IFMSA’s Asia Pacific Regional Meeting 2018 (APRM)

The Asia Pacific Regional Meeting 2018 (APRM) in Seoul, Republic of Korea wrapped up in early July 2018 with 233 medical students in attendance from 17 Asia Pacific NMOs and 4 other NMOs, becoming the APRM with the largest and most diverse attendance. The hosting NMO, Korean Medical Students’ Association had been preparing this meeting for over six months along with the Asia Pacific Regional Team and IFMSA Team of Officials.

The preAPRM that took place between 27th June and 30th June 2018 was an opportunity for participants to attend one of four workshops –

1. Training New Trainers
2. NMO Management and Leadership Training
3. Global Health Within Exchanges
4. Women’s Reproductive Health and Access to Safe Abortion (IPAS)

During the APRM we had 6 Morning sessions – the Presidents’ Session and Standing Committee sessions carefully crafted by the Asia Pacific Regional team, Team of Officials and support teams. 5 Capacity building sessions and 6 Standing committee joint sessions were also carried out in the afternoons. The Theme events consisted of a keynote lecture on Gender Based Violence and Mental Health on Day 1 and Day 2 respectively by Hyoung-Yoon Chang, MD, PhD, MPH from Department of Psychiatry, Ajou University School of Medicine Sunflower Center of Southern Gyeonggi for Women and Children Victims of Violence and Hanson Park, M.D from Dept. of Seoul National University Researcher, Institute of Cross-Cultural Studies, Seoul National University , Jong-Woo Paik M.D., PhD. as Director/Professor/Department of Psychiatry/Kyung Hee University college of Medicine. Director/Mental Health Committee/ Korean NeuroPsychiatric Association(KNPA) General Secretary/ Korea Association for Suicide Prevention(KASP)

The third plenary of the Asia Pacific region involved the adoption of the IFMSA Asia Pacific Strategy 2018-2021 formulated this term, that will be the direction in which the region will work towards for the next three terms. The APRM 2018 was an amalgamation of ideas, cultures, languages, religions, stereotypes; medical students working towards one goal – to be the best version of themselves and bring positive change in the world.