Summer School - retrospect
The Child Health program hosts several Summer Schools during summer. The aim is to introduce global child health among young doctors and master students and to stimulate working in an international environment.
Translational medicine: “Doing the Right Research Right” uitklapper, klik om te openen
In July UMC Utrecht organized, together
with the EUREKA Institute for Translational Medicine and with support of the Child Health program, the 3rd edition of the Summer School about translational medicine: “Doing the Right Research Right”.
The course aims to help researchers to obtain insight in how science really works, but more importantly to acquire knowledge on how to be a successful translational researcher. Awareness, inspiration and training is what this course offers. International experts provided a behind-the-scenes look at some of translational medicine’s success stories. Participants were informed about the latest developments in translational medicine, inspired by rare diseases.
Translational medicine: “Doing the Right Research Right” uitklapper, klik om te openen
Contributions from patients and patient representatives helped to concretize the urgency of translational medicine. With nearly forty participants from more than 10 countries, the course was internationally well represented. The mixture of medical students, PhD students and junior post docs created an inspiring environment, facilitated by teachers from the UMC Utrecht and many international faculty among which from University College London, Harvard Medical School and the Flemish Insitute for Biotechnology.
Students from the Apollo Society organized evening programs and provided logistic support to the international participants.
With this Eureka summer school UMC Utrecht also contributes to its strategy to connect with patients and to conduct research that has a social impact.
Translational medicine: “Doing the Right Research Right” uitklapper, klik om te openen
Diverse aspects of global child health were covered such as malaria, diarrheal diseases and vaccination (see schedule below) in a series of interactive lectures and case-based learning. The presentations were given by speakers from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Unit (Soweto, South Africa), Makerere University (Kampala, Uganda), Fair Medicine, University of Edinburgh, the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development
(AIGHD), and various clinicians from the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital. Part of the program was held at the headquarters of Doctors without Borders (MSF) in Amsterdam, part at the AIGHD and part at the University Medical Center in Utrecht (UMCU).
Overall participants evaluated the course with 9/10. The week was inspiring. Although people came from very different backgrounds and parts of the world, everyone was
driven by the same passion: a drive to improve health for children globally!
Global Chid Health uitklapper, klik om te openen
We look back positively on the first global child health summer school which took place from August 20-24 th. The course was a collaboration with Prof. Louis Bont (Professor of pediatric respiratory infections, University Medical Center Utrecht) and Prof. Michael Boelen van Hensbroek (professor of global child health, Amsterdam Medical Center).
There were 25 participants from across the globe: Nicaragua, Ghana, the United Kingdom, Sierra Leone, Iran, Syria, Ethiopia and the Netherlands. Participants included medical students and other master’s students (in the fields of international health, nutrition, public health and epidemiology), medical residents, PhD’s, and medical specialists (paediatricians, tropical doctors and general practitioners).
The diversity of the group allowed both speakers and participants to contribute expertise to the summer school.
Global Chid Health uitklapper, klik om te openen
New this year was also the visit to the Sports and Exercise Center of the Princess Maxima Center. Students had to carry out a number of practical assignments here by testing their own fitness. The new facility was greatly appreciated by the students.
Organizing a summer school is a great way to transfer your knowledge to motivated and curious students. In addition, it gives good international exposure. Many colleagues abroad look with interest at the training activities that we organize in the WKZ.
Through the summerschool we show internationally what we do here in the Children's Exercise Center, in collaboration with the partners at the Utrecht Science Park.
There are already requests to organize the summer school in North America.
We are going global!
To be continued..
Pediatric Sport & Exercise Medicine uitklapper, klik om te openen
The Child Exercise & Development Center of the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital organized the Summer School Pediatric Sport & Exercise Medicine from 27th-31st of August. It was already the 2nd edition of the summerschool. No fewer than 18 participants from all over the world (including Australia, Hong Kong, Chile, Canada, and various European countries) participated in the summer school.
During this week, various speakers presented recent scientific findings and knowledge in the field of exercise and fitness in healthy children and children with a chronic medical condition. In particular, the results of studies from local researchers in the field of children and exercise have been discussed. There were also three speakers from abroad who shared their expertise with the participants; Dr Eero Haapala from Jyväskylä, Finland, Dr Sarah Moore from Vancouver, Canada and Dr Barbara Cifra from Toronto, Canada.
The organization had set up a varied educational program of lectures, group assignments and workshops. Through this mix of sessions, the interaction between the students was stimulated and the students got to know each other better. Also, the expertise of the students was used to learn from and with each other.
Read more about the retrospect Summer school 2019 and Summer school 2020