The SCOMEdy March 2012

The SCOMEdyThe Standing Committee on Medical Education Newsletter

BriNgiNg ThE BEST OuT Of M.E.

2nd edition - MM12

IFMSAwas founded in May 1951 and is run by medical students, for medical students, on a non-profit basis. IFMSA is officially recognised as a non-governmental organisation within the United Nations’ system and has official relations with the World Health Organisation. It is the international forum for medical students, and one of the largest student organisations in the world.

is to offer future physicians a comprehensive introduction to global health issues. Through our programs and opportunities, we develop culturally sensitive students of medicine, intent on influencing the transnational inequalities that shape the health of our planet.Th

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ImprintEditor in ChiefIoana Goganau, Romania

Content Editors and ProofreadingIoana Goganau, RomaniaMarko Zdravkovic, SloveniaWajiha Jurdi Kheir, LebanonAhmed Reda, EgyptHelena Chapman, Dominican Republic

Design/LayoutIoana Goganau, RomaniaMohamed Meshref, EgyptStijntje Dijk, NetherlandsOmar H. Safa, Egypt

PublisherInternational Federation ofMedical Students’ Associations

General Secretariat:IFMSA c/o WMAB.P. 6301212 Ferney-Voltaire, FrancePhone: +33 450 404 759Fax: +33 450 405 937Email: [email protected]

Homepage: www.ifmsa.org

[email protected]

Printed in Ghana.

CONTENTS:Dear reader.I proudly present you the second issue of SCOMEDY.

This second number has a lot of surprises. First, for me as editor, the amount and quality of the articles was truly motivating on professional level and inspiring on a per-sonal level.

Secondly, for you, our reader, opening this new number of the SCOME magazine, you open yourself to a whole new horizon over medical education. You will no longer see things from your unique perspective, but will see through the eyes of others. In some ways medical stu-dents are all the same, they are highly competitive, they stay up at night to read huge books, they openly or se-cretly hate exams, but they are also creative, resourceful, motivated and want to make the best of their education. They are a great resource for the medical education, but are often neglected. However this magazine is for us, it brings us together and allows us to share our opinions. It would be a shame if all those ideas, experience and in-novation would go unheard of. Be happy and be thankful. More eyes see more, more minds think more. And in the end together we can achieve anything we want.

Play-writer Christopher Fry said: “Comedy... is a narrow escape into faith.” This magazine is our 24 pages long stage and is a invaluable show. The experiences of oth-ers are the clearest example that things can be done. You can also have great ideas, make projects, you can be a leader. You can change medical education. And together maybe we can make it perfect.

I would like to acknowledge the team. The been wonder-ful and I want to thank them all. Also we all would like to thank our talented and dear writers.

ioana goganauSCOME Director 2010-2012

International Conference The Future of Education 4

4th International Medical Congress for Students and Young Doctors 5

16th Annual IASME Meeting 5

SCHOOL OF GALEN SPRING SCHOOL 6

Events You still have time to share in 7

Interprofessional Education (IPE) 8

Statistics in medicine 10

SCOME-ing 2.0: EMR 8 “Part 1” 11

Survey on Student involvement in Medical Education 12

Tutorial System 14

National Medical Olympiad 15

Early Introduction of Clinical Skills 16

Breaking Cultural Barriers in Medical Education 17

INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL EDUCA-TION DAYS (iMED) 18

Open Educational Resources: Enabling Universal Education 20

SCOME international 22

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The SCOMEdy MM 2012 | Issue 2

medical students worldwide

INTErNaTIONal CONfErENCE ThE fuTurE Of EduCaTION (7 - 8 June, 2012)florence, italy

2 nd Edition

Important dates:- 19 March 2012: Deadline for final sub-

mission of papers- 19 March 2012: Deadline for speakers’

registration- 7-8 June 2012: Dates of the conference

We would like to encourage you to submit an abstract of a paper to be presented during the Future of Edu-cation Conference.

The aim of the Conference is to promote the sharing of good practice and transnational cooperation in the field of the application of innovative education and training strategies, methodologies and solutions. The confer-ence will also be an excellent opportunity for the presentation of previous and current pro-jects and innovative initiatives in the field of

education.The Call for Papers is addressed to teach-

ers and experts as well as to coordinators of projects and initiatives in the field of education and training.The abstract should be written in English

(150 - 500 words) and sent via e-mail to [email protected] no later 16 January 2012. In order to prepare the abstract, we kindly invite you to use the template down-loadable from the following link:http://www.pixel-online.net/edu_future2012/

common/download/Template_abstract.doc.At “The Future of Education” International

Conference there will be three presentation modalities: Oral and poster presentations (in-person) and virtual (for those who cannot at-tend in person) An ISBN publication will be produced with

all the papers of the articles that will be pre-sented during the conference.For further information about the second edi-

tion of the International Conference “The Future of Education”, please contact us at the follow-ing address: [email protected] or visit the conference website: www.pixel-on-line.net/edu_future2012

Call for Papers

5www.ifmsa.org


16Th aNNual IaSME MEETINg

The 4th International Medical Congress for Students and Young Doctors MedEs-pera–2012, will be held on May 17-19, 2012, within the State Medical and Pharmaceutical University “Nicolae Testemitanu”, in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova. This significant event will gather students and young doctors under 35 years, from Moldova and other countries. The Congress includes a large series of work-shops and distinct conferences.The scientific papers can belong to any of the

following topics: fundamental sciences, inter-nal medicine, surgical sciences, dental medi-

Please contact Julie Hewett at:[email protected] you require a letter of support for your visa application.

