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Location: ISREC, Lausanne
Date: 13.11.2004
Present: David Winkler, Luc Otten, David Andel, Lukas Jeker
Number of members present to vote: 12
All participants are declared welcome to the 2nd general assembly (GA). The SMPA has completed its first business year and the milestones of its short history are described. David Winkler mentions the comments of the SMPA to the reform of the Swiss MD-PhD program proposed by Prof. Meier-Abt (SAMW). Finally, he thanks the Lausanne crew for the organization of the meeting on science and science politics.
Text: see below.
The total expenses summed up to CHF 5003.30 (31.12.03), total income was CHF 6262.55, debts were CHF 363.-, the actual account balance was 1418.45 yielding in a net profit of CHF 1055.45 in 2003. The budget for 2004 plans a balanced account. The GA 04 has been planned according to the previously available sponsoring money to maintain a balanced budget. The GA 05 will be planned in a similar manner.
The revisor, Mathias Hauri-Hohl, reports that the account has been correctly managed. The GA accepts the account by 12 to 0 votes.
The single candidate, Sebastien Viatte, is introduced to the GA by Luc Otten, Vice-President, leaves the room and is subsequently elected by 12 to 0 votes.
Midterm, the SMPA board plans to set up a job market for MD-PhDs.
Another important effort is counselling and mentoring for MD-PhD candidates.
One very fruitful way to improve this will be through better assessment of career outcomes of MD-PhD colleagues.
These goals can be reached only with a good faith. So building up a good faith is and will be a major issue.
In addition, the SMPA board plans to intensify the contacts to the FMH and the VSAO to improve the clinical career options for MD-PhDs and ease the clinical pathway to a FMH specialist title for MD-PhDs and physician-scientists in general.
The main effort will be the organization of the next annual meeting.
The SMPA has a total number of 40 members by this date.
David Andel asks the GA if anybody is against his proposal to put all members automatically to the members mailing list. Nobody is against, and therefore all members will be subscribed to ‘smpa-members’ in the future.
The honorary member status of Tobias Herzig is announced. Tobias Herzig has substantially contributed to the elaboration of the SMPA in the initial phase of the founding of the society. The SMPA thanks Tobias Herzig for his efforts and support and has rendered him the first honorary member of the society.
Dear colleagues
I’m glad to see today’s Lausanne meeting being realized, having many friends attracted and allowing vivid discussion about science and science politics. It is part of the main goals of the SMPA to ease scientific and social exchange within its members, to contribute to science politics and to integrate young researchers in ongoing debates. The business meeting of the SMPA itself is of only limited contribution to these main goals and shall therefore be kept short. When the SMPA is now meeting here in Lausanne, the society is reporting on its first year of existence. Therefore I would like to briefly review the main steps on the way from a strong idea, which was grown at Leuenberg 2002 by Luc Otten, to a real association, of which around 40% of Swiss MD-PhDs have already become members. The SMPA was elaborated by a taskforce in which Luc Otten, David Andel, Olivier Gaide, Lukas Jeker, myself, and Tobias Herzig have been active. The latter one, who unfortunately has meanwhile quit the MD-PhD program, will be honored today for his initial contribution to our society by being awarded the honorary member status.
The first highlight of the young SMPA history was the “Basel meeting” in fall 2003, where the newborn SMPA became officially approved, the board was elected and the strategy for the first business year elaborated. It was a particular pleasure, that with Prof. Annemarie Pieper, a philosopher of highest rank joined our first session and stimulated us with her talk about “Der perfekte Mensch”. The scientific session of the founding meeting was enriched by a talk of the Noble-prize winner Prof. Nüsslein-Volhardt, who presented us her very recent research data. Prof. Meier-Abt, the head of the MD-PhD program at the SAMS, to whom we owe many thanks for the initial support of the SMPA idea and its effort for the MD-PhDs in general, passed by to provide us with an update on the planned MD-PhD reform. Prof. Meier-Abt also invited the SMPA comment on the planned reform to reflect the needs and wishes of the directly involved people.
The elaboration of the “Comment to the reform of the Swiss MD-PhD program” became a main task of the board during the first SMPA business year. While we agreed with the planned reform in general, particularly the planned creation of a fused, “cheap” and not internationally compatible MD-PhD title has provoked substantial concerns. The question of the integration of the “Swiss postgraduate course in medicine” had to be addressed and the threat of continuously prolonged FMH curricula discussed. We thus suggested 1) to maintain the practice of a real double promotion with an independent, true PhD-curriculum that fulfills the criteria of a science faculty, 2) to create more practically oriented Master courses leading to e.g a Master of Clinical Sciences / Master of Biomedical Research. Such curricula should be in line with the Bolonga structures and integrate the current “Postgraduate course”. Third, we suggested, to recognize up to two years of the PhD formation for the FMH curriculum, depending on the field of work. This should ease the curriculum as a clinical scientist. Although we shared the need for a correction of the MD-PhD program towards the generation of more clinical scientists, we also recognized the importance of basic biomedical research for our research industry and aimed to warn from an overshooting correction of the MD-PhD program towards clinical research.
The comment paper has been submitted to all our members for review and once it has been approved, sent out to all Swiss medical and science faculties, the SNF and other public institutions. The echo has been very positive and many of our ideas have been integrated into the plans of the new Swiss MD-PhD curriculum.
Further activities of the SMPA constituted the organization of an open software course, lead by David Andel, that had unfortunately to be cancelled due to sub-threshold registration numbers, maybe due to that it was scheduled too close to the Leuenberg 2004. To the latter meeting, the SMPA has further contributed by providing potential speakers and topics for the workshop session. At the Leuenberg 2004 we also established first contact to Dr. Giger, member of the FMH board and responsible for the division “training / education” at the FMH. A worksheet outlining propositions how to adapt the FMH curricula for MD-PhDs has later been elaborated by the SMPA board and is currently being discussed by the FMH.
Dear colleagues, before I close, I would like to thank my friends for their tremendous efforts for the SMPA, which often have to be performed also in times when private schedule hardly allows: in particular I have to thank David Andel for providing the backbone of the society, its core: the internet platform and our wiki; Lukas Jeker, who is not only our treasurer, but provides input on all levels and is supporting our activities with persistence. Particular thanks go to the “Lausanne crew” who, lead by Luc Otten, has planned, organized and realized today’s marvelous meeting. With Sebastien Viatte, a member of this successful team is supposed to be elected as a fifth member to the SMPA board today.
Finally I would like to thank all our members for their input to the SMPA, their support by joining the SMPA - today’s Lausanne-Meeting shows, that the MD-PhD spirit is growing nicely.
Lausanne, 13.11.04
David Winkler
President of the SMPA