Newsletter 175

Contents

Action of the Week

There is an international effort to rise pressure and criticism on WHO regarding the links and influences of its policies by the dominant economic interests.

The APPEAL BY HEALTH PROFESSIONALS FOR THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE W.H.O. was launched in Geneva on Friday 30th November 2007 by Health professionals, with representatives from all the main branches of the profession, equal numbers of men and women, and at least one representative from each continent. They urge that the World Health Organisation, in accordance with its constitution, recover its full independence.

Click here to support the appeal.

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National News and Events

Anything Else

Website and News

The website is for YOUR events being held by YOUR branches, projects and campaigns. It is really, really easy to submit events and news, so please do, and let everyone know what wonderful things you are up to! Join in Medsin discussions at http://www.medsin.org/discuss

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National News and Events

WaterAid Week at Imperial

WaterAid Week at Medsin Imperial, from the 3rd-7th March. Our events include...

  • Monday 3rd March Pub Quiz - Reynold's Bar, Charing Cross Campus, 7pm

  • Wednesday 5th March Krispy Kreme Sale - South kensington Campus, 12-2 pm

Debate: "The millennium development goals cannot be achieved without universal access to clean water and sanitation." chair: Edward Synge Cooper, paediatrician, consultant to Partnership for Child Development, Imperial College London for the motion: Oliver Cumming, Policy Officer for Sanitation, WaterAid against the motion: Prof Cairncross, Environmental Health, LTHSM

  • Lecture theatre 1, Sir Alexander Fleming Building, South Kensington campus, 6.30 pm Refreshments provided

  • Friday 7th March Facepainting and raffle at Imperial College Union, 8 pm

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Reed Elsevier News

Shocking news in the last couple of days has led us to believe that Reed Elsevier are dragging their heels over the commitment they made in June 2007 to disengage from organizing arms fairs across the world.

After intensive campaigning on the part of the scientific, medical and NGO community in the first half of 2007, Sir Crispin Davis (CEO) announced on the 1st of June 2007 that the company would be selling the part of its business that oranises arms fairs across the world, including the DSEi biannual arms fair in London. He committed the company to withdrawing from the arms trade by the end of 2007 . Not only has this not happened, but sources tell us that the company still plans to be involved in hosting DSEi 2009.

Why is Reed Elsevier dragging its heels on this issue? Did they ever intend to withdraw from the arms trade? When exactly do they plan to wash their hands of their involvement in a trade that brings death to vulnerable populations and results in underinvestment in health and other social services in developing countries?

If you're passionate about this campaign and want answers to these questions get in touch with Arms Trade now.

For more information on Medsin's Arms Trade campaign, click here

Jen

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Regional Conference Dates

For Your Diary:

  • Scottish Regional Conference - 8th March, Glasgow

  • Northern Regional Conference - 15th March, Preston

For more information see here.

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Scottish Regional Conference

The Scottish regional conference is being held at Glasgow University on Saturday 8th March. The overall theme is sanitation and there will be three sessions:

  • Access to water
  • Access to healthcare and medicine
  • Migration Each session will be 2 hours plus workshop fairs.

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Northern Regional Conference

Medsin Preston presents The Medsin Northern Regional Conference Global Health: Under the weather?

A day of talks and workshops on Climate Change and Health and an Introduction to Global Health

Featuring talks and workshops from Robin Stott (Climate and Health Council, Medact), Tim O'Dempsey (Liverpool Tropical School of Medicine), Andy Morse (Liverpool University), Professor Kath McCourt (Royal College of Nursing, Northumbira University) and more!

Royal Preston Hospital Education Centre

£5 for the whole day (includes tea, coffee, sandwiches and welcome pack)

email medsinpreston08@gmail.com to reserve your place (we really need people to email so we can work out how much food we need etc.)

Click here to see the website!

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Parliamentary Lobby Day

On 11th March, join campaigners from across the country for a day of lobbying to strengthen UK Government efforts to tackle HIV and AIDS.

The day starts with a public meeting near the House of Commons with the Conservative Shadow Secretary of State for International Development - an opportuntiy to ensure the Conservatives are doing all they can in the fight against AIDS.

Then join others in entering the Houses of Parliament to lobby your MP.

The day will also incorporate a hand in to the Government of the more than 26,000 campaign actions that have been collected so far this year.

Join the event on facebook

For more info, click here

To send message to the Government supporting the campaign, click here

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Life Under Israeli Occupation

There will be a talk from Dr Asad Khan, entitled "Go And See the Truth For Yourself, I Did" - Life Under Israeli Occupation: through the Eyes of a Doctor

Dr Khan is a Specialist Registrar, Respiratory Medicine, Wythenshawe Hospital

The talk will be on Wednesday March 12th at Halifax Central Library at 7.00pm.