4th INTErNaTIONal MEdICal CONgrESS fOr STudENTS aNd YOuNg dOCTOrSMay 17th-19th.Chisinau, republic of Moldova

cine, pharmacy.The participants of the Congress will also

benefit of a unique social program through which they can discover the true national val-ues of the Republic of Moldova.You can send your abstracts with the filled

registration card on [email protected]. The deadline for abstracts is 1st April, 2012.For more information visit our website at:

http://www.medespera.sitylive.com/

You can send your abstracts with the filled registration card on:[email protected] deadline for ab-stracts is 1st April, 2012

Call for Poster and eDemo AbstractsThe International Association of Medical

Science Educators (IAMSE) is pleased to announce the call for Poster and eDemo Abstracts for the 16th Annual IAMSE Con-

ference to be held in Portland Oregon, USA from June 23-26, 2012. All abstracts must be submitted in the format requested through the online abstract submission site www.iamsec-onference.org . Submission deadline is March 5, 2012. Abstract acceptance notifications will be returned by April 1 with rolling acceptances provided for earlier submissions.

This conference will explore is-sues in the teaching and learning of sciences fundamental to practice in all health professions.The IAMSE annual meeting provides medical

science educators a place to meet colleagues from around the world and to receive an in-tense faculty development experience.

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With the motto above, we are honored to in-vite you to School of Galen that is international spring school about Sexually Transmitted Dis-eases to follow the footsteps of our pioneers.

In this 4-day spring school, you’re going to have;The scientific program that you’ll have re-

ally active part in. You’ll explain and discuss epidemiological status of 8 major STD and global and local measures to prevent them. This approach will grant participants opportu-nity to be a part of solution.The workshops like “short movies, poster

designs or song composing”. With these workshops, you’ll not only get universal ap-

proach to STDs but also improve your crea-tive skills. Also, outcomes of these workshops will be used to draw more attention to STDs and increase public awareness about it. Aristotle Times that gives you opportunity

to meet famous thinkers, artists and litterateur and to broaden your vision and thinking. The social program of course :) More than

you can imagine: You will have chance to ex-perience breathtaking beauty of Aegean Sea and Cunda Island with activities like Freddie Mercury Party, Gala Program, Asklepios Party and Ayvalik Tour When: 10th - 13th May 2012Host Committee: Turkish Medical Student

International Committee (TurkMSIC) Celal Bayar University Local Committee

For further information and regis-tration:

http://www2.bayar.edu.tr/galen/

Also don’t forget to follow/like us:Twitter: @schoolofgalenFacebook Page: http://facebook.com/

schoolofgalen

SChOOl Of galEN SPrINg SChOOl (May 10th-13th)

Medical students are going to meet where the foundations of modern medicine were laid.

7www.ifmsa.org


EvENTS YOu STIll havE TIME TO SharE IN

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Interprofessional Education (IPE)An estimated one million people are injured

by errors during hospital treatment each year and 120,000 people die as a result of those injuries. This number is much higher than the number of deaths caused by street accidents (Lucian Leape,1996). Medical error is like an iceberg phenomenon; we see just a few of them in the news but in fact, there are many medical errors that are unheard of. Many of these medical errors are caused by lack of communication and understanding among the members of medical team that treats the patient. In medical teams that are composed of more then 1 professional, it is absolutely necessary to have the best teamwork spirit from each team member. The problem, how-ever, is that each professional (doctor, nurse, nutritionist, pharmacist) sees the same case in a different way based on what they learned in school.If things remain as such, we will never have

a good medical team and that means that we can’t guaranteed patient safety. We need inter-professional collaboration as medical team so that we can provide holistic care for each patient. With increased collaboration, we can improve quality of care and also pa-tient safety.To gain a good interprofessional collabo-

ration, we must enhance interprofessional education. You may wonder; “why we must change the curriculum? We currently produce

successful health professionals with our tra-ditional ways of teaching.” Let us look at the reason why. First and most importantly is Pa-tient safety. Research that was conducted by the Institute of Medicine in the US (2001) showed that most errors are due to poor com-munication and collaboration among health professionals. This means, we are putting pa-tients at risk by not collaborating better. Other

articles show that inter-professional educa-tion can improve IP collaboration and improve patient outcomes (Barr 2005, Reeves 2008). Last but not least is the complexity of patient care, “improved health outcomes usually lie outside the scope of any one practitioner” (Headrick et al., 1998). With this new ap-proach of Interprofessional collaboration, we can keep the patient at the center.Interprofessional Education occurs when

two or more professionals learn with, from and about each other to improve collabo-ration and the quality of care (Caipe, 2002). Learning with each other means that we study

some cases with other professionals. Learn-ing from each other impleies that the doctor does not always know everything about his/her patients. He/She may not know how to care for them, how to feed them, how to make them feel comfortable. The one thing that the doctor actually knows more about is how to recognize a disease and cure it. This applies to nurses, pharmacists and nutritionists with respect to their personal fields. In IPE, profes-sionals can learn and share their knowledge. The last point is to “Learn about each other”; we inherently work better with an acquaint-ance/friend rather than a stranger. Therefore, we must recognize each profession’s com-petences, role and responsibilities to ensure great inter-professional collaboration.

