NCM 2013 EditionEUROMEDS

2013

"Young doctors plaY a keY role in promoting

prudent use of antibiotics..."

dominique monnet, ecdc

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Table of ContentsImpressum................................................................................................................................................ 4

Opening word.......................................................................................................................................... 5

Living in public (health)

Promoting prudent antibiotic use in Europe (Dominique Monnet, ECDC)....................................... 6

How Hedgy the Hedgehog conquered Croatian Kindergartens! (Sven Pal, EMSA Europe)............ 9

A great heroic tale, or is it? Werner Forssmann (Borislav Manev, EMSA Europe) .......................... 14

Ending Ecocide in Europe (Andrew Miller, End Ecocide in Europe) ................................................ 16

My doctor said it

Urban Gardening and Open Source (Joanna Borowska, EMSA Warsaw) ....................................... 20

Nutrition. Myths & Facts (Joanna Borowska, EMSA Warsaw) .......................................................... 24

From the day we are born (Olga Rostkowska, EMSA Europe)............................................................ 28

Planet EMSA

Internships and Opportunities for EMSAi (Sofia Ribeiro, EMSA Europe)........................................ 32

How to… policy making… and why? (Jacob Hildebrand, EMSA Europe)....................................... 36

Memories of an EMSA Alumni (Samuel Ribeiro, Portugal)................................................................. 38

For children, big and small

“My triceratops has broken his horn” (Nikos Korakas and Colleagues, HelMSIC Thessaloniki).... 40

Amsterdam’s Merry New Year (Chloé ten Broeke, EMSA-VUMC Amsterdam)............................... 44

The Elderly Brothers (Daria Gheorghe, EMSA Bucharest)................................................................... 47

List of Authors........................................................................................................................................ 50

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Impressum

Editor-in-ChiefEuroMeds 2013 NCMOlga Rostkowska

Editorial Board of EuroMeds 2013Olga Rostkowska Sven Pal

Articles SectionDominique MonnetSven PalBorislav ManevAndrew MillerJoanna BorowskaOlga RostkowskaSofia RibeiroJacob HildebrandSamuel RibeiroNikos KorakasMelina KourklidouChristina EustathiadouIpek ChatzisouleimanChrysa KorakaAntonia MpirniouDafni PapanikolaouKassandra XanthopoulouChloé ten BroekeDaria Gheorghe

Proof-Readers’ SectionDaria GheorgheKhalid MasoudVasil ToskovIbukun AdepojuFelicity Jones

EuroMeds 2013 was successfully published on-line and printed thanks to the special financial support received from the Youth in Action 4.1. EACEA Grant. 

Olga RostkowskaPermanent Offier in BrusselsEMSA Europe 2012/2013rostkowska.o@gmail.com

Sven PalFundraising OfficerEMSA Europe 2012/2013pal.sven@gmail.com

Design (inc. Cover Design)Sven Pal

General Layout:Sven Pal

PublisherEMSA Europe EMSA European Board 2012/2013

Print:Printex d.o.o, Croatia

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Opening word

EuroMeds 2013 was successfully published on-line and printed thanks to the special financial support received from the Youth in Action 4.1. EACEA Grant. 

Olga RostkowskaPermanent Offier in BrusselsEMSA Europe 2012/2013rostkowska.o@gmail.com

Sven PalFundraising OfficerEMSA Europe 2012/2013pal.sven@gmail.com

Welcome on the first (well, fifth) page of this year’s release of the EMSA Europe magazine – EuroMeds. On the 10th of March the first draft of the first article was sent over to us. Turn the page to see what happened afterwards…

The core of this release is dedicated to the challenges posed by antimicrobial resistance result-ing from inappropriate use of antibiotics. In the early days of our practice as health-care pro-fessionals we might already have stumbled across alarming examples of prescribing antimicro-bial agents in a wrong dose, for an incorrect period of time or due to a diagnosis which misses the target. This causes bacteria to start tolerating the available pharmaceutical weapons and stimulates them to develop strains which can only be tackled by very complex medical meas-ures (e.g. methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA). Bearing all this in mind and taking precautions to stop it, EMSA through EuroMeds joins the voice of a friendly hedgehog from the ECDC campaign towards prudent use of drugs: Cold? Flu? Take care, not antibiotics!

What else did we prepare for you? There are tips on how to treat a broken rhino horn in a TBH and information on where in Brussels EMSA offers you internships. You will find out who placed the first catheter into a heart (being a patient and an operator at the same time) and how to plant tomatoes in a city jungle. Last but not least, we will have a look at how to prepare New Year surprises for children in the Netherlands and why on Earth do we have a policy-making officer in EMSA?!

All in all, we don’t want to anticipate how far your creative and technical support can carry us when enhancing the EMSA magazine for its next edition. One thing is sure - the work of issu-ing EuroMeds regularly, in print, hopping swiftly towards increasing levels of professionalism’is just at its very beginning.

Olga Rostkowska,Editor-in-Chief

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Promoting prudent antibiotic use in Europeby Dominique Monnet

ECDC Contribution to EMSA’s journal EuroMed Promoting prudent antibi-otic use in Europe: European Antibiotic Awareness Day

Antimicrobial resistance, or the ability of microorganisms to withstand treat-ment with medicines to which they were once susceptible, is a multifaceted public health problem. Infections with multi-drug-resistant bacteria, i.e. resistant to multiple antibiotics, are increasingly be-ing responsible for infections in European patients that therefore require treatment with last line antibiotics. The societal and

financial costs of treating multidrug-re-sistant infections place a significant hu-man and economic burden on society, as individuals infected with multidrug-re-sistant bacteria are more likely to remain in the hospital for a longer period of time and to have a poor prognosis.

Multidrug-resistant bacteria are a threat to patient safety, in Europe and globally. The number of options for the treatment of infected patients is limited and there are only few new antibiotics currently under development. This means that pre-vention and control of these infections

“Young doctors have a key role to play in promoting and practicing prudent use of antibiotics, in general practice and in hospitals.”

Living in public (health)

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relies on prudent use of existing antibi-otics and on infection control measures such as hand hygiene, screening and iso-lation of positive patients. European Antibiotic Awareness Day (EAAD) is a European public health ini-tiative coordinated by the European Cen-tre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Each year on 18 November, it provides an opportunity to raise aware-ness about the threat to public health posed by antimicrobial-resistant bacteria and to communicate about the impor-tance of prudent use of antibiotics. The establishment of EAAD follows on the heels of successful national public aware-ness campaigns on appropriate antibiotic use in European countries, in particular in Belgium and France.

EAAD provides a focus for national cam-paigns, for the engagement of key stake-holders and for communication capacity development. The involvement of Euro-pean countries has grown since the first EAAD in 2008 to which 32 European countries participated. In 2012, with the support of WHO/Europe, 43 European countries organised activities to mark EAAD. Importantly, EAAD has been able to secure broad political support at EU-level and in the countries through engagement of the EU institutions and partners at European and national level.EAAD also provides support to Euro-pean countries by developing evidence-based key messages and materials for dif-ferent target audiences.

In the initial phase (2008–2010), EAAD developed messages and materials for the general public and for medical doc-tors (primary care prescribers and hospi-tal prescribers). Working together with the European Commission and focal points in each country, as well as profes-sional societies and other experts in the field, ECDC developed communication toolkits which included template cam-paign materials for adaptation at national level, as well as guidance documents for the implementation of campaigns. These materials are available and translated in all European Union official languages from the EAAD website (http://antibi-otic.ecdc.europa.eu).

