EFIM has the pleasure to announce the Administrative Council  & Working Groups Meeting will take place at the Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel in Israel, 29 -30 March 2012.
Preliminary itinerary and the registration form for the Tel Aviv meeting can be found below:
For EFIM Prelimininary Itinerary click here.
For EFIM AC Registration form click here
To be able to book your accommodation, please fill in the accomodation booking form enclosed in the link below.

We are looking forward to see many delegates present!

Download the Hotel booking form.

EFIM Secretariat

 2nd ESIM Winter School is approaching next week in Saas-Fee, Switzerland 15 - 21 January.
For more details on the programe, residents and selected speakers please go to the ESIM page.
We look forward to seeing you in Saas-Fee.

Verena Briner
Director
ESIM Winter School

Transport Information:
Buses will be arranged from Zurich airport and from Geneva airport leaving at 15.00 o'clock on Sunday January 15 . 
- Bus from Taxi Christoph Täsch will wait in Zurich at Check-In 1
- Another bus from Christoph Täsch in Geneva will wait at "Meetpoint" on Arrival Level

In Zurich airport Dr Werner Bauer, past president of EFIM will be at the pick up too and drive with you to Saas-Fee.
Make sure that you are on time. The bus has to leave on 15.00 o’clock sharp!

Dear EFIM Associates,

One year ago I started my EFIM presidency; I think that now, crossing the equator of this mandate it is probably a good moment for reviewing the purposes I told you in our Malahide meeting.

To see the letter please follow the link here.

EFIM's Administrative Council and General Assembly was held in Athens 4 -5 October with a great success.
Thank you for your participation in the meeting. Despite the strike taking place during EFIM's AC meeting, 53 participants representing 24 National Societies attended the meeting.
EFIM would like to congratulate Prof. Jan Willem Elte on his re-election as EFIM Secretary General.
Furthermore EFIM would like to congratulate all recipients of the EFIM Honorary Fellow Certificate.
Thank you to the Helenic Society of Internal medicine and the local PCO, C&C International for organising this meeting and welcoming us to Athens.
EFIM next Administrative Council will take place in Israel from 29 - 31 March 2012.
We hope to see many members present.

EFIM Fellowship (FEFIM)

EFIM is proud to announce it's Fellowship programme.

Become Fellow of the European Federation of Internal Medicine now and benefit from 3 years membership available at 300 Euros until 31 December 2011

To be selected as a Fellow of the European Federation of Internal Medicine (EFIM) is on the basis of significant personal achievements in the field of internal medicine.
Based on their outstanding credentials, achievements, and community contribution to internal medicine, physicians who are elected to fellowship can use FEFIM, Fellow of the European Federation of Internal Medicine, as a professional designation.

Other benefits include:
- Free subscription to EJIM and to PIER,
- Lunch Symposium for Fellows at the Annual EFIM Congress including Fellows Lecture,
- Discounted Conference Fee at the annual Congress,
- listing on the online directory as EFIM Fellow,
- official EFIM certificate.

Candidacy of Fellowship:
Candidates will be evaluated by the Credentials Committee which will consist of members appointed by the Administrative Council of the Federation.

 To find more information, please contact the EFIM Secretariat on +32 2 643 2040 or follow the link here to the Fellowship page.

EFIM Administrative Council Meeting will take place in Athens from 9 - 16 on 5 October.
Preliminary itinerary and the registration form for the Athens meeting can be found below:
For EFIM Prelimininary Itinerary click here.
For EFIM AC Registration form click here
To be able to book your accommodation, please follow the accomodation link  here,  from the Congress website and choose from a range of different hotels in Athens. Please note that this year congress organiser partners with Star Alliance, therefore you can organise your travel with 20% discount. To be able to book you flight, please follow the link here .

Do not forget to register to the 10th Anniversary Congress of the European Federation of Internal Medicine hosted by the Hellenic Society of Internal Medicine, which will take place October 5-8, 2011.

The Congress will cover interesting content, high-quality scientific program, extensive exhibition, interactive sessions and networking opportunities will be the basic components of this premier event. To find more details on how to register to the Congress please follow the link here.