As mentioned above, creating interprofes-sional education requires that we know each profession’s competencies :

1. Values/ethics for interprofessional practice The classic problem in inter-professional col-

laboration is the massive ego of each profes-sional, and this reflects on the ethical princi-

Interprofessional Education occurs when two or more pro-fessionals learn with, from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of care (Caipe, 2002).

Dina Fauziah, Brawijaya University, Indonesia

9www.ifmsa.org


Interprofessional Education occurs when two or more pro-fessionals learn with, from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of care (Caipe, 2002).

ples and attitude of the person in question. We should have mutual respect and value for inter-professional collaboration. As Sargeant says, “The first thing that comes to my mind is … respect, and without respect for the fact that every one’s opinion and input is equal, then you really don’t have a functional team.”

2. Roles/responsibilities of other profes-sionalsIn this part we talk about knowledge of own

and each others’ roles, and where they inter-sect. Then we can provide a medical treat-ment as whole in our own portion. Sargeant says that “....as a home physiotherapist, I don’t really feel like I’m working on a team. I do have various partners but the main draw-back is that sometimes they aren’t aware of my role and I’m not 100% aware of their role, so there needs to be more education…” And Sargeant’s problem can answered by IPE, which produces health workers that more aware of their own and others’ professional role. Through this knowledge, health work-ers can have a better attitude towards and respect for other professions.

3. Inter-professional communicationCommunication is an essential element in

teamwork. As we have discussed, many med-ical errors occur from poor communication and understanding between members of the medical team that treats the patient. Our tra-ditional curriculum simply teaches us how to communicate with patient, but neglects teach-ing us the method of proper communication with other professionals when we practice in hospital. In general there are two skills that we need to learn: “listening” and “speaking up.” By listening we learn to be open minded and receive constructive input. Good speaking

skills enable us to express ourselves properly, without offending anyone or causing conflicts.

4. TeamworkA medical team needs to work together ef-

fectively, with shared patient goals, a common language, and clear procedures. IPE uses any type of educational, training, teaching or learning sessions which include two or more

health and social care professionals that learn interactively (Reeves S. et al., 2009). This type of education can make students understand their role, responsibility, and limitation of their profession better (VR Curran, 2007). IPE is integrative rather than supplementary to the existing core curriculum. Early evaluation re-sults suggest favorable satisfaction amongst students and faculty as well as significant effect on attitudes toward inter-professional teamwork and education (VR Curran,2007).

What kind of class can use this IPE approach? We must have a class that consist of stu-

dents from more than one profession. We can use active and interactive learning approach-es which support learning IP knowledge, atti-tudes and skills thereby progressively engag-ing students in clinical collaborative practice with real patients. The best way to learn IPE is in small IP groups with discussing, observ-ing and doing active and interactive activities.Of course, we cannot just let the first grade

student discuss some clinical case with other professionals. Considering their lack of clini-cal knowledge, they will not be able to engage in any fruitful discussion. What we can do for them is expose them to the basic IPE knowl-edge: What is IPE? Is it important? What are its goals? etc. When they reach higher levels, we can then develop their practical skills like communication, physical examination, and the most importantly, their role and capacity in their own profession. These are essential steps that need to precede meeting with other professionals during IPE class.The last step is enhancing IPE competency.

This is the ideal model for a final grade stu-dents that are mature enough to have discus-sions with other professionals. They would have already taken all necessary lectures and consequently have more medical/clinical knowledge. IPE has recently become a hot topic in our

medical education community. Our Ministry of Education held an International Conference that carried the theme, “Promoting Health through Inter-professional Education” . This conference’s goal was introducing IPE to the medical education community in my country. If any of you is interested in the IPE issue, we invite you to contact us and share your experi-ences by sending an email to:[email protected] would really appreciate any interest shown.

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STATiSTiCS iN MEDiCiNE

Tade Adesoji, Olabisi Onabanajo Univer-sity, Ogun State, Nigeria

The driving force behind the maturation of an epidemiological approach to medicine has been the incorporation of statistics in modern medical research, a practice that has become mandatory in past decades.Sound statistical methods are essential to

medical science, as they transform uninter-pretable raw data into meaningful results.Trends toward evidence-based medicine can

only flourish in a culture of statistical literacy. Such a culture requires physicians who are equipped with the knowledge and skills to crit-ically and accurately interpret statistics, a doc-tor with knowledge of statistics would select drugs to prescribe based on evidence proved with statistics and not mere advertisements.However in developing countries like Nige-

ria, adequate content of the subject matter is not taught. It is mainly measures of central tendency that is taught; its application to re-search and statistical packages for analysis of the data collected isn’t in the course content yet.