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In 2012, ECDC, in cooperation with the European Commission, promoted the ‘One Health’ message that “everyone is responsible” for the prudent use of anti-biotics: patients, parents, doctors, phar-macists, farmers, veterinarians, etc. ECDC is actively preparing EAAD 2013 and looking at ways to address the is-sue of self-medication with antibiotics. Despite being illegal, over-the-counter dispensation of antibiotics without a medical prescription still occurs in some European Union Member States and re-sult in self-medication. Moreover, left-over antibiotics from previous prescrip-tions and dispensations may be available at home and may be used by patients for self-medication.

Young doctors have a key role to play in promoting and practicing prudent use of antibiotics, in general practice and in hospitals. • byensuringthatantibiot-ics are only prescribed when indicated, that the right antibiotic is chosen and that it is administered with the correct dosage and duration of treatment; • by correctly informingpatients about when and how to take the prescribed antibiotic, and stressing that compliance with treatment as prescribed is important; • by informing about therisks of self-medicating with antibiotics and about the fact that antibiotics do not work for viral infections, especially im-portant during the cold and flu season.

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His name translated into English would be literally 'Hedgy the Hedghog' but all the children in Croatia know him as Ješko Ježić. Ješko is a bit modified charac-ter from ECDC's worldwide campaign infighting antibiotic resistance. It grew on me couple of years ago, in my first years of Medical school in Rijeka.

Prof. dr sc. Vera Vlahović Palčevski is one of our clinical pharmacology profes-sors. She invited me to join a public edu-cative campaign in Rijeka to raise aware-ness of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. We would stand on the main street in the city, for every weekend in February, and together with Branka Popović MD, Nives

Radošević MD, student volunteers we would educate people (mostly elderly) about the responsible use of antibiotics and the right indications to use them. We have been advising people and distribut-ing flyers on how to prevent common cold and give them fruit, tee bags and soaps all in the aim to make them understand the ways of spreading and preventing the common cold and flu. Right before the start of the campaign activities the fol-lowing year, mid January, I thought, why not aiming primarily children? If we in-still the teach them ways of fighting the common cold or flu while they are still young it will surely give us positive re-sults in the near future. We all remember

by Sven Pal

Picture 1. A page from the book

How Hedgy the Hedgehog conquered Croatian Kindergartens!

ECDC support campaign in Croatia - a different approach

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the principles we learned as children and follow them both consciously or subcon-sciously. Then an idea came to my mind, and I decided to write a book for children. Since I'm a medical student, not a peda-gogue, I asked my friend Marta Viduka to help me. Marta has been engaged for a couple of years now in a project called „Tete pričalice“ (Talking Aunties), where volunteers visit hospitals, especially chil-dren oncology departments, and tell bed time stories to sick children. The stzries being told are being chosen carefully for every child, depending on the age, gen-der and severity of illness, and there have been results proving faster recovery in children who were the part of that par-

ticular project. Marta helped me with the text, adopting it for children, so I had to find a designer. I remembered a friend of mine who had a two year old child, so I thought who is better for this then Maja Benčić? She knows how to draw for chil-dren, since she has one at home. With a very few corrections from my side, she illustrated our text in a couple of weeks. From the idea to realization it was less then four weeks. Our campaign started again, and we had something new to of-fer, a different perspective to preventive actions and a new asset. A 20-page chil-dren book: „Kako je Ješko pobijedio pre-hladu“ („How Hedgy the Hedghog beat the cold?“) was created.

Picture 2. A scene from the theater

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Fundraising for the book, at least initially wasn't that hard. The Student council of the Unversity in Rijeka recognized the project as a valuable preventive method, so together with the School of medicine and money from the campaign we print-ed the first version of the children book. After those couple of weekends the chil-dren book was literally wiped. Children loved it. Even the mayor of Rijeka came to give us his support so the PR around the project was big.

Since my mother is in the Croatian In-tersectoral Coordination Mechanism for Antibiotic Resistance Control (ISKRA), the children book got really fast to the governmental institutions. ISKRA coor-dinates national activities in the field of the antibiotic consumption and antibiot-ic resistance surveillance and education on prudent use of antibiotics which in-cludes guidelines for medical profession-als but also nation wide public campaign since 2008. With a lot of help, not just

Picture 3. Little doctors with the poster

Picture 4. Children drawings after the theater

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from prof. Vera Vlahović-Palčevski, but also from the ISKRA president, prof. Ar-jana Tambić Andrašević and dr. Marina Payerl-Pal, a member of ISKRA, the chil-dren book got to the Ministry of Health and they decided to distribute it to all the kindergartens in Croatia. Around 3000 copies were printed and sent to the kindergartens nation wide. The children books were delivered through September and October 2012, and in many parts of Croatia education of kindergarten teach-ers was carried out.

When you are coming from a little place, there are a lot of different work branches you are familiar with and you get to know and become friends with a few people in each branch.Two of my close friends spent their whole life in a theater, as ac-tors, directors and everything needed. Davor is also directing theater shows

in which actors are mainly high school students. When I showed Davor and Je-lena (she's a school teacher) the childrens book, they really liked it, so I asked them to help me make a theater show for chil-dren based on the book. In a couple of weeks they sent me a few different songs for the show, and this year in February the show had it's premiere. Children came from the main kindergartens and surrounding children schools, so more then 600 children saw the premiere only. Both the children, their teachers, parents and critics loved the show. After the show,children went to their kindergartens, and teachers organized, mainly thankfully to Snješka Vugrinec (btw. my kindergarten teacher), a workshop on the antibiotics and the Ješko book. The results of the workshop included a lot of drawings that children made. An importantresult was also that children remembered and im-

Picture 5. Medical students as Hedghogs for the carnival in Rijeka

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plemented messages both from the chil-dren book and the theater show in their everyday life.

This year's campaign was expanded from Rijeka to all the biggest cities in Croa-tia (Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Osijek), and through the coordination from both professors and students the campaign was carried out. On the opening of the campaign in Zagreb (the capital of Croa-tia), the Minister of Health came together with the heads of Croatian leading Health institutions, which resulted in a bigresponse both from the media and the public. The campaign was very produc-tive and almost a half of the population of Croatia was affected by it. Both by the campaign in the cities and the media.

Last but not least, over 150 students from Rijeka Medical School participated in the carnival in Rijeka (second biggest after Venice carnival) all dressed up as Hedgehogs which showed the impact of the campaign, but also the support that students are willing to give. Once again the general public noticed campaign and medical students gave their contribution to raise the awareness of bacterialresistance to antibiotics.

On the GA in Istanbul, a workshop was held, where the idea for the new children book regarding hand washing was held, and thanks to the participants of the workshop new ideas were born and hand washing children book is on it's way.As a conclusion, I would like to thank all

of the people that gave their support to the campaign both physically, mentally and with their own ideas. We are always open for cooperation and sharing our experiences in this campaign. I can just hope that in every country there is such agood communication between the stu-dents, professors and governmental in-stitutions and that this example will help you organize your own campaigns and push your ideas. We are in a desperateneed to reach people and make them be-come aware of threats that are not miles away, but just around the corner.

P.S. Ješko is being translated in English and German and we would like to trans-late it in your language as well!

If you're willing to help, please contact me: pal.sven@gmail.com

You can see the children's book (for now only in Croatian) at: http://www.fritula.hr/radovi/jesko/

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A great heroic tale, or is it? Werner Forssmann by Borislav Manev

Cardiac catheterization  is the insertion of a catheter into a chamber or vessel of the heart. Even in modern times, it’s still a tricky procedure that requires local anaesthesia. It’s a common proce-dure done by physicians who underwent years and years of training and many pa-tients take this skill for granted.

