine from NZ) with Sir Michael Marmot. Keep an eye out for Global week of action on Social determinants of health in NZ.
Over lunch, we met up with Xaviour Walker, past NZMSA president who joined NZMSA to IFMSA at the 2006 GA in Serbia. Xaviour was an alumnus at this GA and the coordinator of the World Medical Association Junior Doctors Network. He emphasized IFMSA GA as one of the most powerful eye opening global health and networking experience a young medical student could have – an experience I lived in the past 7 days. IFMSA is a collection of individual excellence, is an individually enriching experience and the realization that as a group we are more than the sum of our parts. Each one of the NZ delegates is ready to bring back home seeds of activism to disseminate in NZ. IFMSA also acts as a platform to connect NZ medical students internationally offering conference opportunities to World Health Assembly, Conference of Parties, WHO regional meetings, volunteering opportunities to Calcutta Village Project, Uganda Village Project and refugee peace camp, internship opportunities to the WHO and also 10,000s of exchanges around the world each year. At a local level, NZ can also benefit from IFMSA projects and campaigns which are at the heart of IFMSA. We talked about the possibility of holding Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting in NZ, running Training of New Trainer and Think Global workshops, establishing the first exchange, working closely with the Asia-Pacific region and establishing a global health fund for attending GAs. Future possibilities are endless, and we collectively, determine its path.
Learning the differences and similiarities between NZ and other nations and networking with fellow Asia-Pacific nations and the commonwealth, epitomize diplomacy in action. It is not only about NZ & IFMSA, but also mutual learning and collaboration between NZ and Australia, Taiwan, Fiji, UK and many other countries. I appreciate and am proud of the things NZMSA does brilliantly in – our strong organizational structure, distinct political voice in advocacy and rich range of projects. In an era where health care is about to take a huge paradigm shift to primary health care and public health. In a mobilized, outward looking and conscious world where we are global citizens holding accountable for inequity across all of society. A kind of global network is vital for the education of 21st century doctors.
IFMSA, as an international organization is not unaffected by beaucracy. And we have to be realistic about this. However, there is just simply no other place to meet 1,000 medical students all carrying amazing ambition and passion. I’ve always told people to learn global health at Global Health Conference in Australia but to feel global health at IFMSA. On the final plenary night, Ryan Barber played his happy 60th birthday IFMSA video which went viral on youtube and included birthday wishes from all around the world. Phillip Chao was voted the new projects support division director – the 1st New Zealander to be an IFMSA official. Everyone danced crazily to vamos a la playa during breaks between voting sessions, per usual. Hugging everyone goodbye, looking forward to the 26hr flight ahead of us, the past 10 days have only gone by too quickly. Flying high above the clouds, I compiled pages of notes of planned activity in NZ after IFMSA. A climate change and health campaign, involvement in the global week of action of social determinants of health and running IFMSA workshops in NZ will only be a start.
Stay tuned for a strategic plan of IFMSA in NZ. Email projects@nzmsa.org.nz to show your interest. We will be in touch shortly.
IFMSA General Assembly Report from Rennie Qin
September 1st, 2011
NZMSA sent nine delegates to this year’s IFMSA August General Assembly in Copenhagen. Representing 1.2 million medical students all around the world, IFMSA meetings provide a place where 1000 medical students from 100 countries come together, brainstorm, exchange ideas and act together on the most pressing issues in health and faced by medical students.
Read Rennie’s report here:
IFMSA Copenhagen GA Blog: Entry #3 – First two days of GA
September 1st, 2011
Rennie Qin, a 2nd year student from Auckand, blogs about meeting Hans Rosling, the project fair and sightseeing at the first two days of IFMSA GA in Copenhagen.
As of 7pm, 1st of August, the 60th IFMSA General Assembly has officially opened. 1000 medical students hand-picked from 100 countries all around the world flowed into the opening ceremony, looking sharp in dresses and suits.
All this was nothing compared to the excitement when I spotted Hans Rosling on the stage! Shoving away my plate, grabbing a camera, running down the stairs, panting, I was in front of the stage. There, Izzy from Austria, Vinith from Australia and I stood in awe-inspired silence in front of Hans Rosling as he sets up technology for his talk, waiting to soak up the inspiration from every word he utters. Dr Hans Rosling, if not famous for his sword-swallowing antics, his simple but stunning way of data presentation epitomized by gapminder.org, is well-known as the world’s foremost public health physician. While setting up, he casually cracked up a few jokes with us.
As Hans points to the screen with his bamboo stick acquired ever since his talk on Asia’s rise at Ted-x-India, it was like a Ted talk coming to life. I’ve come to realize that Hans Rosling is not there to tell us the solutions of health problems, but merely reveal to us the world as it is – the world that we’ve never seen before – hidden truth about health and economics that surface so effortlessly under his graphics. It makes us question ceaselessly. Why do US and Cuba have the same level of health but vastly different income? Why does some regions of China have the same level of health as US while other regions as Africa? He challenges the traditional way we think about the world in an era when Asia is fast catching up with the ‘developed countries’. Seeing Hans’ presentation is like witnessing the future unfolding in front of me (a future inevitably with 9 billion people). Yet, we are so much richer with the beauty of visual statistics.
Here’s one of my favourite talks by Hans Rosling:
As Day 1 draws to close, the entire three floors of the venue are filled with project stalls. I walked around for three hours hearing about every single project, chatting to project coordinators and fishing for ideas to bring back to New Zealand. It was a very exciting affair – stickers, key rings and project brochures are flying everywhere. I left with no less than 100 pieces of brochure and a T-shirt fully covered with stickers from every country. There I met again Dr Sujit Brahmochary whose talk on Calcutta Village Project in Auckland first inspired me to think about global health. The British are campaigning on climate change and health, the Japanese are ushering people to write messages of support for victims of the earthquake, the Ghanians are running an anti-malaria project and the Norwegians are campaigning for access to essential medicine. The diversity of projects is a mirror image of the diversity of our world. As nations form partnerships over projects, I see the essence of global health: collaboration and diversity – collaboration over health recognizing the diversity of cultural, social and economic circumstances of each nation.
The first two days of GA ended with the National Food and Drink party. Each nation laid down their flags, their favourite foods and national drinks. The kiwi’s pineapple lumps, kiwifruit chocolate, Marlborough wine and dry wheatbix eating competition proved to be quite a hit. After a dazzling night, the NZ delegation set off for a canal tour around Copenhagen harbour. We spotted Europeans sunbathing in their yachts along canals lined by colourful villas; admired the velvet walls, marble floor and crystal lights of the extravagant royal reception rooms and ran around like hippies in the graffiti-striken town of Christiania famed for its freedom and lifestyle.