The course content for statistics according to the Medical and Dental Council of Nige-ria (MDCN) entails only Data collection and Methods of computation and analysis of nu-merical data.For example a doctor that has collected

data would find it impossible to analyze. He knows which is a discrete and continuous variable, but he doesn’t know weather to use chi square, fisher’s exact, t-tests or analysis of variance (ANOVA) hence he arrives at poor results.Also the use of packages like Statistical

Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Epi info for analysis which brings out the best in research isn’t also part of the curriculum, all of which make analysis faster and more ac-curate. Imagine a doctor analyzing 3000 samples

using a biro, paper and a calculator, I bet for 1 year, he wouldn’t have finished analysis or using Microsoft excel which cannot give cross tabulations and calculate errors hence the data isn’t maximally analyzed.However developed countries have enough

professional statisticians and are not pressed to produce doctors with this knowledge as the statisticians would take up such responsibility, but in developing countries, doctors are sad-dled with this responsibility.The way out however is to include these

details in the curriculum and local medical students association should also organize workshops to train medical students in this deficient area.

References:The Red Book, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, Guidelines on Minimum standards Of Medical and Dental Education in Nigeria. Revised Edition June, 2006Statistics in medicine; Guller U, Buhler L, Clavien PA. Swiss Med Wkly 2003;133:521

Sound statistical methods are es-sential to medical science, as they transform uninterpretable raw data into meaningful results

11www.ifmsa.org


SCOME-INg 2.0: EMr 8 “ParT 1”

As I write this article for the second issue of the “SCOMEdy,” I am preparing the sessions for the upcoming Eastern Mediterranean re-gional meeting (EMR 8) in Amman, Jordan. I am very privileged to have a second oppor-tunity to run SCOME sessions in my region. It feels like it was just yesterday that I was in Dubai for EMR 7. Since I was never able to tell you all about my experiences then, here are some highlights.On May 28, 2011, yours truly jetted off to the

land of the tallest building in the world. The objective was simple and clear: facilitating the SCOME sessions for the Eastern Mediterra-nean Regional Meeting 7. I had known of this task before I applied to be the regional assis-tant for SCOME in the EMR, and I had been extremely excited to carry forth with it. Never did I imagine what was in store for me.The first day sessions started out slow; every

SCOMEdian attending the sessions was a newcomer to regional meetings. That meant I had to give a more extensive introduction, which the attendees of the sessions received with open arms. I am very glad to report that they managed to actively participate and bring something new to the table. By the end of the conference, the formerly inexperienced SCO-MEdians became well versed in the running of international/regional SCOME sessions.In deciding on the topics to be discussed, I

tried as much as I can to pick points that are relevant to our region. We discussed: projects in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, the sta-tus of SCOME in the EMR, medical educa-tion issues and problems relevant to the EMR, SCOME International structure, hot topics in SCOME International, grading system and stress levels of medical students, student government, medical student resources, and compassion/medical ethics.This year, there are 27 people who have

signed up to participate in SCOME ses-sions, which is double the number we had in Dubai. Many of the participants are NOMEs, LOMEs and National project coordinators, which means we can take subject matter to

a new level. We also have a greater diversity of NMOs represented, and that is something I am particularly happy about. In these past few weeks leading up to EMR,

SCOMEdians have been very involved in the process of planning the sessions. They ex-pressed their interest in certain topics over others and in presenting their projects. They also suggested some non-conventional ac-tivities like holding debates. For that reason, we will have a debate on a topic pertaining to medical ethics. This activity will teach par-ticipants how to carry out a professional de-bate, have them discuss a controversial topic in medical ethics and help them realize how important it is to include medical ethics in our curricula. There will hopefully be great out-comes from EMR8, ones we will be able to present in MM12.In the meantime, I want to continue to urge

EMRians and IFMSA members around the world to “Join SCOME, Pay it forward.” Can-not wait to meet you all in Ghana!

Wajiha Jurdi Kheir,American University of Beirut, Lebanon.SCOME Regional As-sistant for EMR

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13www.ifmsa.org


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The medical student faces a laborious jour-ney toward graduation. The demand for knowledge acquisition within a tough work-load, both inside and outside the classroom, is enormous. At the Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar –University of Oporto, the medical student has contact with patients for the first time. With a large gap between the basic and clinical years, students must adapt to using the basic science foundation in their clinical rotations.As the members of the AEICBAS (Member

of PorMSIC) recognized this academic chal-lenge, we created a Tutorial System a project that aims to mentor 3rd year medical students in the transition from basic sciences to clinical sciences. For example, how do you introduce yourself to the patient? What should you ask him? What do you need to know about a pa-tient when you are writing his or her medical history?This Tutorial System intends to mentor medi-

cal students and clarify any remaining doubts in the academic transition from the classroom to the hospital. In the following examples, we describe more specific details about this aca-demic mentorship program. A tutor is any student of the 4th, 5th or 6th

year who wants to become a volunteer of this project. The tutor must guide and help the 3rd year students adapt to the clinical environ-ment. They also must be prepared to answer questions about the discussed topics and provide technical expertise to the tutored stu-dents. While teaching, the tutor also strength-ens his or her foundation of clinical knowledge

Who is being tutored?Any 3rd year student that is eager to learn and

desires the knowledge and mentorship of his or her colleagues may be tutored

How are the students distributed?Each session occurs in a classroom, with two

to four tutors mentoring a maximum of twelve 3rd year medical students every must attend at least 75% of the all sessions within the se-mester.

Initiating this semester, this project has been demonstrated successful leadership and im-plementation. Our ambition is to evaluate our progress and improve the project design for the following semester. We remain motivated that this project will continue to grow over the years currently; there is one class, where all participating students are enthusiastic for this learning and mentorship opportunity.

