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The students of Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar and members of Qatar Medical Students Association (QMSA), Priyamvada Pillai (second left) and Abdullah Tom (second right) pose at the 14th Congress of IFMSA of the Mediterranean and East Region in Morocco.
Medical students from Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) and the College of Medicine at Qatar University (QU) traveled to Morocco to attend the 14th Congress of the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA) of the Mediterranean and East Region.
The IFMS Regional Assembly, held in Marrakech, brought together over 300 delegates of more than 20 nationalities and was an opportunity for medical students to share news of national and local projects, such as clinical and research internship exchange programs. For the WCM-Q students and QU students, who attended as members of Qatar Medical Students Association (QMSA), the event was also an opportunity for cultural exchange with fellow medical students from across the region.
The regional assembly offered a week of training, conferences and workshops on the themes of public health, human rights and peace, reproductive health and medical education. Delegates also benefited from special sessions on adolescent health with the participation of internationally renowned experts, such as Dr. Hateem Alaa of the World Young Doctors’ Organization, Dr. Kamal Alami, President of UNAIDS Morocco, and Dr. Jan Peloza of the World Health Organization Venice Office.
WCM-Q students in attendance at the event were Aballah Tom of the Class of 2021 and Priyamvada Pillai of the Class of 2020.
First-year WCM-Q student Abdallah Tom, QMSA member and president of the WCM-Q Medical Students Executive Committee, said: “To attend this important regional conference, with WCM-Q and QU College of Medicine students represented side by side, was an important moment for Qatar Medical Students Association. We are a young organization and it was therefore very encouraging for us to be able to make a positive contribution to such an important event. We look forward to many more positive collaborations in the future.”
Established in 2017, QMSA is the first student medical association to be formed in Qatar through a collaboration of medical students from WCM-Q and the College of Medicine at QU. The organization exists to promote humanitarian issues and public health initiatives among medical students in Qatar and seeks to contribute to the development of responsible future physicians.
Founded in 1951, the IFMSA is one of the world’s oldest and largest student-run organizations. It is recognized as a non-governmental organization by the United Nations and the World Health Organization and brings together 1.3 million medical students from 136 national members organizations in 127 countries around the globe.
