IFMSA is a non-governmental organization representing associations of medical students from around the world (representing 95 countries across six continents). Currently it has more than a million members worldwide.
IFMSA general assembly will be a perfect medium for medical students to make new connections and to build new social networks that would benefits each other, to exchange information, to promote your institution, and to have the opportunity to learn from student leaders from around the world.

August Meeting is going to be held in Mumbai, that will surely give you a once in a lifetime experience.

The event will also feature the first-ever pre-GA workshop to be offered by the newly-created IFMSA Global Health Equity Initiative:
Theme:
Universal Health Care – The First Step to Global Health Equity

India is a perfect place to sit together and discuss about universal health care, as the country now experiences a gradual transition towards provision of easily accessible and affordable health care to all Indians by 2022. A national health-insurance scheme geared towards increasing access for the poor started rolling in April 2008, and so far it has enabled 100 million to have cashless, paperless, portable access to inpatient health care provided by more than 8,000 public and private hospitals across the country.

During this workshop, around 30 participants will sit together to learn about the fundamentals of health systems, the basis as well as the pathways to universal health care, its connection with the social determinants approach to health, and how can this movement be pushed forward by medical students. Participants will give special attention to the Indian example while they also bring their knowledge and experience of their respective countries’ struggles towards health for all.
The workshop will be co-facilitated by Dr. Renzo Guinto from AMSA-Philippines and Altagracia Mares de Leon from IFMSA-Mexico. See attached pdf for more information about the workshop.
The deadline for application is June 15, 2012 at 23:59 GMT.

Please fill out the pre-GA common application form here.

For more info, please have a visit to this link:
registration.ifmsa.org/am12info

For those who are interested to go,
you can write to Vpi@smmams.org 

[Nomination Guidelines]  [Executive Board Nomination]

[Portfolio Holders Nomination]

Message from SMMAMS President

Message from SMMAMS President Elect

Important Note: Please kindly read the Nomination Guidelines carefully before you begin the nomination process. If you have further questions on the nomination and election, or problems downloading the files above, please do not hesitate to contact us at agm4smmams@gmail.com

The position of President, Vice President of Internal Affairs, Vice President of External Affairs, Honorary Secretary and Honorary Treasurer shall collectively be known as the Executive Board, together with the Society’s Advisor. The Team of Officials shall be elected during the annual Malaysian International Medical Students Conference (MIMSC), and voting shall be done by the head of delegations of each institution and the current SMMAMS executive committee members. The position of President shall not be open to nomination, but shall only be contested between the two current Vice Presidents.

The Election will be held during the SMMAMS Committee Meeting with the Head of Delegates. [**Head of Delegates MUST be elected among the conference delegates, and preferably if he/she is a member of your school's students' association/ council, so that he/she can represent the standpoint of your institution. SMMAMS Committee(s) who is/are present is/are not the Head of Delegates]

For the institutions who yet to have elected their head of delegates, please kindly do it fast and let us know who is the head of delegates, so that the election committee proceed with the arrangements.

Want to enroll or got questions?  Email jeffrey.weil@kaplan.com.

March Discounts for Interrnational Students Include:

• 25% off Kaplan’s US based 5-day CS Course
• 25% off Kaplan’s Online Prep programs for Step 1, Step 2 and Step 3
• 25% off Kaplan’s Classroom Anywhere course for Step 1, 2 and 3
• 20% off Kaplan’s US based courses for Step 1, 2 and 3
• 10% off Kaplan’s Qbank, until your test access** for only $179 with discount!

To enroll in a Kaplan course and SAVE, place a refundable $500 deposit* by March 30^th, pay your balance and start anytime in the next 12 months.

Download a Free Brochure or view the attachments

High Yield & Qbank: www.formstack.com/forms/?1170606-CnwFUkStqV

Online Programs: www.formstack.com/forms/?1132911-CnwFUkStqV

US Based Programs: www.formstack.com/forms/?1132961-CnwFUkStqV 

Download a March Pricing Sheet: www.formstack.com/forms/?1194143-CnwFUkStqV

This event is entitled ”Getting the Most Out of Pharmacology for School and the USMLE” and will be conducted by Dr. Steven Harris, one of Kaplan’s highest rated faculty members.  This event is excellent and will help students as we’ll review important Pharmacology concepts and help students understand the relationship between what is taught in school and how that information is tested on the USMLE.

Dr. Harris is uniquely qualified to teach this session as he is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the Pikeville College School of Osteopathic Medicine (PCSOM) and has also been teaching USMLE medical board review for over 10 years and has taught over 120 review classes.

Event Details:

Date: Tuesday, April, 3rd

Time: 8.00 PM (Malaysia) / 12:00 (Noon) GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)

Topic: “Getting the Most Out of Pharmacology for School and the USMLE”

Description: Listen as Dr. Steven Harris gives valuable tips that will help you succeed in your Pharmacology classes and then show you how this content appears on the USMLE.

Registration Link: liveonline.kaptest.com/e38484363/event/registration.html

(registration should be completed at least 24 hours in advance).

INVITATION TO THE CONTINUOUS MEDICAL EDUCATION OF MEDICAL STUDENTS 2012.

On behalf of Putra Medical Club and Society of Malaysian Medical Association-Medical Students (SMMAMS), we would like to extend the invitation to your university to grace us with your presence in the Continuous Medical Education of Medical Students 2012.

