Call to Action: Patient Involvement in Medical Education

The International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations released a position paper that calls for systematic approaches to patient involvement across the continuum of medical education. The call to action cites the Vancouver Statement, which was developed in collaboration with attendees at our international ‘Where’s the patient’s voice in health professional education?’ conference in 2015. 

“One of the main reasons IFMSA worked on the IFMSA Policy Document on Patient Involvement in Medical Education was to create an advocacy tool to strive for a more socially accountable education by involving the society we will be serving as future healthcare professionals in our education,” says Mădălina Elena Mandache who is the Liaison Officer for Medical Education Issues with the IFMSA.

IFMSA continues to asses the level of patient involvement in medical education from the medical student’s perspective. In partnership with the International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations (IAPO) they created a toolkit titled, A Collaborative Approach Towards Active Patients’ Involvement in Undergraduate Medical Education.

In the future, the IFMSA plans to use these tools and resources to build capacity in medical students’ worldwide and empower them to advocate for patient involvement at their local and national levels.

The IFMSA was founded in 1951 to bring together medical students from across the world to engage with global health issues. It is a network of 1.3 million medical students from 123 countries around the globe.