How the swimsa Journal has evolved

2012 TO 2022 - 20 EDITIONS OF STORIES FROM OUR STUDIES

How the swimsa Journal has evolved

Text: Benedikt Reuthebuch | Vice-President for Communication 21/22

This year's spring issue marks the 20th edition of the swimsa Journal. Many things have changed in the past years, countless articles have incited reading, laughing and reflection. But the basic idea has remained the same: to create a platform where the diverse activities of swimsa and its members can be presented and inspire readers.

Before the Journal became what we know nowadays, there was the "MedCampus", a magazine for medical students, which unfortunately had to be discontinued again. The desire to make the activities of swimsa accessible to students from all over Switzerland and to bring swimsa members closer together, then led to the relaunch of a journal for Swiss medical students in 2012. The impetus for this was given by Anna Wang, the then Vice-President for External Affairs, who took on the task.

The journal was intended to complement the world of medicine outside of medical school. The amount of work was considerable since the entire design of the journal had to be developed and the content had to be laboriously layouted - at that time the journal was still composed of Word documents. It quickly became very popular amongst students.

The first edition in 2012

The ninth edition with a completely new layout

The pandemic edition of 2020 From the first issue onwards, journals were published both online and in print - just like the journal today. In recent years, the role of the online edition has increased. All past issues of the journal can still be read in the online archive - a journey through ten years of swimsa.

The layout has changed several times since then and so have the people responsible for the journal. Anna Wang laid the foundation for the Journal and many have followed her on this path. When asked what her favourite articles were, she points to the stories about the international congresses. Thinking about how to put down on paper the many impressions and what had been learned at the international level, so that everyone could benefit from it, was the most beautiful thing for her. And so we continue to hope that the journal can inspire you, dear students!