This project proposal has conclud-ed a positive academic experience, where students help other students in the transition from the classroom to the hospital

TuTOriAl SySTEM

Joana Sofia Pereira Magalhães

Institute of Biomedi-cal Sciences Abel Salazar,University of Oporto, Portugal

15www.ifmsa.org


ISMKI (Ikatan Senat Mahasiswa Kedok-teran Indonesia)IMSEBA (Indonesian Medical Student Executive Board As-sociation)

Recently, one of the innovative medical edu-cation approaches called SPICES (Student-centered, Problem-based, Integrated, Com-munity-based, Electives, Systematic) has been chosen to be integrated in Indonesian medical education system and in our com-petence-based curricula. As our newest cur-ricula emphasize the medical competencies of graduates rather than their understanding of the whole concepts in textbooks, there are still so many students that do not understand what competence actually means. Some of them do not even care about that at all.Moreover, it is reported that low Human

Resource Index is attributed to competency and capacity and that the lack of competitive atmosphere is the major cause of the phe-nomenon. Meanwhile, we are embedded in globalization where every nation competes

globally. So countries which still have low Hu-man Resource Index must work hard to speed up their human resource quality. They need human resources with good capacity and competency, so they can compete globally. One of the most effective ways to fasten this development is by competition.

Therefore, a national board of medical education and profession is trying to im-prove medical student’s understanding of competence-based curriculum by using competition. Our goal is to enhance medical students’

competency by having a healthy competition and providing an opportunity for a student who has a great competency to be appreci-ated as the champion of this Olympiad. As a national event, this Olympiad invites all medi-cal students from 72 medical schools in Indo-nesia to compete and show who the best is.

Being held twice, National Medical Olympiad successfully triggered a good competition among medical students’ representatives from all over the country. The latest improvement of the program is “MMC (Multisubject Medi-cal Competition): Integrating Ten Subjects within an Amazing Olympiad”. The subject will be taken from 10 body systems: cardio-vascular, respiratory, musculoskeletal, repro-ductive, neurology, urology, gastroenterology, otorhinolaryngology, ophthalmology and der-matology. The Olympiad consists of 3 rounds that emphasize the enhancement of medical competency. In addition to written test we will be using a new assessment method, which is Objective Structured Clinical Examination. Not only that, we will make this competition more fun with several interesting games.This year National Medical Olympiad will be

held at University of Brawijaya, Malang, Indo-nesia and only national universities will be in-vited. Hopefully in a few years we will be able to make this an international event. And we will be glad to have you participating in our competition.

NATiONAl MEDiCAl OlyMPiAD

Our goal is to enhance medical students’ competency by having a healthy competition

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In General, the medical education system in Jordan consists of 6 years, divided into two stages. The first stage being the basic sci-ences stage (the first three years of studies) in which students only learn theory by attend-ing lectures, doing some laboratory work and taking exams. In the first one and a half years general topics are studied in Irbid, whereas in the second one and a half years we study nine modules covering the human body. Each module consists of several subjects (e.g. anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, pathol-ogy, biochemistry etc.) to cover everything related to that module. The nine modules studied are: Hemolymphatic, Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Musculoskeletal, Gastrointesti-nal, Endocrinology, Central and Peripheral nervous system, and Genitourinary.The Second stage is the clinical training stage

(the remaining three years of studies) in which the students are exposed to patients and able to take a history and perform a physical ex-amination. The students are introduced to the clinical training stage during a one month course titled “Introduction to Clinical Skills” in which the basic skills of physical examination and history taking are taught before students can interact with the patients. This is the first exposure of the Jordanian medical student to clinical training aspects of medicine.As we are exposed to clinical training aspects

of medicine so late it is not surprising that we find the first stage of studies boring. We also have difficulties with long-term knowledge re-tention because there is no clinical applica-tion relating all the information to our future profession. And as current research indicates, it is much better to give a clinical application to raw information to make them stick in the mind of a medical student. I also find this be-ing true from my own experience.Our project is called “Early Introduction

of Clinical Skills” aimed to establish an early exposure to basic clinical skills train-ing, make basic science years more fun, make students think of basic sciences in the context of medicine and to make them understand the clinical skills related to dif-

ferent modules. When taking each module, students will be

taught some chosen clinical skills related to it. We are currently in stage one of the project in Jordan University of Science and Technology.

The projectStage One: Approval and Material

• Call for applications for the organizing team• Start the paper work; coordinate with our

deanship of medicine, clinical skills lab and the hospital.

• Form a small working group for each module to develop the material that will be covered; each group consists of mix-ture of students from the clinical stage and the basic sciences years, having a leader who will coordinate with a physi-cian related to that module.

• The reference book for material preparation is Macleod’s Clinical Examination.

• There are two goals at this stage:1. Establish coordination and approval of

the deanship, clinical skills lab and the hospital authorities.

