ESIM Winter Course, Levi, Lapland (Finland) 22-26 January 2018

http://www.esim2018.org

FDIME Awarded Bursaries to 2 Young Internists:
Dr Andra Peksa (Latvia), Dr Marek Felsoci (Slovakia)

Dr Andra Peksa, 3rd year Resident in Internal Medicine, Riga East University Hospital, Latvia

Thanks to FDIME bursary I had the possibility to attend the ESIM Winter School in Finland, Levi 21.-26.01.2018. From few of my colleagues I heard only great stories, but it was far beyond better than I excepted. First, the location. Of course, hearing the weather forecast had me scared a little bit, -30°C is no joke, but with a little bit of preparation (and layers, layers, layers) it was great to finally experience a real winter and winter fun, especially the husky safari.
The atmosphere itself was amazing. Starting from the lectures and lecturers, and of course the participants – all the sharing of experiences and being able to discuss not only between ourselves but with faculty members as well. Everybody was open and up for an interaction.

It was a great balance between lectures, workshops and clinical cases. From each of the lecturers and clinical case presentations there was something to take away for yourself, how to perform, present, structure your presentation and answer questions. The Workshops and clinical cases was a great way to put our minds together and discuss, as well as to see how things are approached from a different perspective; how and what is done as a standard, what is available in different countries varies.

In my opinion an interesting topic to discuss was doctors mistakes and choosing wisely. We want to be perfect, but we are still humans and we make mistakes. The problem is, that there’s too few of us talking about it being afraid of the consequences it may bring. But only opening up and talking about it is what lets us and others learn and be better physicians and people altogether. It even may give relieve some of the pressure and it’s better than suffering in silence. The choosing wisely concept and campaign is of increasing importance especially nowadays when so many labs and additional investigational methods are widely available, that we sometimes do things “just to make sure”, not really thinking is it necessary and what we will get from this extra investigational step or treatment, that in many cases doesn’t change the outcome of the patient it may even bring unexpected side-effects and high costs. We should always take into consideration what is best for our patients and discuss this topic with them.

The practical workshop of abdominal ultrasonography was well prepared and performed, that gave us some basic knowledge in this radiological investigation method. I find it important to constantly grow and learn new things and this was one of those. In my opinion every internal medicine specialist must have some basic knowledge in ultrasonography because it can reveal a lot and help us especially in some emergencies.

Outside of theoretical part, there were a lot of new friendships forming for possible collaborations and cooperation in the future for a mutual benefit. I feel that after leaving this ESIM winter school I have many new friends across the Europe, because we experienced something special that left a mark in us for the rest of our lives. It was a great pleasure to make these bonds during a week as well as constantly discuss about medical and health system from different parts of Europe, share experience. What I concluded – even when we may be at different levels of development or advancement, income or health care structure, still the most basic problems are almost the same across the Europe.
It was valuable experience and I left Levi with enhanced knowledge, expanded points of view, new motivations and inspirations for my everyday work and studies. I found ESIM to be a great platform for improvement of personal, professional and social skills, sharing of experiences and I would highly recommend this course to any young internists.

Dr Marek Felsoci, 2nd year Resident in Endocrinology & Diabetology, Residency in Internal Medicine Louis Pasteur University Hospital, Košice, Slovakia

Thanks to the support of FDIME I was awarded with an amazing opportunity to be a part of winter ESIM in Levi, Lapland 22.-26.01.2018 that I can honestly say took my breath away and created life lasting memories.
From day one I was taken aback in the best kind of sense, by thoroughly planned educational program, social events and especially amazing, warm atmosphere that could have been created only by exceptional organization and each participant from all of the corners of Europe.

All the lectures were not only very well chosen with the highest respect to all actual hot topics in internal medicine, but especially clinically oriented and updated theoretical knowledge could be applied in following workshops and clinico-path conferences. Therefore all the participants were not only passive listeners but also active creators of whole event and each contributed to the program also with clinical case presentations.

The majority of us appreciated also a possibility of interactive discussion during and at the end of each lecture as well as meanwhile coffee breaks and social program that brought us unique opportunity to compare different knowledge, experiences, approaches, possibilities and perspectives in internal medicine across Europe. At last but not at least, winter ESIM gave us a unique possibility to get to know Finnish Lapland, which majority of us didn´t know before. Overall, my expectations were not only met, but exceeded far beyond.