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Global health conference 08

Oxford Global Health Conference Tickets – NOW ON SALE!!!

See www.globalhealth2008.org to find out more, and to buy tickets!

400+ students, 50+ speakers – one weekend!

The annual, national Medsin Global Health Conference is being held in Oxford on the 29th-30th March (weekend after Easter). It'll be a truly massive event, and we hope to see you ALL there!

Exciting and dynamic lectures, within the plenary themes of:

  1. Tackling HIV/AIDS in Resource-Poor Settings
  2. Disaster Relief and Emerging Epidemics
  3. International Aid – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
  4. Mental Health in the Global Community

Also featuring 60+ interactive workshops – with the widest possible choice of themes – to educate and to inspire!

Eminent speakers from America, Africa, WHO, UN and across the UK.

For only £15 (£30 for non-students)! Including two free lunches, and an Oxford ball with food at the beautiful Oxford Union! Delegates get free accommodation with the local students!

Please check out the website for more info, and to buy your tickets.

www.globalhealth2008.org

Contact enquiries@globalhealth2008.org for more.

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Beauty or the Beast?

PharmAware KCL Presents its Inaugural Year Conference:

Beauty or the Beast?

“This house believes that the interests of the pharmaceutical industry and the needs of patients will always conflict”

8th March 2008 Anatomy Lecture Theatre Guy’s Hospital Campus 10am -5pm £5, lunch included

With speakers from: Roche Pharmaceuticals, The IOP, The Worshipful Company of Apothecaries and Kings College London

To book your place send a cheque payable to ‘Medsin KCL’ to 74 Bavent Road London SE5 9RZ or go to a KCLSU desk.

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Global Health Conference Voting Session

This is a call for bylaw changes, policy statements, motions, etc for the GHC2008 voting session. The deadline for submission is midnight on 7th March. Hits and tips on submitting something can be found here.

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Global Health Forum Lectures

The Global Health Forum provides a platform for debating topical global health issues. Broadly, our topics concentrate on public health in the developing world, health within deprived communities in the developed world and issues relating to the ethics of health and healthcare. We run a weekly lecture series in which these important issues are presented by world experts and then questioned and discussed by the audience…you! This is a great opportunity to really explore things not covered in your course but which many of us are deeply interested in. Our talks are accessible to all. No baseline knowledge is needed, just an interest in the reasons underlying the massive discrepancy in public health across the world. All lectures take place at 6.30pm in the Sir Alexander Fleming building in South Kensington and there is free food!

  • March 14th - Effects of deforestation on drug sources
  • March 11th - Chernobyl/Hiroshima effects and aftermath

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GHC2009 bids

With the Medsin Global Health Conference 2008 nearly upon us, it's time to start thinking about whether your branch could host the GHC2009. The deadline for submission of applications is the 7th March 2008, and applicants will be voted on at the GHC08 in Oxford. All the paperwork (1 whole form!) can be found here, and for more information, please get in touch with the committee.

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Anything Else?

The following aren't officially affilliated with Medsin, but we thought you might be interested.

Textbook Review

The new Pearson Student Review Committee allows you to have your say on the textbooks we publish for you. We believe the student’s view is a crucial part of the reviewing process for any new book and we are therefore interested in getting your perspective on our proposed texts.

Pearson have a new, vibrant and comprehensive range of up-and-coming titles and we want to ensure that we continue to meet your requirements. As a part of this focus group you will be asked to review parts of forthcoming titles and to give us your honest opinion on them, as well as your suggestions on what we can possibly do better. We understand that you have hectic schedules to follow, and course demands and deadlines to meet, so we will not ask for much of your time. You can let us know the degree to which you would like to become involved.

Taking an active interest in your education and participating in a scheme such as this is great to have on your CV! Of course this scheme will be beneficial to both us and you. If you are interested in learning more, and finding out what great rewards you will receive for taking part, please let us know.

Please contact Helen Roche at Helen.Roche@pearson.com in order to obtain more information on this opportunity.

Don’t miss out!