2. Prepare material for each module to serve as guidelines for peer teach-ers and for their students.

Stage Two: Training and Registration• Training of peer teachers; training will be

coordinated with physicians.• Announcements, registration and coordi-

nation with the clinical skills labs.Stage Three: The Early Introduction to

Clinical Skills sessions commence

EArly iNTrODuCTiON Of CliNi-CAl SkillS

Ibraheem Moham-mad Malkawi

Jordan University of Science and Tech-nology, Jordan

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The issue of cultural barriers standing in the way of medical education is a well known is-sue and has been around for a long time in Jordan, in addition to other East Mediterra-nean Region NMO’s.Cultural barriers have greatly influenced both

the medical teaching process and people seeking health care services, in a negative way. From this point on I will be specifically talking about Jordan. In our daily life we (as students) are faced

with many obstacles that affect our learning experience passively. Some patients refuse to cooperate with the students completely, an-swer their questions, or even allow them to perform physical examination. On the other hand some students avoid asking questions because they might face rejection due to cul-tural reasons.

Access to health care and seeking it has been greatly affected negatively, by cultural issues. This can be in certain fields more than others: For example, some female prefer not to seek medical advice when having breast related is-sues; even in some males, who wouldn’t seek medical advice if faced with genitalia prob-lems, because it’s simply not right. Further I would like to elaborate about how the use of homemade remedies or herbs or other types of healing powers in a Jordanian household can be a substitute for medical advice.These two very important issues are of ma-

jor concern and should not be left untreated. They affect the Medical Education and the general health of the population.Medical Education can target those two is-

sues; Medical students can be involved in

workshops aiming to teach the students how to overcome those cultural barriers and go around them. For example, simulation of patient-student situations and discussing the best ways to deal with them. Projects or cam-paigns can also be held to raise the medical student’s capability of discussing the fields which are affected by the cultural barriers, and discussing the best ways to change the minds of those with such thinking.I believe that cultural barriers are of great im-

portance and can affect medical education, not only in Jordan, but everywhere in every country, yet with variation amongst them. Fur-thermore, dealing with this issue is essential to raising the medical education standards. Never the less, I would like to emphasize on

the importance of culture as an integral part of each community, although cultural barri-

ers have a negative influence, yet they are unique, and must not be attacked nor thought of as something to extinguish, but more or less try to go around.

BrEAkiNg CulTurAl BArriErS iN MEDiCAl EDuCATiON

Cultural barriers have greatly influ-enced both the medical teaching process and people seeking health care services, in a negative way

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INTErNaTIONal MEdICal Edu-CaTION daYS (IMEd)

Luisa Georgiana Bâcă, and Elena Aura Mazâlu ”Carol Davila” University of Medi-cine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania

Medical Education Days’ project was born from the desire to bring medical students to-gether in a real community atmosphere, to challenge them to step out from the comfort zone of a traditional learning method and, through missionaries (NOME’s, medical edu-cation researchers and the international com-munity) to gain information about and access to the best medical education experiences from around the world.The project was initiated in Romania in 2008

and is hoping now to become an official IFM-SA transnational project. for 2 weeks during spring semester students’ organizations from all Medical Schools across the country we organize simultaneously a bunch of medical education activities. Nationally, MED (abbre-viated ZEM in Romanian) is organized annu-ally and simultaneously in all medical univer-sities during the first two weeks of May and it follows a simple clear structure:

The national coordinating board of the project defines a set of 14 to 20 common activities that could be organized during the two weeks of Medical Education Days

Then, each MED local organizing committee (OC) selects to organize exactly those activi-ties that are according to the needs of the stu-dent body from that specific universityThe rule is that each OC has to organize a

minimum of 5 activities out of the nationally proposed list of 14-20 activities in order to get

the name “Medical Education Days” for the lo-cal project.Example of activities reunited under the

MED umbrella:Research Laboratories’ Fair, Post Gradu-

ation Orientation Conference: we invite young & experienced doctors to tell us about their experience in the medical specialty they’ve chosen, with pro-s’ and co-’s ,etc),Dr. House - Algorithms of clinical diagno-

sis: one of the most dynamic and ME based activity, where students come together with a really cool professor/doctor and follow up logi-cally the steps of differential diagnosis - at the end, out of those who establish the right di-agnosis the most active students receive the Dr. House prize, i.e. some of the best medical books available or surgical instruments, BLS and Advanced Life Support Training, Home-opathy, Acupuncture, Medical Massage train-ing & Traditional medicine classes (classes which are not available in our universities dur-

ing the year), MedChallenge: a contest for freshmen’s

meant to combine the newest principles of medical education with theoretic knowledge in fields like anatomy, biochemistry etc and to give students an efficient and fun alternative to some classes or chapters that might seem too boring to study in the traditional way.

The aim of the project is structured in 3 directions:1) to promote medical education and advanc-

es in this field.

The project was initiated in Roma-nia in 2008 and is hoping now to become an official IFMSA transna-tional project

19www.ifmsa.org


2) to build stronger local, national and now international medical students’ communities. We believe that synchronizing all our efforts and bringing up useful and fun activities for our academic community is a successful way of reaching our goals.3) to raise awareness to the deans, rectors

and the decision making people in Education and Health Ministries about things that need to and how they can be changed or improved in our education; to show on national and in-ternational media to our future patients that we are strongly concerned about our medical education.As outcomes of each successful MED-iMED

edition, we would like the participants to be able to identify the difference between differ-ent methods of learning and get closer to the newest learning strategies in learning medi-cine in a fun and interactive student-oriented

way and to be the promoters of a teaching methods shift among the young professors/teachers from our universities, by getting them involved in this project. We also expect to prove to our universities

that basic surgery skills trainings and Basic Life Support trainings for example are worth to be introduced in the curricula and introduce it, both for preparing the students and also for helping the patients by providing well profes-sionally- rounded future doctors. We hope as many of you as possible will join

this international initiative! IFMSA, lets’ all come together and make the medical educa-tion students’ voice as strong as it can get!