Now turn the clock back 85 years ago

Werner Forssmann, a 25-year old surgical intern at the time, hypoth-esized that a catheter could be inserted directly into the heart. All his professors and colleagues thought he was insane and refused him permission to perform the procedure on animals, let alone hu-mans!  It turns out he was slightly crazy and in 1929, he ignored the advice of his professors and colleagues, and after trick-ing an OR nurse, he performed the pro-

“All his professors and colleagues thought he was insane and refused him permission to perform the procedure on animals, let alone hu-mans!”

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cedure on himself! Imagine the bravery needed to cut open your own vein, insert a 3 feet long tube inside and poke around until it reaches your heart. And this hap-pened before all the fancy stuff like ultra-sounds and CT scans appeared. He could have nicked a vein and/or artery and died from internal bleeding. He could have in-troduced a massive systemic bacterial in-fection and as a result, die a very painful death. Realizing the importance of his discovery, the scientific community awarded him the Nobel Prize in Physiol-ogy or Medicine in 1956. Dr Forssmann’s contributions lead to the founding of the field of Cardiology.

Werner Theodor Otto Forß-mann  (29 August 1904 – 1 June 1979) was a  German physician  who won the 1956 Nobel Prize in Medicine (which he shared with Andre Cournand and Dick-inson Richards) for developing a proce-dure that allowed cardiac catheterization. In 1929, he put himself under local an-esthetic and inserted a catheter into his own arm. Not knowing when the catheter might pierce a vein, he risked his own life and was fortunately able to pass the cath-eter into his own heart. *He was also a member of the Nazi party from 1932 to 1945. Interpret that as you will.

A great heroic tale, or is it? Werner Forssmann

References:NEJM - Two Hundred Years of Surgery;Wikipedia;

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Ending Ecocide in Europe

“We can stop this today; if one million EU citizens vote for Ending the Ecocide in Europe, the European Commission will have to take action.”

by Andrew Miller

Few people know that the opportunity to improve the health of over 7 billion people lie in their hands. Environmental toxins released through the careless acts of unregulated corporate bodies and in-dustries, continue to harm the health and wellbeing of all the earth’s inhabitants and ecosystems.

We can however stop this today; if one million EU citizens vote for Ending the Ecocide in Europe, the European Com-mission will have to take action. It is time that we hold ourselves accountable for acts such as the gradual destruction of the entire habitat, particularly spectac-ular ones such as the Norwegian fjords and the inspiring Alp glaciers which have been described as “here for 10,000 years, gone tomorrow”. The associated health

issues garnered by the ecocide cannot be overlooked any longer. The destruction of the natural ecological community that is meant to sustain us, is currently also devastating our bodies. This is becoming more obvious by way of a rise in the in-cidence of illnesses caused by the intro-duction of unnatural byproducts into our systems

If you could prevent it, would you? I guess so.

This is precisely what the End Ecocide in Europe movement is aiming to accom-plish.

Following the January 22nd launch of the initiative in the European Parliament co-hosted by three of its members- Keith Taylor, Jo Leinen and Eva Joly, a group of concerned EU citizens are determined to criminalize ecocide which is defined as extensive damage, destruction and loss of ecosystems in a given territory.

By voting electronically to support this initiative, you could help end the envi-ronmental havoc. German EU Parlia-ment member Jo Leinen says the End

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Ecocide movement emphasizes the im-portance of holding the individuals re-sponsibile and accountable for the dam-age done to the ecosystems. This bears a remarkable semblance to initiatives in both the Ecuador and Bolivia, which also strive to give the earth’s ecosystems and creature’s rights similar to those ac-corded to humans. This European Citi-zen’s Initiative which aspires to garner the signatures of one million Europeans is ac-cessible at: www.endecocide.eu.

Other Recent Initiatives In Ecuador, a law announced in 2008 referred to these ecosystems as “Pa-chamama”- the goddess of mother earth as recognized by the indigenous Andean people. The referendum was voted in by two-thirds of Ecuadorians, making Ec-uador the first nation on earth to legislate the rights of nature.

This ruling included a clause that says: “Earth is not to be affected by the mega-

infrastructures and developing projects that are affecting the balance of the eco-systems and the local inhabitant commu-nities”.

Although the ruling was cheered by the indigenous tribes who have seen the dev-astating effect of development on their air, water and land it has become a Stick in the craw of both industries and devel-opers who were indirectly benefitting. Indigenous Bolivian leader Evo Morales throws his best phrase “If we want to safe-guard mankind, then we need to safeguard the planet”

Our health and wellbeing is heavily reli-ant on our caring about the planet. We can nurture an epidemic of disease and illness by turning a blind eye to this, or we can heal our planet and ourselves by promoting a clean environment for all current inhabitants as well as for our fu-ture generations.

Penalties End Ecocide in Europe insists that the penalties proposed for damage to the environment are more than appropri-ate. According to a report by Trucost for the United Nations, the top 3,000 public companies caused $2.15 trillion worth of environmental damage – a figure that is equivalent to one-third the value of esti-mated global ecosystem destruction. Penalties are proposed for: •Whenecocideoccurswithintheterri-tory of EU states•Whencompanieswhicharedirectlyor

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green & unclean factories

indirectly involved have their headquar-ters in the EU •WhenEUcitizensareinvolved•Whenproductsresultingfromactivi-ties causing ecocide are imported into the EU•WhenEUbanksandotherfinancialin-stitutions invest financially into activities causing ecocide, no matter where these activities take place.

This initiative has been inspired by the ef-forts of Polly Higgins, an environmental lawyer and author. In March 2010, Hig-gins spoke to the United Nations asking for Ecocide to be named the 5th Crime against Peace. Her reason was simple- presently, there is no law to task the runaway mega-corporations, irrespon-sible developers or any other entity for

decimating the earth. This means that ecocide is taking place every day and the judiciary has no means of stopping it. She stressed that “Corporate ecocide has now reached a point where we stand on the brink of collapse of our ecosystems, triggering the deaths of many millions in the face of human-aggravated cataclysmic tragedies.”

Criminalizing environmental disrup-tion would not only provide the funds needed for remediation, but would also force corporations to evaluate their prod-ucts in terms of cradle-to-grave, or even cradle-to-cradle production costs. As seen in that light, corporations might re-evaluate the real costs of their more pol-luting products and find cleaner ways to manufacture them or even to stop them altogether.

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Taking ActionUnder the EU rules, one million signa-tures are needed to bring this citizen’s initiative to the attention of the Euro-pean Commission-the requirement be-fore they can consider the proposed leg-islation. Further, if the United Nations makes Ecocide the 5th Crime Against Peace, environmental destruction would become illegal worldwide, and culprits would be convicted under the aegis of the International Criminal Court. This will however still mean that the United States and other countries outside the EU still have to come to this decision themselves through policymakers, appellate litiga-tion and lobbyists.

End Ecocide in Europe is a European Citizens‘ Initiative aimed at crimi-nalising environmental destruction. Harming our earth must become a crime for which individuals and companies can be held accountable. Do you agree? Then vote today for our initiative at www.endecocide.eu When one million EU citizens votes for our proposal, it will be consider for implementation at EU level. Make your voice heard today!

As a final note, I must add that I find it interesting that the Ecocide directive defines inhabitants as “any living species dwelling in a particular place”. It would be nice to finally have all earth’s creatures measured by the same benevolent yard-stick, as well as to ensure a healthier en-vironment for everyone.

Andrew Miller is a passionate member of the End Ecocide movement, an avid blogger, environmental law student and co-founder of the tech startup Scan & Ban (www.ScanandBan.com); a free mobile app developed to empower the public to find out what toxins are in their food and pass legislature to ban those dangerous in-gredients.