The details of the events are as follow:

Theme : Journey through Pediatrics

Date : 18^th February 2012 (Saturday)

Time : 8.00 am till 5.00 pm

Venue : Main Lecture Hall, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, UPM.

Each university is welcome to send 15 participants. We would feel privileged to host you for this event and hope to hear from you by 15th February 2012. Please do impart to us the details of the participants on the form attached and send via email.

Please notify us if you are interested in sending more than 15 participants as this would allow us to accommodate you accordingly. Do feel free to contact us if there is any doubt pertaining to the event.

Lastly, we look forward to seeing you in this event. We extend our gratitude in advance for your cooperation and support.

Yours sincerely,

JAYANTHI SELVAM

(Director of CME 2012)

Avicenna Inter-medical Varsity Debate and Sports is back!
Hey everyone! As mentioned above, there will be an intervarsity debate and sports championship only for medical students. Details as provided by the organising party (University of Malaya) is as below:

Date: 25th February 2012 ( Saturday )
Time: 7am – 7pm
Venue: 6th Residential College (Kolej Kediaman Ibnu Sina), University of Malaya

1. Debate
- 3 participants per team, maximum 2 teams per university/college
- Registration fee: RM60 per team

2. Netball
- 10 participants per team, maximum 2 teams per university/college
- Registration fee: RM 200 per team.
- Category: female only

3. Futsal
- 8 participants per team, maximum 2 teams per university/college,
- Registration fee: RM 160 per team.
- Category: male only

Forms and official letter have been sent to respective university’s dean office and Student Representative Council. It can also be obtained from our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/223380061079549/ . Do join our Facebook group for more details and updates! Invite your friends to join the fun too!

Closing date for registration: 6 February 2012 (Friday). So be fast!

All participation forms MUST be faxed to 03-79567306 directed to NG JIUN HOONG before 6th of February 2012. You can also email your completed participation form to avicenna.debate.sports2012@groups.facebook.com or touch.the.sky93@gmail.com.

Any inquiries, please contact Ng Jiun Hong (Project Director) 0123883182.

Poster at: www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150568116439805&set=a.138001609804.111038.755189804&type=1&theater

WITH reference to “MMC to be corporatised” on the front page of The Sun Daily (Jan 25), as chairman of the Society of Medical Students, MMA and on behalf of Malaysian medical students, I welcome the news and hope that an amendment to the Medical Act 1971 to corporatise the Malaysian Medical Council will be passed. As the ones who will be working in the midst of the resultant outcome of policy decisions today, we hope the amendment will result in a better professional body that monitors the quality of healthcare and medical education as independently as possible from individual interest or government bureaucracy. In moving towards developed nation status, the corporatisation will hopefully result in a body as effective in maintaining standards of healthcare as those in first world countries such as the General Medical Council of the UK.

We also welcome the news from Health Ministry director-general Datuk Seri Hasan Abdul Rahman that the list of recognised universities is to be shortened and reviewed more frequently to maintain standards. We hope that once the amendment is passed, issues similar to this that involve the accreditation of medical schools will be decided more independently. Although the issue of the houseman glut has quietened down, there is always the issue of a glut in medical officers to look into. With the increasing number of housemen and limited spaces for postgraduate study to become a specialist, this will be an issue that we as medical students today will face in the future. There are currently 35 medical institutions producing undergraduates, but only three produce postgraduates – UKM, UM and USM. We hope the MMC will look into this issue.

As a student, my ideas might be naïve, but may I suggest that the government with the support of the MMC start encouraging the private sector to be involved in postgraduate medical education. As the Economic Transformation Programme announced by the prime minister places the private sector in a vital role to transform the economy, medical education should follow suit. The private sector has more than enough resources in terms of the numerous private hospitals and doctors that far outnumber those in public service. In terms of teachability of doctors, as a student in one of the top public universities in Malaysia, I have seen very talented lecturers going out to private practice for better pay in order to support their families. The teaching spirit is still in their hearts, but as per the Malay saying “jangan monyet di hutan disusukan, anak di rumah mati kelaparan”, they would of course prioritise supporting their families over teaching. Not given the chance to teach, that spirit might slowly die away, which would be a waste of the country’s talent. I am sure that given the chance, many doctors in the private sector would be willing to teach postgraduate students.

I believe successful people succeed because they do what interests them and what they are passionate about. With the limited number of spaces to pursue medical specialties, many would have to choose a specialty not because they are interested in it, but because it is the only one available. If the private sector can fill this increasing demand, better productivity in terms of healthcare awaits the nation as doctors give their all and produce better research in areas that interest them. Adam Smith changed the economy by recognising the benefits of specialisation of labour in the production process. The same goes for healthcare.

In the end, as in many first world countries, healthcare, research and education would have to go hand in hand – as is practised by world class private medical institutions like John Hopkins and Mayo Clinic in the US. To reach developed nation status, both the private and public sectors must play their part in nation building.

As medical students, we are unable to be directly involved in policy making, but we hope our views are taken into consideration and our voices of concern heard. We wish the best for the future of our healthcare and medical education, so that one day when we become a part of the system, we can proudly tell the world “I am a Malaysian doctor”.

Lutfi Fadil Lokman

Chairman

Society of Medical Students, MMA