International Federation of Medical Students' Associations
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| Motto | Medical students worldwide |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1951 |
| Type | International Organization |
| Headquarters | Academic Medical Center |
| Location |
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Membership
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132 National Member Organizations |
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Official language
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English |
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President
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CHERKAOUI Omar |
| Website | http://www.ifmsa.org |
The International Federation of Medical Students' Associations (IFMSA) is a non governmental organization representing associations of medical students. It was founded in May 1951 and currently maintains 132 member organisations from 124 countries on six continents.
The International Federation of Medical Students' Associations was one of the numerous international student organizations set up directly after the end of the Second World War. The first meeting that saw the establishment of the Federation was held in Copenhagen, Denmark in May 1951. The first members of this new organization were England, Austria, the Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark. London saw the first General Assembly of IFMSA in July 1952. The meeting had a total of thirty participants from ten countries.
Starting from the exclusively European founding organizations the Federation has expanded to include 132 members from all over the world.
IFMSA has always focused on student mobility and exchange as well as conference and workshop organization. The first conferences were the Student International Clinical Conferences, which were quite successful in the 1950s. Various summer schools have been organized through the years, starting in 1963 in Denmark, the UK and Scandinavia. Other conferences have discussed medical education, drugs and AIDS and HIV issues. In the 1960s projects were organized to help less advantaged students in developing countries the Book Aid project, which sought to send medical books from wealthier nations and the Equipment Appeal, which promoted the shipping of surplus medical equipment to these countries.
The 1970s medical students saw a need for the decentralization of IFMSA. To this aim, IFMSA contributed to the creation of regional medical student organizations in Africa and Asia. Subsequently, regional vice-presidents were elected for six regions as a way of promoting regionalization but this structure was abandoned after a few years.
In the early 1980s IFMSA issued a number of resolutions and declarations on topics ranging from Medical Education to the Prevention of Nuclear War to Primary Health Care. In the late 80's there was a push towards organizing projects that would be able to make a change locally and thus the Village Concept Project idea was born after collaboration with other international student organizations. 1986 also saw the start of the Leadership Training Programs in collaboration with World Health Organization. These training programs are still active today.
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