Newsletter 182

Contents

Action of the Week

The new Home Office policy states that all rejected Iraqi asylum seekers who have been remaining in Britain and receiving state support since it has been unsafe for them to return to Iraq must now sign up to a return programme within three weeks or face being made homeless and deprived of all support. Contrary to the Home Secretary's statement, most areas of Iraq are still not safe for asylum seekers to return to, according to the UN High Commission for Refugees. We call on the Prime Minister to put an end to this forcible returning of people to a highly dangerous area by threatening them with homelessness and destitution.

Sign the petition here

National News and Events

Anything Else

Of The Month

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

Apply to go to Jamaica!

The IFMSA March Meeting will be held in Ocho Rios, Jamaica on 7th - 13th August 2008.

If you're interested in going to Jamaica, learning about global health, meeting people from other cultures and developing skills please fill in the application form available here and email it to the committee by midnight on Friday 19th April.

There are always many more applications than places. For that reason you should spend time on your application form - you need to sell yourself. Feel free to change the sizes of the boxes in the word document, but bear in mind that the National Committee have to read lots of forms, so it's not advisable to waffle.

If you have any questions please email Gemma and have a look at the work of IFMSA. All Medsin members are invited to apply to be part of the Medsin delegation attending this meeting

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SGA08

Medsin's National Spring General Assembly, for a great weekend of.....

  • Mass Debating,
  • Training,
  • Networking,
  • Elections of next year's national committee
  • More Voting, including the NAME CHANGE!
  • Only £7 exc. socials. Saturday 26 April- Sunday 27th April 2008

And of course, socialising! (2 Nights of socialising!)

All of this is happening in lovely Leeds!!!!

How to get involved NOW:

  • Register! Download the registration form here, fill it in and send it back to sgaregistration@medsin.org.

  • Regarding the agenda: please e-mail any suggestions for mini-meeting topics to committee@medsin.org. There's a provisional agenda available here - we don't forsee it changing much, but it may do depending on the number of bylaws, candidates for National Committee positions, Campaign Co-ordinators etc we recieve.

  • If you've recieved an e-mail about prioritisation of motions, please reply with your votes!

If you have any problems, questions or comments let us know at committee@medsin.org and we'll try and help.

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Enormous Exciting Pharmaware Debate!

"This house believes that the relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and doctors is detrimental to health"

With speakers including

  • Peter Mansfield - world famous Pharma campaigner all the way from Australia
  • Assoc. British Pharmaceutical Industry
  • .....and other exciting people!

Friday 25 April, 18:30-21:00, Leeds.

This event is perhaps going to lead to Leeds becoming the first pharma free med school in the UK, following the example of some in the US such as Penn State and Standford...witness policy change in action!! And all this the evening before the Spring General Assembly in Leeds so you'll be in Leeds anyway!!! so come along! For more information, contact Medsin Leeds

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Campaign Coordinator Applications - Open Now!

Want to be part of Medsin's enthusiastic, exciting and dynamic campaigns team? Medsin has a number of important campaigns, and we need people to coordinate them for the academic year 2008-09. NB - even those campaigns who currently have a coordinator will be up for re-election unless elected by their own general assembly this academic year

Campaigns:

  • Save Our NHS
  • Arms Trade
  • Universities Allied for Access to Essential Medicines
  • International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
  • Save Our NHS
  • Stop AIDS
  • Water4All.

To find out more about this campaigns please see www.medsin.org/campaigns or contact the current coordinators or jen - campaigns@medsin.org

Campaign coordinators are responsible for the overall running and organisation of their campaign. Depending on the particular campaign you're coordinating, this might be overseeing a team of people and working with branches where the campaign is currently running, as well as promoting the campaign within the network and recruiting more students to the cause. You're also likely to have some contact with other organisations and individuals who run similar campaigns. Campaigns coordinators are supported by the Campaigns Director on the National Committee and come together with other campaigns coordinators and Medsin members to form the Campaigns Team. The Campaigns Team works closely with conference organising teams to plan campaigning at Medsin conferences and support each other's campaigning with ideas and action throughout the year. Campaigns Coordinators also sit on Medsin's Activities Board with Medsin's projects.

