230 medical students from 20 European countries, including 35 students from Semmelweis University, participated in the autumn assembly of the European Medical Students’ Association (EMSA) organised by the Budapest Medical Students’ Association (BMSA).

The lectures were centered around the topic of antimicrobial resistance and Dr. Marc Sprenger, Director of the Antimicrobial Secretariat of the World Health Organisation (WHO) was also among the speakers of the event.

“Apart from antimicrobial resistance, other subjects relevant in several European regions were also covered during the event, such as vaccination, sustainable developmental objectives, similarities and differences between the syllabi of the region’s universities.”, said Orsolya Süli, Vice-President of Foreign Affair of BMSA.

Besides the plenary sessions workshops and trainings offered more interactive participation for the students on topics such as conflict- and stress management, guidelines for writing CVs and scientific articles.

The event was coordinated by BMSA and the organisers were students of the Faculty of Medicine (Zsanett Gunzinám, József Hajnes, Nóra Kerkovits, Lilla Viola Elbert, Orsolya Süli). Preparations for the event took nearly a year and 26 Semmelweis students worked on the seamless execution of the event.

“It is the first time that such a large-scale conference for international medical students is held in Hungary. We applied for the right to host the event in order to strengthen our international presence and to give an opportunity for Hungarian students to attend an international event, thus helping to create a new generation of physicians with a more open-minded and socially sensitive approach.”, Orsolya Süli said.

EMSA is the most important association of European medical students, which has been the main representative body of more than a hundred universities from 29 countries for 26 years. The Association is present at the most important meetings of European health care and is the only student organisation involved in the work of the working groups of the European Council, such as that of the eHealth Stakeholder Group. EMSA has permanent trainee positions at the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME) in Brussels and at WHO.

Eszter Keresztes
Photo: Kolibri Pictures
Translation: Ágnes Raubinek