Conflict and Open Access: A Tale of Two Conferences | Speaking of Medicine

abernard102@gmail.com 2012-08-20

Summary:

“For medical students interested in advocacy, action and debate, the last weekend of Easter provided all three in buckets at two of the biggest conferences on the UK Medical Student calendar.  The BMA Medical Students Conference and the Medsin Conference ‘CONFLICTED’ left all who attended feeling excited that WE CAN DO MORE! In Nottingham, medical student representatives from all over the UK attended the BMA Medical Students Conference, commencing with a rousing and thought provoking speech from Clare Gerada, Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, on where we go now with the Health and Social Care reforms in the UK.  Although many important and well-considered motions were debated, it was pertinent that, in the same week that the Wellcome Trust announced that all their research would now be Open Access, the Medical Students Conference voted unanimously to support the Student Statement on Open Access as outlined by the Right to Research Coalition. It is really exciting that Medical Students are bringing this issue to the wider profession, and students can, in the coming months, lobby their universities and the government to make research accessible to all.  Any students interested in getting more involved, please do get in touch for information about forthcoming work on Open Access, including a forthcoming conference organized by the Right to Research Coalition in July... A bit further south at King’s College London, Medsin’s CONFLICTED conference was also a vibrant and exciting weekend... he weekend provided ample opportunity for engagement, focused as it was around the themes of conflict, health, and humanitarian aid, and the four plenaries set their complex interaction in sharp relief... Hundreds of attendees signed postcards against the arms trade, and petitions and letters to their MPs on multiple related issues, and a large group headed to the Millennium bridge to put their Hands Up for Healthcare Workers, as part of Merlin’s campaign on the issue... All of the plenary sessions and the keynote address were professionally filmed by Kwatsi and are available online here! ...”

Link:

http://blogs.plos.org/speakingofmedicine/2012/05/02/conflict-and-open-access-a-tale-of-two-conferences/

Updated:

08/16/2012, 06:08

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » abernard102@gmail.com

Tags:

oa.medicine oa.new oa.comment oa.mandates oa.advocacy oa.events oa.uk oa.students oa.presentations oa.funders oa.wellcome oa.policies

Authors:

abernard

Date tagged:

08/20/2012, 17:54

Date published:

05/04/2012, 22:48