So... all in all - it's a blast!

If you're interested - write a 200 word statement and send it together with your phone number and address to campaigns@medsin.org as soon as possible You will then stand for election at Medsin's SGA in Leeds.

If you have any questions at all about this process, please don't hesitate to contact Pete or jen - campaigns@medsin.org

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Marrow News!

  • Marrow Central www.marrowcentral.co.uk We need your help. We've set up a replacement for the old marrow central. We need you to help us make it better. Please take time to have a look around and register yourself (use the sign in link in the top right hand corner. Individual Marrow groups can also get an e-mail address @marrowcentral.co.uk if you want one. Many thanks, Al and Michael (webmasters) al-tahoor.butt@student.manchester.ac.uk and mfinegan@doctors.org.uk

  • After an extensive democratic vote, You Have Decided – the Marrow AGM will be held on 4th and 5th October 2008. We heard back from 53% of the groups – so if you didn’t vote then tough  However, you can still have a say about what will be happening at the AGM (don’t forget, I want a giant cake and the more people who agree, the more likely our dreams will come true!) If you have any suggestions then please email your regional coordinator or Louise and Shobha (they love all the emails, keep them coming)

  • As I’m sure you’re all aware (and if not then clearly you didn’t see our pink t-shirts in November) it will be Marrow’s 10th birthday at this AGM. To mark this wonderful occasion we’d like a special logo. And we’d like a Marrower to design it. We’d ideally like it to show something ‘Marrow-y’ and the number ‘10’. As we’ll be printing it on lots of things then we’d like to stick to 2-3 colours (preferably the marrow blue, yellow and white but we don’t want to limit you too much)

For the less technical of us, just design it and send it to the webmasters and they can make it fit their technical specifications, but if you ARE technical then just email them and they can tell you what you need to do (I don’t understand it all, so won’t pretend here)

  • Please send all contributions to the next Marrow newsletter to tammy.n.towers@student.manchester.ac.uk by 25th April 2008

Thanks, Tammy

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SGA Debate

Would you like to debate:

  1. Project and Campaigns definitions
  2. Membership and Voting Issues
  3. Name Change for Medsin
  4. Something else? Get in touch and let us know - committee@medsin.org

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Want to be more involved with the IFMSA?

Is anyone interested in any of the following roles: Executive Board Candidatures for the following positions: a. Secretary General b. Vice President for Internal Affairs c. Treasurer

Does anyone want to amend the IFMSA constitution?

If so....deadline is 1st May. Contact committee@medsin.org for more information.

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Arms Trade News

Great news that the high court ruled that the Government was in the wrong stopping corruption investigation into the BAE Systems' Al Yamamah arms deals with Saudi Arabia. See the link below on good things to now do including signing a petition to Gordon Brown .

http://www.caat.org.uk/campaigns/controlBAE/petition/petition.php

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Anything Else?

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

Wanted: Full time Co-ordinator for Stop Aids

Katy's got a promotion and the big StopAids campaign is looking for a new coordinator for the student campaign. It would be really good if it's someone with an understanding of students and of the campaign. It's a full time job (not very medical), maybe there are some graduates who get the newsletter and people can pass it on...

Post Title: SPWUK Campaigns and Advocacy Coordinator Location: London Salary: £19,000 (approximate annual gross)

Full details including the job description and how to apply can be obtained on the 'Jobs' section of www.spw.org

Application closing date: 6th May, 5.00 pm

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Update on the Short Course in Global Health

We are quite excited about the Global Health Short Course that is going ahead over five days, Monday 23 June - Friday 27 June 2008 at Imperial, London. It is the first time it is being run, and Professor Alan Fenwick and Dr Helen Ward at Imperial are the course directors. I have attached some more information and an application form (see the website version of this newsletter). There are 50 places on the course and 20 of those have already been filled by Imperial students, and we will be accepting applications from external students from 1 May 2008.

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Americans for Informed Democracy Conference this weekend

Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) is pleased to announce its Spring 2008 Global Health summit in London, United Kingdom. The summit will assemble high-achieving young global leaders for workshops, speakers, and discussions on the theme of Global Health. The summit will take place from April 18-20, 2008, at Syracuse University’s Centre in downtown London.

