Post 27th ESC Conference Report

POST- CONFERENCE REPORT 27 T H EUROPEAN STUDENTS CO NFERENCE – CHARITÉ UNIVERSITY - BERLIN

Conference title : Anti - Microbial Resistance – Research revolution needed!            

Location: Virchow Klinikium Campus – Charité university – Berlin Duration: 28 September till 1 October Number of Speakers: 12 Number of Workshops: 18 Number of Social programs: 8 Number of Attendees: about 500- 600 per day Number of Research projects in the poster contest: 2100 research project Number of Egyptian participants in the contest: 7 Number of Conference Sponsors: 6 Number of Conference Supporting Organizations: 10 Conference Website: https://www.esc-berlin.com Charité University Website: https://www.charite.de/en/

First Day Lectures Summary: After the opening ceremony talk by, first day lectures as Professor Ramnan Laxminaryan, Proferssor Lothar Wieler and Dr.Dominique Monnet lectures were impressively full of information focused on explaining the current state of Anti-microbial resistance (AMR) worldwide and in US and Europe in particular, where Dr.Kim Frau lecture was a little bit different as it was showing the other side of the problem in poor countries where there is a need for the provision of anti-microbials beside the emergence of AMR too. At the end of the day, there was an interesting panel discussion organized, gathering all the speakers where the opportunity was given to conference attendees to ask questions to these experts.

ESC Scientific Contest: .Our review “Triclabendazole resistance, What is the solution?” was accepted to participate in the ESC Scientific poster contest, The contest structure was divided as shown in the following figure, the first round named “Peer-review” round contained about 2100 research project classified into interdisciplinary groups where every contestant gives an oral presentation to an expert beside other competitors. Our review was chosen to compete with other research projects in Pharmacology field with about 24 other competitors and unexpectedly it was chosen to qualify to Round 2!

Round 2 took place at the third day of the conference, where 60 participants were competing and every contestant gave another oral presentation to 2 jury members. To our surprise, we were the only African\Arab research project in this round! However, on this day a higher priority was given by the jury members to clinical trials or research projects with the highest clinical relevance so our review was somehow a less priority to be qualified to the final session where 10 projects compete for the ESC contest prize.

Workshops and Social Program: I have attended Perfusion-technologies workshop, Tefulsberg tour and Charite campus tour.

Last Day Lectures Summary: Other 3 lectures took place at the last day of the conference where it was more focused on offering new strategies for control of the AMR problem worldwide with a cost-effective approach. A panel discussion took place at the end of the day too. Then, it was finally the closing ceremony and party.

My Points & Comments The Poster Contest: - Misr University?! What does Misr mean? That moment at the first day when the jury professor had a look on the poster then asked this question and I felt “Oh I’m really an ambassador for my university here” - First International Conference to attend it was a totally new experience for me not just to attend but to participate with a research project, to represent my university and country in a competition with medical students from all over the world: Germany, UK, Poland, Turkey, Indonesia, Iran, …etc and moreover to qualify to the second round with our review.

- Retrospective Studies everywhere! Most of the studies participating there were cohort and most of them were retrospective, as students are engaged in research projects by getting the opportunity to collect data from patient’s records at their university hospitals under supervision of professors, write papers, publish and participate in international conferences!

- This all started by an assignment from Parasitology department, we did some effort, did the assignment, honored, later participated in Ain Shams students conference and now ESC! The Conference: - The Conference Program book was very helpful and full of useful information that helped me as a foreigner who don’t talk German to understand many things including a guide to Berlin, City map, Public transportation map and some valuable presents.

- Panel Discussion was a great opportunity to discuss what I listened to at the lectures with the same speakers and to ask questions on the AMR with presence of all these experts.

- Accommodation: a homestay program was offered by the conference where participants can apply for a room at place of a student from the Charite for only 10 E per day. It was a great experience and useful at different levels that helped me to enter the German atmosphere in a short period and to know more about the life of German medical students.

- Travel Grant was offered for active participants who applied for grant with a good motivation letters, I got a 166 EUR grant and this surely helped me to cover travel expenses.

- Smart Card! Simplicity is the ultimate of sophistication! The ID card shows the smartness of the organizing committee as it contains the name and id of participant on the front, the conference program on behind and the public-transportation ticket In between!

- Power of Students the conference organizing committee members are all students and to my surprise half of them are Arab and what they did all was really stunning!

General Notes - English can be enough! In spite of my total ignorance of German language. I survived!

- German Students Life it was an eye-opening moment for me to have a look on how medical students there organize their time between studying, taking part in research projects, work, do their hobbies, meet friends…etc.and how they put a flexible schedule for their day.

- I’m Egyptian! once said, Hospitality is observed, this beside realizing the fascinating attention given to the Egyptian great monument Nefertiti Head in The Berlin Egyptian Museum or the Philae project room with the Egyptian names given for the project at Natural History museum made me re-think our role as a generation on how to make Egypt not just a country of a great history but a real power in present and future by at least doing our roles.

Recommendations: Time for the First MUST Medical Students Research Conference?

A student’s conference with main topic, invitation for influencing speakers to give talks on the same topic, organizing panel discussions, workshops and social program for attendees.

Organizing periodic workshops and trainings on Research design and methodology, Evidence based medicine, using research programs as Mendely, Endnote and SPSS to raise awareness and knowledge about medical research for undergraduates.

Call for offering more Opportunities for interested undergraduates to get engaged in research projects and below some ideas are listed beside the attached approach by Alqayran et al (2016) “A new approach to improving undergraduate research” - Epidemiology studies and reviews for most common diseases in Egypt under supervision of Community, Parasitology, Forensic and Ophthalmology departments for example as these departments already requests research assignments from students with a bonus for valuable research work and our experience started from a parasitology assignment.

- Cross-sectional Survey- based Studies on students and physicians views on different topics using international validated questionnaire models.

- Retrospective studies at University hospital using archived patients records or database if this is allowed ethically and logistically possible.

- Prospective studies under supervision and guidance of interested professors in different departments. i.e.: Thyroid cases surveillance for 1 year at university hospital.

- Integration between medical faculties at MUST and other universities in research field to exchange experiences, opportunities and knowledge.

Summer Internships for students to apply for clinical, research and Lab work internships where students can practice, learn and be a small part of the big picture of the great staff of our faculty with offering certificates and recommendation letter at the end of the internship period.

Exchange Programs and participation of MUST in global students exchange programs as GHLO (Global Health learning opportunities), Erasmus Mundus and other programs.

At the end of this report I need to deeply thank our dean Professor Dr\ Ashraf Haider for his support and continuous help and my supervisor Professor Dr\Heba Abd El-Aaty for giving me this opportunity to participate in this international conference and gain this great experience, my lovely mother who I can’t ever thank her enough for her presence in my life and my father who started all of this.

Prepared by Hatem Refaat El-Sheemy Undergraduate MBBCH (501) MUST - College of Medicine Hatem45132@student.must.edu.eg

(April.2015)

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