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Urban Gardening and Open Source

“I still remember my surprise when I watched a movie on TED about eyewriters built by members of the Graffiti Research Lab. The goal was simple; to build a painting tool for a completely paralyzed friend who was an active graffiti painter before the accident. The impossible became possible.”

by Joanna Borowska

I heard about the so-called window farms two years ago. One of my friends found a video on YouTube (The Win-dowsfarms Project) which tells the story of a woman, Britta Riley, who de-cided to grow herbs and vegetables in the window of her Brooklyn apartment.

Her inspiration came one winter after-noon when she realized how much of our day-to-day functioning is dependent on other people. The very same day, she read an article by Michael Pollan who said that if humanity would be able to grow at least some vegetables and herbs in their own gardens, it would be a huge positive change for the ecosystem and our environment.

Unfortunately, according to the author, people prefer to hand over this respon-sibility to appropriate specialists who they do not engage and which in fact is the cause of the many nutritional prob-lems in the consumer market. This in-spired her to get started on what is now a rapidly growing social action.

Determined and motivated, she set up a mini-farm in her own window based on hydroponic technology (soilless cul-tivation of plants from water media), which was originally implemented by NASA while exploring the possibility of cultivating plants in space. The only thing she had to buy was a suitable seed.

My doctor said it

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From the recycling point of her build-ing, she was able to collect the plastic bottles required to create the technology.

In good faith, Britta dropped this infor-mation for free on the internet and in so doing, connected with a group of New Yorkers who had tremendously posi-tive influence in developing and refin-ing the whole project. They created an online forum which had all the instruc-tions to enable others copy the system. Initially, the system was built "around" where the device was very noisy and would sometimes leak. Despite these facts, they were able to grow herbs and

even tomatoes. In a short time (within 6 months), this idea was being adopted by people from all over the world, and the complicated technology was replaced by simple solutions suggested by the diverse people involved in the project.

And so, a group http://our.window-farms.org/ was created and the project has expanded strongly. About a year ago, while at the Venice Biennale of Ar-chitecture in the Spanish Pavilion, I saw a variant of this concept where crops filled the whole room and not just the window. The whole principle of this community is based on simple rules. You can login on their website to be in-formed and access the global system. In this case, it is the principle of open

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source system- anyone in the world can download the manual for the entire ma-chinery and construct it at home for free! For the less patient enthusiasts there is an option to purchase the equipment along with adequate seedlings. The devices are often bought by schools and this serves as the basic source of income for the project.

It seems a reasonable solution, especial-ly when the price is not prohibitive. The simplest packages are available for $25. Those that are more advanced, with the appropriate fertilizers and free plants in the set are relatively more expensive ($399 is the most expensive option). However, as I wrote earlier, all the tech-nology is available for free, and the com-ponents themselves are not expensive. More than that, if you have trouble, you can log on and join a great support group; there is always someone to help you.

A very interesting aspect of the first login is that it performs an initial "interview" with a potential member. This includes checks: what is his/her knowledge of the technology behind the project? We can

encounter other questions like: prior ex-perience with hydroponic technology? Are you a gardener, an engineer, scientist, or just a food enthusiast? Etc. That's how it works! The project has 18,000 followers.

I really like the comparison addressed as I watched one of the videos: “NASA at the same time as us is trying to learn how to grow food in such a thankless environ-ment as space. We are trying to answer the question of how to grow it in such harsh and difficult conditions of urban space”.

Hydroponic crop systems will soon become one of the major investments in the USA. Instead of the corporate system, the idea is based on what Riley calls the R&D-IY (Research and Do It Yourself). You can use the information contained on the website, but you have to refine the de-vice to suit your specific needs and re-sources. In fact, this structure is more profitable when you are a follower who is supporting and developing the project than just being the inventor. This is an advantage because it does not oblige you to create your own system from scratch.

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The open source idea is a new consumer reality, which is appearing to be a bit of sociological mystery. Sharing knowledge is a new philosophy of our time with the major source/platform being the internet. Today you can download the instruc-tions to build a 3D printer. Components will cost about $3000-4000 and of course one will need a person who will program it. The point however is that such a bril-liant invention can be built by an individ-ual on their own - just the same way you can share something too with the society.  

I still remember my surprise when I watched a movie on TED about eyewriters built by members of the Graffiti Research Lab. The goal was simple; to build a painting tool for a completely paralyzed friend who was an active graffiti painter before the accident. The impossible became possible. His friend invited some ‘nerds’ to his home, and while he did not know anything about the technology he was able to gather the right people to do it. After weeks of hard work, the eyewriter was ready. It turned out to be a simple de-

vice based on rimmed glasses. This device reads eye movements and transfers it to a computer interface. The whole technology is available for free and its components are trivially cheap (all about $50). More than that, this product has been placed in a list of top 10 inventions by the New York Times. The webpage www.eyewriter.org shows all the ins and outs of construction. There are also documentaries which show the whole process involved in the creation of this unit.

Once again, a paralyzed friend could paint using his eye movement.

I do not know how many people use those glasses now, because this kind of open source is hard to find for most people. Here comes the question of our ability to go to google.com and ask the right questions. Is everyone aware that there are some free solutions on the internet? Probably not. So, now that you know, you should consid-er sharing this information. Who knows how many people can benefit from it?

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Nutrition. Myths & Factsby Joanna Borowska

MYTH: Potatoes are fattening.    100 g of potatoes are only 70 kcal! (this is a very small amount of calories for 100g). But they could be fattening when we eat them with sauces, butter, etc. In addition, simply cooked potatoes are easily digest-ible.

MYTH: Crispbread is a diet product.

This type of bread has more calories than the other types. Depending on the man-ufacturer, 100g contain 300-360 kcal, whereas normal bread has 250 kcal/ 100g.

MYTH: Lettuce and spinach are good sources of iron.   These products are rich in iron, but unfortunately it is not easily absorbed (about 2%). For comparison, the iron in meat is digested up to 40%.

MYTH: Cottage cheese contains a lot of calcium.   It contains only 100 mg/100g of calcium. In comparison, yellow cheese contains 10x more. This is because over 70% of the calcium is lost during the production process.    

FACT: Red tea causes weight loss.   It aids digestion and metabolism, which contribute to weight loss.

FACT: Yogurt has a protective function during antibiotic therapy.

But only if we drink at least 1 liter per day.

FACT: Not all oils are suitable for the frying pan.   We can pour into the pan only rapeseed and olive oil.

FACT: Breakfast cereals contain a lot of sodium and sugar!   This refers to cornflakes, which are one of the most significant products in terms of sodium (not indicated in HD) and sugar. Always pay attention to the label. There are cereals that have 35 g of sugar per 100 g (1/3 of the volume!).

MYTHS & FACTS

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CaffeineEffects: improved mood and concentra-tion, agitation, increased energy in the performance of tasks requiring long-term thinking

The beneficial effects are observed at a dose of 200-300 mg (= about 250 ml of brewed coffee, 200 ml espresso, 400 ml of coffee, 1l of energy drink).

Overdose: an unspecified dose, indi-vidual differences; symptoms: nervous-ness, irritability, abdominal pain, nausea, headache, insomnia, increased heart rate

GuaranaEffect: stimulates, improves mood and

ENERGY DRINKS (during exam session…)

cognitive abilities, increases mental and physical efficiency, also an aphrodisiac

Contains caffeine (3.5 g of guarana = 250 mg caffeine).