The topic of this conference is social determinants of health and this really is an great opportunity to help get US Students campaigning about damaging US foreign policy.

For more information, click here

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Careers in Tropical Medicine Talk

At 1.00pm on Thursday 22nd May 2008, The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene will be holding a meeting at the Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7:

CAREERS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN TROPICAL MEDICINE AND INTERNATIONAL HEALTH RESEARCH

This meeting will be a lively afternoon of varied and entertaining talks aimed at encouraging scientists and researchers from any related discipline to learn about careers in Tropical Medicine and International Health. The meeting is particularly relevant to post-graduates early in their careers and interested in a range of fields from biological sciences through to health economics, social science and policy.

Talks will be given by a wide range of established scientists and experts on topics such as how new vaccines for the big killer diseases are being tested in developing countries, how we might outwit the mosquito to reduce the terrible mortality caused by malaria and the ups and downs of running a laboratory in a remote field site. Speakers will give examples of their work alongside ideas and advice for those considering such a career. Major funding and development agencies will also be giving an overview of how funding can be sought and what career structures and opportunities exist.

The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene celebrated its centenary in 2007 and this meeting begun as an annual event last year to mark this special anniversary. A central aim of the society is to encourage people into this exciting field and find a career that could truly contribute to improving health in some of the world's poorest countries.

Please register via our website where you can also find out more about the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and see how else you can get involved. Please email; mail@rstmh.org Or visit; www.rstmh.org to register.

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Abuses of Care Under Israeli Occupation

Panel Discussion with Physicians for Human Rights-Israel

Royal Society of Medicine

1 Wimpole St, London, W.1

Tuesday 29 April, 6.15—9.00

You are invited to attend this panel discussion with Hadas Ziv, Miri Weingarten, and Ruchama Marton, who will give an account of the difficulties patients, hospitals and medical personnel are facing under Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank. They will describe their unsuccessful appeals to the Israeli High Court, and the silence of the Israeli medical establishment in the face of systematic violations of human rights against Palestinians.

Chair: Sir Iain Chalmers, James Lind Library, Oxford.

Invited participants: The BMA Ethics Committee, BMJ, Lancet, and Guardian and Independent newspapers.

Contribution at door £5.

For queries contact Prof Colin Green (c.j.green@imperial .ac.uk ; 020 8869 3265) or Dr Derek Summerfield (derek.summerfield@ slam.nhs. uk; 020 3228 5121).

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Student humanitarian event at the Royal Society of Medicine

On 25 April 2008, the Royal Society of Medicine will be hosting Medicine Overseas, aimed at doctors in training and medical students with an interest in aid work abroad.

The RSM regularly stages talks at which inspirational speakers encourage younger members of the medical profession to become involved in the humanitarian field and the aim of this conference is to introduce those enthusiasts to organisations which could utilise their talents and to show them where they can gain the training and skills to competently embark on fieldwork.

The programme will feature speakers on subjects including education, training and preparation for work abroad, different types of work and organisations and how to get involved. There will also be time to explore the stands and find out more from the organisations present during extended breaks and over drinks afterwards.

Medicine Overseas will be a great opportunity for those interested in global health to steer their preparation suitably and offer their services now or in the future. More details can be found online at www.rsm.ac.uk We do hope to see you there.

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Global Health Council Membership

As an IFMSA member (all medsin members!), you can sign up for free GHC student (associate) membership here

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IFMSA-WHO paediatric collaboration

  1. We are working on a joint collaboration between the WHO and IFMSA to find out how paediatrics is taught at different medical schools around the world.

We would really appreciate if you could take just a few minutes to fill in the online questionnaire about paediatrics teaching at your university. It can be found here

user name : pediatrics password : pediatrics

  1. We are also recruiting students to write evidence based medicine reviews during their SSM attachments. The research would be used to update a WHO pocketbook on child health. To find out more please visit here

If you are interested in finding out more about either of these projects, please email me at alasdair.ford@gmail.com

Thank-you Alasdair and Fina

Medsin-UK and Center for Indonesian Medical Students' Activities

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Another Essay Competition!