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Torture and Post Traumatic Epilepsy

MEDICAL FOUNDATION DOCTORS' STUDY DAY

17th March 2008

The Resource Centre, 356 Holloway Road, London N7 6PA Tel. 020 7700 0100
www.theresourcecentre.org.uk

OUTSIDE DOCTORS & A NUMBER OF MEDICAL STUDENTS WELCOME TO LUNCH AND THE AFTERNOON SESSIONS

  • 1.00 – 2.00 LUNCH
  • 2.00 – 3.00 Psychological approaches to the management of torture survivors, Professor Renos Papadopoulos, Director of the Centre for Trauma, Asylum and Refugees, Essex University and Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Systemic Family Psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic
  • 3.00 – 3.20 Tea
  • 3.20 – 4.20 Post-traumatic epilepsy, Professor Simon Shorvon, Professor in Clinical Neurology, Institute of Neurology, University College London and Consultant Neurologist, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London and Dr Rod Bale, Consultant Psychiatrist, Medical Foundation
  • 4.20 – 4.30 Wrap –up and evaluation Dr Brian Fine

To reach the Resource Centre by tube:- Piccadilly line to Holloway Road station. On leaving the station turn left and walk under the railway bridge for 5 minutes. The Resource Centre is on the opposite side of the road and can be reached by using the pedestrian crossing. To reach the Resource Centre by bus:- Buses 4, 17, 29, 43, 153, 253, 259, 271, 279 and X43 stop within a short walk of the Resource Centre. Also there are mobility buses available in the area, these are numbers 920, 921, 923 and 927.

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Journey to Justice: Breaking the Chains of Global Debt

This event will take place on Sunday 18th May 2008 at the International Conference Centre in Birmingham. It will mark the tenth anniversary of the human chain in Birmingham in 1998, when 70,000 people joined together to demand that the G8 drop the debt.

Ten years later some debts have been cancelled, resulting in many transformed lives. But the debt crisis is not over. Much wider debt cancellation is urgently needed to help tackle global poverty.

For more information click here.

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Global Health: Current Issues, Future Trends and Foreign Policy Conference

On Tuesday 29th April 2008, the Royal College of Physicians of London will host a conference on global health.

"Global Health: Current Issues, Future Trends and Foreign Policy" will explore the growing UK debate on global health, with updates on communicable and chronic disease. Coming after the publication in 2007 of Lord Crisp's "Global health partnerships" and Sir Liam Donaldson's "Health is global: proposals for a government-wide strategy" this conference will discuss their impact and the latest Government initiatives. Drawing together experts from the clinical and policy worlds, the conference will examine the role the UK has to play through the prism of its foreign policy. It will afford an opportunity for people from different fields to interact in lively and informative debate.

The Rt Hon Lord Malloch-Brown, Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN will deliver a guest lecture on "Health security: foreign policy and global health"

A full programme and registration details can be found here.

Venue: Royal College of Physicians Location: London

Audience: Physicians, public health specialists, healthcare personnel, policy makers, political lobbyists, journalists, supranational organisations, NGOs.

For more information please click here or email the conference team.

There are student places at £75, down from £225! Just state that you are a full time student on the apllication/payment form.

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£500 Student Essay Prize

MEDICINE, CONFLICT AND SURVIVAL is offering a £500 prize for the best essay BY A MEDSIN MEMBER on a topic covered by the Journal, and publication of the essay in a forthcoming issue.

The Essay should be no more than 2,500 words long and the deadline for submission is the end of July 2008

For the topics covered by the Journal, go here and click ‘Aims and Scope’. On the same page, click ‘Instructions for Authors’ to find how the essay should be presented.

This prize is made possible through the generosity of the LionelPenrose Trust

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News from the Oxford Health Alliance

The Oxford Health Alliance is a UK-based NGO that addresses 3 risk factors (poor diet, smoking, lack of physical activity) that lead to the four major chronic diseases (CVD, many cancers, diabetes and chronic lung disease) that account for well over 50% of deaths in the world.

A global network of experts and activists - from public health, business, young people, NGOs, academics, government etc. - and one of our major focuses at the moment is the way in which the environment (especially the built environment) impacts upon the risk factors, particularly physical activity.

Things that particularly might interest Medsin members:

  1. Our user-generated 'social networking' website, www.3four50.com. We'd be delighted if you or your colleagues felt able to register on the site - we have over 300 people in the online network, from all over the world (many young people as well as public health experts etc). You can then post photos/blogs - and if you have a particular project that you'd like highlighting, we can post it as a 'showcase'.

  2. We will shortly be having our annual summit - this one in Sydney on the theme 'Building a healthy future: chronic disease and our environment'. We will be streaming news videos from here twice daily on 3FOUR50. (We realise our carbon footprint with the flights is far from ideal - but we are a global organisation so many people will be attending from Australia! - and we hope people will follow online.)

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Last updated on Thursday 28 February 2008 at 08:59.