Overdose: dizziness, tachycardia, insom-nia, irritability

TaurineEffect: takes part in neurotransmission and brain development, increases physi-cal endurance and stimulates the mus-cle building process, improves cognitive function

Overdose: none observed, even when us-ing very high doses

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Folic AcidEffect: reduces the concentration of ho-mocysteine in the blood, and conse-quently improves the mood, prevents neurodegeneration, increases the work of CNS

Recommended intake: 400 mg a day (120 g chicken liver, 300 g spinach, cauliflower 350 g, 500 g broccoli, 8 eggs, 1.5 kg of or-anges)

IronIron deficiency (anemia): visible deterio-ration in mood, lethargy, deterioration of concentration, depression

Sources: offal, red meat, egg yolks, dried legumes, whole grains, nuts

Fatty acids, n-3Effect: increase the activity of the CNS, contribute to a faster reaction time and better memory, reduce aggression and stress

Sources: Saltwater fish (salmon, macker-el, herring, tuna, halibut), canola oil

Two times a week, dose of 150-200 g

Rapeseed oil is 8x better composed by fatty acids than olive oil!

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AMINOACIDS

1. Serine

- Production of lecithin, sphingosine, acetylcholine. - Improves memory and playback infor-mation.

Where?                Soybeans, lentils, nuts, seeds

2. Aspartic Acid

- Facilitates the formation of engrams (memory traces), learning, memory, playback information- Increases concentration and improves mood

Where?                Rennet cheese, meat, fish, peas, buckwheat

3. Tryptophan

- Required for the synthesis of serotonin- Antidepressant, improves mood, guar-antees a good night’s sleep, reduces hy-peractivity, and guarantees a feeling of satisfaction after eating

Where?          Semolina, pork, cheese, edam, sesa-me seeds, almonds

BRAIN DIET(during exam session…)

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From the day we are born by Olga Rostkowska

“Mathematics cannot be cheated. As the years change, so does our metrical age. Still, the biology of our organism is a completely differ-ent story…”

But how to do it properly? In February 2013 I had the opportunity to participate in a conference on healthy and active ageing programmes for Eu-ropean doctors and citizens. The above-mentioned quote was mentioned by one of the guests.

The Younger the Better. At the same conference EMSA was the youngest association in terms of its members’ age. The majority of speakers, representatives of various associations and freelance doctors were middle-aged (or +). This, of course, makes perfect sense, as the pool of experts with several years of professional practice is the heart and soul of such meetings. Nevertheless, something was missing… young people. Young medical professionals. Students. Young university lecturers whose tasks would be to plant the seeds of knowledge about the effects of long-lasting preven-tion, healthy lifestyle habits, better inclu-sion of the older members of society. The sooner such medical education is implemented, the smoother the assimila-tion of such information in young minds

will proceed. Tomorrow this could be the key to many challenges faced by our senior colleagues today, such as: The lack of adherence to treatment in the elderly. Minimal support from the patient’s fam-ily. Depression in pensioners excluded from their society. Impatience and frus-tration of the health-care personnel. Even rudeness reported by some elderly pa-

tients mainly because their psychological or social needs are not fully understood.The demographical changes called the ‘silver tsunami’ are no longer a predic-tion. They are an indisputable fact. We and those around us would live longer, but would such a life be necessarily bet-ter? Good news: that depends on us! Bad news? We have to work for it. A small piece of ‘know-how’ arrives just below.

‘From the day we are born… … we start getting old’

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The Miraculous (Lack) of Diet. It was first proven over 70 years ago that a simple reduction in nutrients availability or caloric restriction contributes to the longevity in animals. That is most proba-bly due to a block in some pathways (e.g. mechanic pathway of rapamycin, mTOR) leading to improved mitochondrial func-tion, reduced use of RNA and increasing autophagy, i.e. consumption of the cells’ own refuse. The ultimate confirmation of this theory in human models is still a subject of research. However, conclusions have already come: diet and ageing could be somewhat interlinked. Can we make it a bit more practical? Here are some sim-ple ideas how to adapt your lifestyle to a healthy ageing plan:

Eat only when you are hungry. Drink water or herbal teas, but not during meals, as they dilute the digestive acids. No more coffee than necessary (a smile at digestion, again). Eat vegetables and fruits (less sugary). Consume chocolate containing no less than 70% of cocoa. No snacks 2 hours before going to sleep. Fast food is allowed, provided that you make it yourself. Never go on a diet (90% fail)! Chew your food slowly and thoroughly (pro-digestive and you will feel sated be-fore you finish).

Once a week switch off the meaty dishes. Take a power nap in the afternoon, yet not straight after a meal. When ill, start with natural remedies. Sleep on the right side of the body (less pressure on the heart). And sleep as much as you can!

State of Mind. Have you ever wondered what keeps some actors still performing even after they reach their 80s? They are still able to come on stage and behave as if their memory failed in only one aspect: how old they actually are. Clint Eastwood (80) and Kirk Douglas (97) are just two examples. It’s not rare that people car-rying out their craft until great advance in years stay in remarkable shape. It is more pronounced in intellectual workers – teachers, musicians, writers or doctors. The moment when their job cannot be continued for some reason, their condi-tion starts to deteriorate rapidly. That’s why being included (with a pur-pose) in the community could be such a powerful medical tool. Staying active

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mentally, physically and socially can-not be underestimated. Moreover, stud-ies have shown that those with a broad network of friendships have been spared some symptoms of depression or de-mentia until advanced age. Recommen-dations? Let’s keep ourselves busy with what we love and with those that we love as long as possible.

The Blue Zones. There are places on our globe called the Blue Zones where people live evidently longer, better and happier. Maybe it’s the food or the climate. Or is it due to the search of meaning in life? Or rather good genes. Everything is possible. According to Dan Buettner, the author of the theory of Blue Zones, longevity is no accident. Buettner travels with the National Geo-graphic team around our planet and vis-its communities where 90- and 100-year-olds are nothing unusual. Having spotted those, the next obvious step would be to define key ingredients of the recipe for such an impressive lifespan. Those vary from location to location and different cultures prove to have their own tricks to cheat time. For Sardinians it is red wine and family, for Japanese yoga and ikigai (the purpose of life), whereas for the Sev-enth Day Adventists in California faith and modest diet.

So How Do We Trick Time? Each day is a challenge for our body and mind as we do not always treat them wise-ly. But there is hope! How many times did you hear somebody saying, ‘I wish

I could look like this guy when I reach my 80’ or ‘It’s incredible she is 70 and still enjoying life so much!’ . We come across similar stories often.

There are differences in how people grow up and get older. Some of those differenc-es have been defined by genes. Some by the way we were raised and how our life has been modeled by childhood habits. Yet, it is never too late to add one spoon of sugar instead of two, eat an apple after lunch, take a walk instead of the under-ground or spend time with people rather than profile pictures on Facebook. Opti-mal time to start: today.

Mathematics cannot be cheated. As the years change, so does our metrical age. Still, the biology of our organism is a completely different story…

As medical students and future doctors, we might consider implementing some rules; not only as an example for our patients, but also for our precious well-being.

To make the silver years, the autumn of our lives appear in bright colours, with plenty of sun. To enjoy the seasonal fruits to the fullest.

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References

Action Group meeting: Healthy and Active Age-ing (26th February2013). Brussels: European Commission.

Buettner, D. (2010). The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest. National Geographic.

CPME Statement on Mental Health in older peo-ple – Healthy ageing. Brussels: CPME.

Global Alliance of Mental Illness Advocacy Net-works-Europe, GAMIAN meeting. (2013). Men-tal Health and Polimorbidities. Brussels: European Parliament.

Kaeberlein, M. (2013, March 4). Longevity and aging. F1000 Prime Report .

Susans’ Food for Thought. (2013). Retrieved from My 100 best ever health longevity tips: http://www.susansfoodforthought.com/longevi-ty-and-extraordinary-health/my-100-best-ever-health-longevity-tipsThe 7 Oldest Currently

Working Actors. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pajiba.com/seriously_random_lists/the-7-oldest-currently-working-actors.php

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by Sofia RibeiroInternships and Opportunities for EMSAi

Whether you are at the beginning or the end of your medical studies, participat-ing in an internship or spending some time abroad under the Erasmus program can shape your medical career and help you define your future goals. If like many other students you are still wondering if you are meant for clinical, surgical or community work, then a short experi-ence with EMSA internships is definitely something you should consider.