20



OPEN EDuCATiONAl rESOurCES: ENABliNg uNivErSAl EDuCATiON

The role of distance education is changing. Traditionally distance education was limited in the number of people served because of pro-duction, reproduction, distribution, and com-munication costs. In the past, schools spent resources to produce a course, and then spent additional resources to reproduce the course, and send it to students. While it still costs a university time and money to produce a course, technology has made reproduction and distribution costs almost non-existent. A course can be sent electronically, or placed online, and any number of students can ac-cess the material. This marked decrease in costs has significant implications and allows distance educators to play an important role in the fulfillment of the promise of the right to universal education. At relatively little ad-ditional cost, universities can make their con-tent available to millions. This content has the potential to substantially improve the quality of life of learners around the world.Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Hu-

man Rights declares that everyone has the right to education, and that “technical and professional education shall be made gen-erally available (United Nations, 1948).” The movement to make this happen has already

begun. Open Course Wares are online open access collections of educational materials used in courses at universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Open University, Johns Hopkins, Kyoto University, Notre Dame, and Korea Universi-

ty. Currently, over 2,500 open access courses are freely available from over 200 universities worldwide. And additional higher education institutions are launching Open Course Ware-style projects regularly.New distance education technologies, legal

practices, and philosophies, such as Open Course Wares, act as enablers to achieving the universal right to education. The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement is a technology- empowered effort to create and share educational content on a global level. This paper will explore these kinds of endeav-ors, and how they can move distance educa-tion’s role from one of classroom alternative to one of social transformer.The purpose of the Open Educational Re-

sources movement is to provide open access to high quality digital educational materials. There is broad participation by universities, private organizations, and others. Projects include the Internet Archive, Project Guten-berg, Wikipedia, Creative Commons, Sun Mi-crosystems Global Education Learning Com-munity and, as is the focus of this article, the Open Course Ware Consortium. The list of participating organizations grows every year as the principles of openness spread.

There is growing momentum among higher education institutions to participate in this “open” movement. As of November 2007, over 160 higher education institutions and af-filiated organizations who have committed to begin an OCW website and openly share 10

Ahmed Mohamed Ezz ,Tanta University,Egypt

Open Course Wares are online open access collections of educational materials used in courses at universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Open University, Johns Hopkins, Kyoto University, Notre Dame, and Korea University.

21www.ifmsa.org


courses. The 10 course commitment is a re-quirement to be able to join the Open Course Ware Consortium, an organization estab-lished to assist the OCW movement. Current-ly, there are over 100 member institutions and associated organizations around the world. There are currently 28 universities with live sites (OCW Consortium, 2007). On Novem-ber 28, 2007, the MIT community celebrated a major milestone for Open Course Ware. This event “marked the publication of core teach-ing materials including syllabus, lecture notes, assignments and exams from virtually all MIT courses, 1,800 in total. The site includes vol-untary contributions from 90% of faculty (MIT, 2007a).”Other schools’ open educational resource

initiatives are seeing a large amount of traffic. The Open University of the United Kingdom’s “Open Content Initiative” has been online for just over a year and has had over one million visitors come to their site.Open Course Ware reaches more learn-

ers. Utah State University’s has a number of courses on biological irrigation engineer-ing with detailed specifications regarding the design and construction of irrigation systems. These materials can be accessed by rural farmers in Azerbaijan looking for a better way to get water to their crops. The Open Univer-sity of the Netherlands has shared a course on computer science designed for self-paced learning that can be used by a self-taught net-work administrator in Malaysia. Courses from Notre Dame’s Peace Studies department can be easily accessed by university faculty and students in Brazil. Rogelio Morales of Vene-

zuela said, “This has allowed a lot of people to access this information who might otherwise have been unable to do so. OCW has enor-mous potential for our country”.

Benefits and ChallengesThere are several reasons a school, busi-

ness, or individual would license their mate-rial to be used or re-used in an open manner. Wiley (2006) describes one such reason:We believe that all human beings are en-

dowed with a capacity to learn, improve, and progress. Educational opportunity is the mechanism by which we fulfill that capacity. Therefore, free and open access to education-al opportunity is a basic human right. When educational materials can be electronically copied and transferred around the world at almost no cost, we have a greater ethical obli-gation than ever before to increase the reach of opportunity. When people can connect with others nearby or in distant lands at almost no cost to ask questions, give answers, and ex-change ideas, the moral imperative to mean-ingfully enable these opportunities weighs profoundly. We cannot in good conscience al-low this poverty of educational opportunity to continue when educational provisions are so plentiful, and when their duplication and distri-bution costs so little.MIT’s mission statement echoes this senti-

ment. Their goal is “to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st cen-tury”. If educational materials can bring peo-ple out of poverty, and information can now be copied and shared with greater ease, there is a moral obligation to do so. Information should be shared, because it is the right thing to do.

