Asian Medical Students' Association International (AMSA International)

AMSC 2013 will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from July 3-9 under the theme “The Incoming Tide of Community Medicine”. For more information about AMSC 2013, please head over to the official site http://amscmalaysia2013.blogspot.com.au.

What is the AMSC?

The Asian Medical Students’ Conference is an annual conference of the Asian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA International) that involves the participation of hundreds of medical students from as many as 20 local chapters around the Asia-Pacific region.

The objective of AMSC lies in creating a platform for a strong, global network of medical students, who as future medical practitioners, will explore and develop their academic knowledge, cultural appreciation and interpersonal skills.

It comprises of three main aspects: academic, cultural and social programs. This event allows medical students from AMSA chapters to congregate, discuss and present their projects and research which were conducted based on the theme agreed upon for the conference that year. In addition, delegates can also experience different traditions and customs through the cultural events organised throughout course of the conference, and gives students an opportunity to network and build lifelong friendships with future doctors across Asia, regardless of nationality, ethnicity or race.

The conference is held annually in the middle of each year (late June to July period) , and is hosted by a local AMSA chapter in one of their main cities.

History of the AMSC

In 1980, the first Asian Medical Students’ Conference was held in Bangkok, Thailand. Medical students from four countries – India, Japan, Singapore and Thailand gathered to discuss issues of community medicine, nutrition, water and infection. Since then, the AMSC has grown along with AMSA International, involving over 20 local chapters from the Asia Pacific region and beyond, and features different themes from different health disciplines at each annual conference.

The various themes of past conferences are as listed below:

	Year	Host	Theme
1^st	1980	Thailand	Community Medicine in Asia
2^nd	1981	Thailand	Water Sanitation and Water-borne Disease
3^rd	1982	Thailand	Nutrition
4^th	1983	Malaysia	Drug Abuse
5^th	1984	Singapore	Child Health
6^th	1985	Philippines	Role of Youth in Population Control: Asian Viewpoints
7^th	1986	Hong Kong	Mental Health in Asia
8^th	1987	Malaysia	Medical Curriculum for Year 2000
9^th	1988	Taiwan	Present Status and Future Prospects of Medical Service in Asia
10^th	1989	Japan	Primary Health Care in Asia
11^th	1990	Indonesia	Towards Promoting Mother and Child Health Status
12^th	1991	South Korea	Endemic Disease of Each Country and Its Control
13^th	1992	Malaysia	The Role of Medical Students in Primary Health Care
14^th	1993	Taiwan	Environmental Medicine
15^th	1994	Thailand	AIDS
16^th	1995	Hong Kong	Life Styles of Health
17^th	1996	Indonesia	Doctor Professional and Its Challenge Towards the Year 2000
18^th	1997	Philippines	Hand Cross Asia: Work Together For Better Health Care
19^th	1998	Malaysia	The Challenges of Health Care Management in the next Millenium
20^th	1999	Thailand	Effective Use of Health Care Resources
21^th	2000	South Korea	New Wave in Medicine
22^th	2001	Australia	Health Priorities in the Twenty-First Century
23^th	2002	Japan	Community Medicine in Asia
24^th	2003	Indonesia	The Advances of Tropical Medicine in Asia
25^th	2004	Thailand	Traditional Medicine
26^th	2005	Malaysia	Technology in Medicine
27^th	2006	Hong Kong	Tobacco
28^th	2007	Korea	Cancer in Asia – Incidence, Suffering and Prevention
29^th	2008	Japan	Non-Communicable Diseases and Health Promotion
30^th	2009	Taiwan	Stigmatized Illnesses
31^st	2010	Indonesia	Geriatrics Health
32^nd	2011	Hong Kong*	Integrative Medicine: Evidence-based traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM) in modern medical practice
33^rd	2012	Philippines	Surmounting Health Inequalities across Asia as One Region
34^th	2013	Malaysia	The Incoming Tide of Community Medicine

*Joint Conference with IFMSA