Working in another country might en-tail some difficulties and you may find it challenging to adapt to a new working environment with a different work ethic and culture, not to mention a possible language barrier that you would need to cross. Nevertheless, as you consider the experience a learning curve, you will gain a wide range of skills that will make you a more competitive applicant in fu-ture job search. For those of you who are considering working in your own coun-try post-graduation, an internship could give a new perspective as regards your career plans and might open your eyes and mind to opportunities you had never thought of.

EMSA currently offers you two different internships - one at the Standing Com-mittee of European Doctors (CPME) and another at the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA). Both placements are competitive and require you to move to Brussels, but you need not worry if you are not a master in French or Flemish; all your work will be carried out in English. However, you will connect with people from different countries and might even-tually make use of the opportunity to learn a new language.

The internship at the CPME is ideal for you if you have a good level of written and spoken English and if you like pub-lic health and health policy in general. You will be based at the CPME office - which is in the European headquarter and you will be required to work for ap-proximately eight hours a day. You will be working closely (and be supervised by) the CPME Secretariat and will gain an insight on CPME work, policy papers and positions. Sometimes you might be required to attend meetings on behalf of the CPME as a representative, which will allow you to develop a sense of respon-

“EMSA currently offers you two different internships - one at the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME) and another at the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA)”

Planet EMSA

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sibility and train your reporting skills. This position is paid (approximately 1000 euros a month) and is offered generally as a renewable per 6 month tenure. Fur-thermore, you will be considered a mem-ber of the EMSA European Board (EEB) while you are doing the internship, hav-ing the full rights of an EEB member by serving as the Permanent Officer (PO). Our current PO is Olga Rostkowska, who was the Medical Ethics and Culture Di-rector in 2011/2012.

Recently, EMSA was approved and ac-cepted as a member of the EPHA. The department of external affairs was able to negotiate internships at the EPHA office in Brussels (which is located not very far

from the CPME office) under very spe-cial conditions: you have to work for a minimum of three months, but the start-ing date and the duration of stay are up for negotiation and are flexible. If you are interested in Public Health, then this is the right position for you; the EPHA works on a wide range of topics and are also active in health policy, though their work is not so focused on certain medical issues such as professional qualifications and working conditions. The position is unpaid, but its flexibility allows you to combine it with the summer holidays, for example. (The application is also in turns, so you can decide on later)

Picture 1. General assembly of CPME in Limassol, Cyprus, November 2012

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Last but not least, you can only apply to these positions if your faculty is an ac-tive EMSA FMO. If it is not, and you re-ally want to try for one of these intern-ships, please join us in EMSA, and start an FMO!!

If you wish to know more about the in-ternships, or you have any suggestions on other internship opportunities you would like to see for EMSAi, kindly write to me!

Sofia Ribeiro, Vice President External Affairssigmaserena@gmail.com

Picture 2. EMSA representation at CPME GA in Limassol, Cyprus

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36

How to… policy making… and why?by Jacob Hildebrand

Making politics is an obscure term. The first image popping up is normally a group of people in a room, sitting at ta-bles in a circle, the air is thick and musty, the thermos flasks are as empty as the mugs and they are still talking about the same abstract topic. Policy is debate. Pol-icy is communication and it’s a complex process.

EMSA is spread all over Europe. It’s prac-tically impossible to meet regularly in person and to sit at the table. Though we are permanently discussing and shaping opinions locally and internationally. Our communication is obviously abstract, we are working with online documents and mailing lists and deadlines, which reach weeks into the future. While working, we often don’t see anything else than our computer screen. The working processes have become more and more efficient in the last decades. Anyway, the number of possibilities to act and work and accom-plish something puts the efficiency into perspective. It’s not easy to start working on policies.

The essential sensation of policy making is feeling the aim of your political ideas.

All these technical procedures, these on-line mind-mapping tools, training semi-nars, skill shaping whatever – all these things are technical paddings. Policy is about the topics you want to handle. It’s not about talking about the paper you are writing. It’s about ideas, the future, your bonding to the past.

The technique you need for achieving your political aim arises from the topic itself.Philosophically speaking this is a her-meneutical interpretation of the process of policy making. The way you should go lies in the topic. The topic defines the media you use, the audience you are con-tacting, the type of reasons you are list-ing.

I’ll give you some examples. Why did we choose the topics we chose for policy making of EMSA in the last months?

The mobility directive will limit the pos-sibility of medical students within the European Union to work in other mem-ber states. So it is our topic. Tobacco pol-icy, obesity in children and the rise of dangerous antimicrobial resistances all over Europe are the new major topics of

“Policy is about the topics you want to handle. It’s not about talking about the paper you are writing. It’s about ideas, the future, your bonding to the past.”

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European health care policy, so we have to think and talk about them. This is the first step of policy making: the definition of relevant topics in your political field. How to handle these topics? Well, first you need an opinion. So you have to communicate about it, sit at the table with others, write to the mailing list, and shape the policy paper itself. This is com-plicated. Shall we write about tobacco in general? About medical facts? About per-sonal experience of a patient, who suffers due to the consequences of his lifelong consumption of cigarettes? No.

You need to stay short and comprehensi-ble. You need to focus on demands. Only a short introduction is necessary, as well as a few sentences, which give the back-ground of facts leading to your demands. Best thing is that you don’t request things like “let’s conquer Mars”, but “let’s devel-op the machines to get there”. Being pre-cise about the things you want to accom-

plish and then reaching the slogans is the way of reasoning in such texts, in talking about policy or addressing an audience. Is it important that you as a writer aren’t the president of the European Commis-sion? Do you have to care that you have no real authority and political position to implement and to campaign your ideas?

No, you don’t.

In Europe we have a democratic culture and as long as you have expressed your demands, you did a perfect job.

The European public and especially the vanguards of society, such as the youth of Europe, need to be part of the public discourse. We as citizens of Europe and citizens of our particular European na-tions make the policies of our continent.

This is policy making.

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Memories of an EMSA Alumni by Samuel Ribeiro

“EMSA gives you many tools that a medical faculty isn’t equipped with. Essentially, it provides you with the insight and ability to under-stand the “bigger picture”. It also taught me time management and tolerance, while giving me a true feeling of European citizenship.”

What is your experience in EMSA? How did you started? What things did you achieve during your terms as MSD and LO?

I applied for the position of Medical Sci-ence Director shortly after going to the 2005 NCM meeting in Plovdiv. Although it was a small meeting, the enthusiasm of the little over 50 participants compelled me to get further involved in EMSA and apply to the European Board.

During that following year, I continued the work of my predecessor, Davor Les-sel, who had done a fantastic job in ar-ranging a collaboration with Thieme Medical Publishers. This protocol culmi-nated in the first European-wide printed issue of the Journal of EMSA on Medical and Scientific Affairs (JEMSA).

Also, during that time, EMSA fostered a stronger collaboration on a scientific level with the European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (EPSA), namely on raising awareness about the effects of drug interaction and how they may be prevented. Cooperation projects like

these enhanced my appreciation for the benefits of working with other organisa-tions and were the reason why I applied for the position of European Medical Or-ganisations Liaison Officer (EMO-LO) in the following term.

