European Regional Meeting 2021
IFMSA–International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations is divided in five regions – Africa, Americas, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Mediterranean and Europe. Regions were created to make it easier for members to tackle similar issues on the regional level, support the growth, development and active recruitment of national member organisations.
HelMSIC, as a member of IFMSA, is part of the European Region and participated at EuRegMe 2021. EuRegMe is the European Regional Meeting and every year IFMSA holds 5 Regional Meetings each for every Region. EuRegMe 2021 took place online from 23th of April to 27th of April. In this EuRegMe, 20 medical students, active members of HelMSIC, participated as representatives of Greece’s Medical students.
More specifically, this international meeting consists of individual parts such as plenaries, educational sessions, theme events and an interactive presentation where innovative programs organized by Medical students’ organizations on an international level, are presented.
To begin with, plenaries take place in order for representatives to discuss important topics and vote on Regional Priorities, Host Candidature for the next EuRegMe and Change Proposals in European Regulations. During these plenaries, “Vaccinations” and “Refugees Health and Rights” were chosen as Regional Priorities of 2021/2022.
Moreover, one of the most educational and interactive parts of the EuRegMe are the Standing Committee sessions. Participants from all different parts of Europe are given the chance to educate themselves and interact on a multicultural level.
This year, some of the main topics discussed were:
Medical Education: Main topics were Health Workforce, Interprofessional Education and E-health and Telemedicine.
Public Health: Mental Health was mentioned, with emphasis on how COVID-19 affected it, as well as Climate Change.
Research & Professional Exchange: Main topics were Exchange Programs and how they affect Health Workforce Crisis and models of Health Systems from different countries.
Human Rights & Peace: The discussion revolved around Gender Based Violence, Intersectionality and Violence against Health Care Workers especially at Covid-19 pandemic.
Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights including HIV & AIDs: Participants discussed about Men’s/ Women’s Right to Health, Sexism, Abortion and did a Self Reflection on the matter.
Another main part of EuRegMe is the Theme Event that includes motivational speeches and open discussions on current issues. In this year’s EuRegMe, the theme was “Mind the Gap: Sustainability on Hold” where two round tables took place, “Health Workforce” and “Health, Environment and Climate Change”.
Lastly, in every EuRegMe an interactive presentation of innovative programs organized by Medical Students’ Associations takes place, called Activities Fair, where students are inspired about future activities that could be organised in their countries. This year, HelMSIC presentedQ
- “Health Festival”, a congress on public health in which the main topics considered change each year and this year’s topics were antimicrobial resistance, vaccination, infectious diseases and Covid-19,and
- The campaign “Health for All”, whose theme was access to Health System for the vulnerable socioeconomic groups.
Moreover, a similar interactive presentation of Exchanges, the Exchanges Fair, took place, where HelMSIC presented the exchanges’ programs which occur in Greece.
Although IFMSA’s EuRegMe 2021 was held online, participants had the chance to interact with medical students from all different parts of Europe, share their views and cultivate a more holistic approach on current global health & medical education issues.