The Global Forum for Health Research and The Lancet are holding their third joint essay competition for the under-30s on the theme:

Climate change and health: research challenges for the health of vulnerable populations

Rules and guidelines

  • Authors must have been born on or after 1 January 1978.
  • Each author may submit one essay only.
  • Essays may be submitted in English or French and should be 1500 words maximum.
  • Essays must be based on the author's own ideas and not be derived from another source.
  • Essays must not have been previously published.
  • Entries are individual (i.e., the work of a single author).
  • They should include original, even provocative ideas and not be technical or academic texts: tables, charts and figures are probably not necessary; references should be limited.
  • Authors are free to be idealistic, passionate, to take established practices to task, albeit in a constructive fashion.
  • Within the context of research for health, the theme allows authors to include any aspect that interests them particularly – for example, extreme weather, natural disasters, fuels and energy, transport, water management, vectors, food production, demographics, urban planning, security.

Deadlines

  • The deadline for receipt of entries is 30 April 2008.
  • A shortlist will be announced by the end of June. Shortlisted authors will be asked to provide a high quality photograph and to confirm original authorship and date of birth.
  • The winners will be notified by the beginning of August 2008. The judges' decision will be final.

Prizes

  • A selection of shortlisted essays will be published in an anthology as well as on the Global Forum and Lancet websites.
  • Winners will be invited to take part (with all expenses paid) in the Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health, which will take place in Bamako, Mali, from 17 to 19 November 2008.
  • Staff members of the Global Forum or of the Lancet or their immediate families are ineligible to enter the competition, as are authors of shortlisted essays published in 2006 and 2007.

For any questions, please contact: Susan Jupp mailto:susan.jupp@globalforumhealth.org

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Seminar on "Global Substantive Health Issues"

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) will hold a seminar on "Global Substantive Health Issues" on 5 and 6 June 2008. The seminar will take place at the University of Warwick.

For more information, click here.

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Of The Month

Marrow

ETHNIC MINORITY? MARROW NEEDS YOU.

Did you know that if you’re from a black or ethnic minority community, you are less likely to find a match from the bone marrow register?

For every 10 people needing a bone marrow transplant, only 3 will find a match from within their own family. The remaining 7 rely on unrelated donors: people like you and me, who have signed up to the bone marrow register.

What’s more tissue transplant is not random, but genetic – so patients in need of a transplant are most likely to find a compatible donor within their own ethnic community. The African-Caribbean community is the most likely source of a donor for an African-Caribbean patient, for example. The same is true for all of us - Chinese, Asian, Caucasian, Mediterranean, Jewish, whichever ethnic community we belong to.

Yet ethnic minority communities are severely underrepresented on the register, making it much harder for these groups to find a match when needed. This is why we urgently need donors from all ethnic backgrounds. So, if you are from a black or minority ethnic community, please give this some serious thought: your community needs you, and you might just need it one day. Marrow is one of Medsin’s projects; we recruit students and young people to the bone marrow register by running bone marrow clinics at universities throughout the UK.

To find out how to join the register, or for forthcoming clinic dates, email marrow@medsin.org or go to www.jointheregister.org

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Pharmaware

My name is Omar Jundi, I am the co-head of a group called PharmAware at Leeds University, which I'm sure you've heard of. In April we will be holding a big debate at the Medical School entitled "The Interaction between the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry is detrimental to patient health." The talk will involve members of the association of the british pharmaceutical industry, a speaker from australia, and a member of the Leeds teaching hospitals trust.

After the debate there will be a vote held amongst the members of the medical school, and if we receive a positive result, a new policy will be enacted that will allow the implementation of a new policy, making Leeds the first 'Pharma-Free' Medical School in the country.

We feel that the current level of interaction with the industry undermines our profession, as there is a strong conflict of interest inherent in this interaction.

The debate is open to all, and will be held on the Friday of the weekend of the Medsin General Assembly, We invite all medsin members to come and take part in what will hopefully be a historic occasion!

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Last updated on Wednesday 16 April 2008 at 15:04.