During this second year EMSA stood out amongst the other medical organisations when, in collaboration with the Euro-pean Junior Doctors’ Association (EJD, although it was called the Permanent Working Group of European Junior Doc-tors at the time), we elicited a very strong response to the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) green paper. This pol-icy statement was later adopted by all the main European Medical Organisations as their own, leading to the European-wide demonstration in Strasbourg on 15th December 2008. Three days later, against all of what was predicted before the demonstration, the European Parlia-ment voted in favour of the new Working Time Directive. This new directive was very important for patient safety, since it limited the extremely long working hours doctors were being subjected to. It is still astonishing to see how one paper

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first approved in the 2006 EMSA-GA in Ankara affected European policy, which is still enforced today.

What did you gain from EMSA? Did it affect your career? How? Why should people be a part of it?

Being part of the EMSA-EB affected my life tremendously! When I started medi-cine I had no idea of how a “healthier lifestyle” could impact so many aspects of our lives.

EMSA gives you many tools that a medi-cal faculty isn’t equipped with. Essen-tially, it provides you with the insight and ability to understand the “bigger picture”.

It also taught me time management and tolerance, while giving me a true feeling of European citizenship.

After leaving EMSA-EB and completing medical school, I went on to be part of the EJD for another 3 years, mainly be-cause my experience in EMSA had al-ready been so excellent!

EMSA also made it easier for me to speak in public, even when English isn’t my mother tongue. This was crucial for me to gain the courage to work abroad with-in Europe, as I’m doing at the moment.Finally, EMSA gave me many friends that I will never forget!

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by Nikos Korakas and Colleagues

“My triceratops has broken his horn”

“She came next to me and asked ‘’Are you a real doctor? If yes, you should make my teddy bear smile again.” I answered to her ‘’I am a student, but I promise I will try’’.”

Teddy Bear Hospital is not just a pro-ject, it is exactly what it says: a hospital for teddy bears! Through role-playing games, in which the child plays the part of the parent bringing their sick teddy to the hospital, the teddy is diagnosed by a teddy doctor -us!- and the child receives a ‘pawscription’ for their teddy. The aim of the project is for little children to over-come any worries and fears they may have regarding doctors and hospitals and to also learn in a playful and interesting way about medical treatment, physical examination and healthy living. Moreo-ver, Teddy Bear Hospital has many clinics from every medical specialty, like a real hospital, which makes the experience for

the children even more close to reality. In this hospital, you’ll meet some amazing and inquisitive children with their spon-taneous questions and answers you will surely remember afterwards!  Don’t you think it’s worth a visit? 

He was barely sitting on his tiny chair as he was impatiently waiting for my call. “Next one please”. He almost jumped next to me. “You are a bit late, I am looking for-ward to it” he told me. “How old are you?”, “4”, “And how old is your teddy bear?”, “40” (Oh my God, how old did he believe I was?). After we were done with the in-troductory questions, we went through the usual examination of his teddy bear (heart, lungs, mouth, ears, belly) and we also had him vaccinated. As our session was coming to an end, he suddenly told me “Oh, his foot hurts, too”. I examined the foot, and once again “No, wait, his tail is also painful”. He obviously didn’t want it to end so ‘quickly’ (I was with him for over 30 minutes so far though). After examin-ing and curing literally all the body parts of his teddy, we eventually said goodbye. He later told his teacher he wanted to be-come a doctor. Like me. –Nikos, 3 years in Teddy Bear Hospital

For children, big and small

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I felt nervous when I first joined Teddy Bear Hospital because I thought the kids might get bored or feel uncomfortable around us. And some of them did, but eventually it got better. I remember there was this beautiful girl who barely talked to me at first. She was so shy and got a lit-tle scared when I told her that I needed to vaccinate her doll. She didn’t want me to do so. She was afraid of needles, as most of the 5-year olds actually. But I told her to hold the doll’s hand and that the pain was going to last only for a while. She relaxed a little and then we started talking about her doctor and why she didn’t like going there. By the time we were leaving she even smiled at me. It was really sweet. –Chris-tina, 1 year in Teddy Bear Hospital

I still remember the faces of all the kids in the kindergarten. But one of them, a pretty little girl captured my gaze. She came next to me and asked ''Are you a real doctor? If yes, you should make my teddy bear smile again.” I answered to her ''I am a student, but I promise I will try''. In the end of the examination she said ''You know some-thing? It doesn't matter if you are a real doctor because you’ve made my teddy bear laugh again''. And as she was leaving she gave me a kiss. It was the first moment I felt like a doctor! –Antonia, 3 years in Teddy Bear Hospital

Children in kindergarten are sweet, with heartbreaking smiles and innocence that grownups are jealous of. One of them, a 4-year old, tiny and shy girl, is carved into my memory. Every time I asked her

a question about her teddy bear, "Is your teddy bear sick? Where does it hurt?", she whispered my questions into its ears and then she waited for the teddy bear to an-swer. Afterwards she transferred the an-swers to me! It was the most memorable conversation I’ve ever had… – Dafni, 2 years in Teddy Bear Hospital

Being part of last year's Teddy bear hos-pital was a great experience. I met new people and learned how to work together with them in order to deal with children’s fear of doctors. We tried to gain their con-fidence by treating their teddy bears. In a friendly and playful environment children learned that there is no reason to get upset and overreact in the presence of doctors. I would recommend this project to every medical student, especially to those who intend to become pediatricians. – Ipek, 1 year in Teddy Bear Hospital

I strongly remember that time at kinder-garten when I was with seven little ‘parents’ around me, each of them holding a sick toy. You could see their eyes looking so cu-riously at the medical stuff I had and they were all so happy when I allowed them to touch them and examine their teddy bears with me. When we were about to leave we went to say goodbye to the children. The seven little ones of my ‘team’ came all to-gether and gave me a huge hug that I will never forget! Then the rest followed and I found myself between almost twenty chil-dren who were happy and wanted to give a hug to the ‘doctor’! –Kassandra, 1 year in Teddy Bear Hospital

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“My triceratops has broken his horn”, he told me with his eyes shining of excite-ment. He helped me make a splint for the horn and put it on. “Oh, this horn is broken too!”, so we made another splint. “Well, I think that the third horn is also broken”, he told me with a slight smile on his face. When we were finally done with the splints, he held his stuffed animal tightly into his arms and whispered to its ear: “Don’t wor-ry little man, you’ll be fine now”. “How about giving him a little check up?” I asked the ‘parent’, and so we checked every part

of its body. Then the teacher came into the room: “OK, the triceratops is now healed”, and took the splints off, as she was worried that the kid would hurt itself with it. “Oh, no…! Doctor, could we keep the splints on until tomorrow?” he asked me obviously frustrated with his teacher. “Well, look, your triceratops doesn’t need the splints anymore, but we will keep a bandage on for two days, alright?” and so the kid, the triceratops and the teacher lived happily ever after. –Chrysa, 2 years in Teddy Bear Hospital

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HelMSICHellenic Medical Students’ International Committee

Authors & Editors

Nikos KorakasPublic Health European Support Division Team4th year medical student, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Melina KourklidouNational Officer on Public Health3rd year medical student, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Authors

Christina Eustathiadou2nd year medical student, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Ipek Chatzisouleiman2nd year medical student, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Chrysa Koraka3rd year medical student, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Antonia Mpirniou4th year medical student, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Dafni Papanikolaou4th year medical student, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Kassandra Xanthopoulou3rd year medical student, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

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by Chloé ten BroekeAmsterdam’s Merry New Year

“...we wanted all our gifts to be sponsored by various shops and busi-nesses. So we contacted some bookstores, drugstores and garden shops. As a result, we got 52 Christmas flower arrangements, 104 books, and even more products from drugstores...”