Open Course Wares are online open access collections of educational materials used in courses at universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Open University, Johns Hopkins, Kyoto University, Notre Dame, and Korea University.

22



First you are a medical student. Then if you start asking yourself the right questions you become a SCOMEdian at heart. Because you realize your education is not perfect and you can do more for yourself and for others then your university does by itself. You are the natural selection mechanism in medical edu-cation. Doing things for you is good, but what you

can do for others, for your colleagues, for your university, on national and international level has a much greater impact. And in the end it also makes your education better. To do more you just have to want it. Have

you ever wondered how you can get involved on an international level? Well here are your answers:

Share your opinionIt is one opinion. But it is a gift you give to oth-

ers. An honest opinion is priceless. Opinions and ideas are the only things you can share and still have. Unlike a chocolate. There are multiple opportunities to do that. We have sur-veys, we have input forms for various topics most importantly policy statements. You might think your opinion will get lost or somebody else is going to say things any way. It is not true. Your opinion is unique, but in the same time you might think similar to others but no-body will say it, and it will get lost and we will all miss out. You should be the one who sais both pleasant and unpleasant truths. Be the first to say it. Speak up. Both in SCOME and in your own school and education.

Present your activitiesMake them known. You might find support,

a partner for the projects, you may discover new ideas. Do that in the reports, the news-letter, both the monthly one and the GA one, do it in project presentations and fairs, do it in small working groups at GAs and the same in regional meeting. You work is valuable. Be proud of it. There are calls on the groups for all these activities. Don’t miss out!

Participate and contribute to inter-national meetingsThere are 2 general assemblies a year and

each region also has their specific meeting. Try to attend them. Once you are there partici-pate actively and make the best out of them. Not everybody gets to participate so value your oportunity. You are becoming a key per-son, a resource person for your NMO and also for SCOME international. When home try to give back what you learned, and next time you participate in an international meeting make an even greater contribution: facilitate, hold sessions, coordinate, train.

SCOME working groupsThe purpose of the working groups (WGs)

is to deal with tasks important on the interna-tional level, make work more efficient, assure continuity from GAs, as well as create the framework for more students to get involved in the international work. These groups get the work done. Be part of

them.

General SCOME small working groups (G-SWGs)

• Website WG - the goal of the group is to create the structure desired and to gather appropriate materials so that our website is helpful to all SCOMEdians

• NOME handover manual WG - formed of present and former NOMEs that are cre-ating a template with common handover information that can easily be particular-ized by each NOME for their handover in the future

• LOME manual WG - similar to previous one, the goal is to create a template that can be used in NMOs by NOMEs to pro-vide information to LOMEs and support their activities

• SCOME wiki WG - the purpose it make an action plan to revive the wiki

• Monthly newsletter - is responsible of the beautiful compilation of event that ap-pears everymoth on the groups instead of a long list of separate emails

• SCOMEDY WG - creates this magazine you are just reading

Thematic SCOME small working groups (T-SWGs)Groups that have as tasks to centralize info

SCOME iNTErNATiONAl

23www.ifmsa.org


Ioana GoganauDirector on Medical [email protected]

Margot WeggemansLiaison Officer on Medical Education [email protected]

Waruguru WanjauRegional Assistant [email protected]

Elias Jesus Ortega ChahlaRegional Assistant [email protected]

Bronwyn JonesRegional Assistant [email protected]

Wajiha Jurdi KheirRegional Assistant [email protected]

Maria Christina PapadopoulouRegional Assistant [email protected]

gather and create reference materials for website and other purposes on the following topics:

• Medical ethics in medical education• Global health in medical education • Mentor-ship and career orientation pro-

grams• Patient safety in medical curriculum• Student feedback • Rational use of prescription drugs in med-

ical education • Inter-professional learning• Student representation on local and na-

tional level• Teaching practical skills workshops/pro-

jects• Teaching communication skills work-

shops/projects• Communication for special situations and

conditions training workshops

Special T-SWGs:• Bologna Process in Medical Education• Perfect curriculum

Being active in SCOME is great. And if you want to work on a larger scale and support SCOME globally think also of joining the inter-national SCOME team. See the current team on this page.In the end it all comes down to being a

SCOMEdian and doing what you believe in. SCOME work is SCOME work on any level, it’s just as inspiring and you can surely be in-volved and make a difference.

www.ifmsa.orgmedical students worldwide

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)

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)

Hong Kong (AMSAHK)Hungary (HuMSIRC)

Iceland (IMSIC)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-Kurdistan/Iraq)

Kuwait (KuMSA)Kyrgyzstan (MSPA Kyrgyzstan)Latvia (LaMSA Latvia)Lebanon (LeMSIC)Libya (LMSA)Lithuania (LiMSA)Luxembourg (ALEM)Malaysia (SMAMMS)

Malta (MMSA)Mexico (IFMSA-Mexico)Mongolia (MMLA)Montenegro (MoMSIC Montenegro)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)Slovakia (SloMSA)Slovenia (SloMSIC)South Africa (SAMSA)Spain (IFMSA-Spain)Sudan (MedSIN-Sudan)Sweden (IFMSA-Sweden)Switzerland (SwiMSA)Taiwan (IFMSA-Taiwan)

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)

Mali (APS)Belgium (BeMSA)

Tanzania (TAMSAz)

Documents

The SCOMEdy March 2012