In December 2012, a new project of EM-SA-VUmc ‘Merry New Year’ took place. The idea was the same as the interna-tionally well-known project of EMSA ‘Different Christmas’. Not everyone can spend their Christmas pleasantly with their family and friends with a wonder-ful dinner. Many patients stay in the hospital or retirement home during this special time of the year. So, we decided

to bring a little change in their Christ-mas by organizing a wonderful and pleasant day during the holidays. Our plan is to spend a day with them playing some quiz games and handing out gifts.Our project is called ‘Merry New Year’, because it took place after Christmas and before New Year’s Eve. This year it took place in a retirement home in-stead of a hospital, because it’s easier to

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not have to take account of the chang-ing amount of gifts due to changing amount of people. Besides, compared to a hospital, where silence is needed in almost every department, there is more time and space for fun and laughter dur-ing the activities in a retirement home. 

We took of with the organization of our project by dividing the main tasks. Some people took care of the gifts we were going to hand out and oth-ers had contact with the retirement home. A treasurer was appointed to manage the finances and someone else was responsible for the sponsorship. After we decided to do a quiz, we had to come up with questions! As one of us works in a home for the elderly, we asked their activity coordinator about their activities and programs. They had a great and very suitable game for us, as it handles the past of the Netherlands, some famous Dutch people of the old days and some silly questions as well.

However, our budget was not very large. To solve this, we wanted all our gifts to be sponsored by various shops and busi-nesses. So we contacted some book-stores, drugstores and garden shops. As a result, we got 52 Christmas flower ar-rangements, 104 books, and even more products from drugstores such as Rituals and Ici Paris for the winners of the game.

As everything was now arranged, we car-ried out our first project! This took place on the 28th of December at nursing home

Het Zonnehuis in Amstelveen. We started our day with a lunch which was provided by the nursing home. It was a great way to introduce ourselves to the residents. In this way, we got to know the residents a little bit better while enjoying snacks and chips. After the lunch, we went to the joint living room to play the quiz with pictures and questions about former times. We divided the residents into two teams and the winning team got to pick presents first. After the game, we handed out the remaining presents to the residents who didn’t participate in the game.  Here-by, everyone eventually got a present.

Because of a misunderstanding, Merry New Year could not be carried out at two floors at once, as was planned. As the res-idents, the staff and ourselves thought the day was such a success and really enjoyed it, we decided to do it again some other time, but then on the other floor. On the 12th of March we came back for Merry New year 2.0. Instead of a lunch, this time we had coffee and delicious pastries, now in style of Easter instead of Christmas.

All in all, the project was a great suc-cess. The elderly were very grateful for the presents, and kept asking 'from who? And why?'.  As mentioned earlier, the contact with the elderly home did not go smoothly.We planned to visit two floors at once, but when we arrived, there wasn't enough time, so we visited one floor and had to come back for the other. Later on, when we came back, there was another pro-gram planned, so we had to leave again.

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After that, we had one employee with whom we kept contact, instead of sev-eral and from then on it went well.  The second edition went even better, because we had learned from the first. The elderly were prepared for the game and because it didn't take them by surprise, more of them wanted to join. Also the personnel was well prepared.To sum up, it is impor-tant to contact just one person, and tell them exactly what is going to happen and

that they inform and motivate the elderly.We had a great time organizing and car-rying out this project and as a pleas-ant bonus, we also gave the elderly and the employees a great day. There is a lot of room to use your own ideas, in Leiden (NL) for instance, it is now being organized on Valentine’s Day. Therefore we recommend every fac-ulty to organize this project as well!

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The Elderly Brothers

“Only until I saw it, I did realize how neglected they were and how being deprived from the chance to go to school can change one’s life in a negative way.”

by Daria Gheorghe

Have you ever dreamed about having a younger sibling? Someone with whom you can share anything with; secrets and advices, laughter and giggles, sadness and tears. I know that I had, especially when I was little. But having a wonderful family and meeting some special people who I call them my friends, things did not look so bad. Although it was not the same, but it was as good as it can be.

Now imagine what would it be like to have a caring mother and father to look after you, to love and support you. There is no replacement for this, not even all the money in the world nor the best friends can account for the most essential components of life, family. As tragic and unimaginable as it may seem to most of us, there are millions of children in this

world who are going through this daily, going to bed every night wishing that their life would change. However, waking up to see that it hasn't.

I've had the chance to meet few of these children that are living in a shelter in Bu-charest. Even though "chance" seemed a very optimistic word to choose, I stick to my choice. Since getting to know them was a life changing experience that truly altered my perspective of life and what is truly important.

First thing to be asked, what is a shelter ? and how did these poor little ones end up there ? Well, The shelter is a place where children are taken to by their parents, who are financially unable or unwilling to take care of them, It is also a place

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where the runaway children living on the streets are taken to.

On the safe circumferences, if they had the choice, the shelter would be their last option. But considering their situation, it is the best thing that could happen to them for the time being. Because here, they are being taken care of under good conditions by a personnel who is trying to get as close to them as possible. They are being well fed, having toys to play with and even starting to form bonds of friendship between each other.

The sad part of the story is that, some of these children are rather unprepared for their age, due to the fact that they have partially attended school or maybe haven't attended at all. But However, the shelter has a specialized learning pro-gram for them and we, as medical stu-dents are a part of it.

Thanks to the fact that the Society of Medical Students in Bucharest have made an agreement with the center, so we are now allowed to visit the shelter on Saturdays for a couple of hours to take their minds off their problems and even to teach them few things using some toys and books that we bought using the mon-ey we have collected during fundraising events.

I am glad that out of all the available vol-unteering projects, I've chosen this one, because I am sure that I have learned as much, if not even more from them as

they did from me. The most important aspect of life is not to take everything for granted and to be grateful for what we have. Because even the simple acts such as reading and writing were dif-ficult to them when they first arrived at the center. Only until I saw it, I did re-alize how neglected they were and how being deprived from the chance to go to school can change one’s life in a negative way. But it is a wonderful thing that they want to learn and that they are striving to succeed and make effort, even though sometimes they get bored or tired.

Also, something as simple for us as the Internet or television is a reason of hap-piness for them. When we live in an era where the Wi-Fi hotspots are every-where, it is good to see that there are still some people who perceive it as a wonder of technology that helps them to devel-op through educational programs and games, as well as to relax through movies and music. We have so much and we ap-preciate a little, However they have a little while appreciating so much.

What gives me joy is being able to see how much they have developed in these couple of months, from children that couldn't understand the importance of school and reluctantly embraced educa-tion to children that are coming to us ask-ing to learn basic English. From children who were scared and defensive to other children to more open, talkative children to a point that they even enjoyed giving hugs. From children with poor manners

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to children who have learned how to share and be polite. It is amazing to see what patience and love can achieve. I could say that I have made some friends but honestly, I have made more than this. I have made some younger brothers and sisters which I look forward to visiting as soon as I leave the center.

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Authors:

Dominique Monnet France dominiquel.monnet@ecdc.europa.eu

Sven Pal Croatia pal.sven@gmail.com

Borislav Manev Macedonia manev86@gmail.com

Andrew Miller US info@endecocide.eu

Joanna Borowska Poland borowska.joanna1@gmail.com

Olga Rostkowska Poland rostkowska.o@gmail.com

Sofia Ribeiro Portugal sigmaserena@gmail.com

Jacob Hildebrand Germany jacobmhildebrand@aol.de

Samuel Ribeiro Portugal samueldsribeiro@gmail.com

Nikos Korakas and Colleagues Greece nickakor@gmail.com

Chloé ten Broeke The Netherlands camtenbroeke@gmail.com

Daria Gheorghe Romania gheorghedaria@gmail.com

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Daria Gheorghe Romania

Khalid Masoud Turkey

Vasil Toskov Bulgaria

Ibukun Adepoju Ukraine Felicity Jones United Kingdom

Proof-readers:

18th November