 We are looking forward to meeting with you in Athens.

European School of Internal Medicine:
Announcement of the Second Winter School in 2012 held in
Saas Fee, Switzerland, 15 - 21 January 2012

In January 2011, residents from all over Europe participated at the first ‘ESIM Winter School’ in Saas-Fee in Switzerland. It was a success! The young internists enjoyed discussing with colleagues from different countries about scientific and personal topics. The second meeting will be organized in 2012 and again in Saas-Fee. We will invite young internists from European countries through their national society of internal medicine to attend. To see provisional programme please follow the link here.
The details on the first winter school can be found on the following link http://www.esim2011.ch

Joint EFIM – HSIM Congress

The 10th Congress of the European Federation of Internal Medicine will take place jointly with the 17th Congress of the Hellenic Society of Internal Medicine, on October 5 – 8, 2011, in Athens Hilton Hotel, Athens, Greece.

Please follow the link  here  to get more details on the registration information.

Dear Members of EFIM,

Coming back from Bucharest I want to express my satisfaction about the development of the meeting and our gratitude to our colleagues from the Romanian Society for their kind and warm welcome.

Click here to read the full letter.

The Clinical Research Seminar will be held 17 – 19 October 2011 in Paris, Chaired by Prof Daniel Sereni. 15 places are available for participants from EFIM Member countries. 
Funding will be provided by the Foundation (FDIME) and by Amgen.
Young Internists who are currently, or who have recently been involved in Clinical Research projects are invited to apply for a place. Applicants should be under the age of 35 yrs and have a good understanding of English.
Further details and application form you can find on the Clinical Research Seminar page.

Atrial Fibrillation Registry for Ankle-brachial Index Prevalence Assessment:

Collaborative Italian Study (http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01161251)

The study ARA PACIS started two months ago in Italy with the contribution of 220 divisions of Internal Medicine. Each center has been provided with an ultrasonography doppler, that is essential to measure the ABI. Should you wish to participate to the ARA PACIS STUDY, that has been planned by the Italian Society of Internal Medicine to evaluate the prevalence of asymptomatic PAD in atrial fibrillation please contact: simifibrillazione@gmail.com.

More details on the protocol of the ARA PACIS Study can be found here,

Francesco Violi
President of the Italian Society of Internal Medicine

ESIM Summer School 2011 will take place at Brighton & Sussex Medical School from 4 - 9 September.  We are delighted to be hosting this once again in Brighton on the south coast of England.

As in previous years, we need the cooperation of all the EFIM National Societies to propose speakers, and to advertise the School to potential residents. The principle of applying through your Society is that it enables you to select young internists whom you think will benefit most from this educational experience.

Potential Speakers: Complete Form A - please return as soon as possible.
We would like to hear from speakers who are interested to participate at ESIM. As you are aware, the travel expenses of Speakers will be the responsibility of their National Society, but ESIM will pay for up to 2 nights accommodation and all meals during their stay.

Sending Residents: Complete Form B – please return by 1st April 2011.
We also need to know how many residents your National Society is hoping to send to ESIM. Because we are now holding 2 ESIM courses per year, we hope to have up to 50 residents at the Summer School. We can accept 2 or 3 from each country. Ideally the residents should be under the age of 36 years, fluent in English, and be towards the end of their training in Internal Medicine.

The provisional programme and other preliminary information will be available soon at the website:- http://www.esim2011.org/.

EFIM's Administrative Council and General Assembly was held in Bucharest 18 – 19 March with a great success.
52 participants representing 22 National Societies attended the meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to approve the amendment of the Status and the Bylaws. Please click here to access EFIM Statutes and Bylaws.
EFIM would like to congratulate Serhat Unal on his election as an Executive Committee Officer.
Thank you very much to the Romanian Society of Internal Medicine for such a warm welcome, and to all of you for attending.
EFIM next Administrative Council and General Assembly will take place in Athens on 4 October, during the 10th EFIM Congress.

The working group on Quality of Care has launched a project on European Quality Indicator (EQUIP), supported by the Executive Committee and Administrative Council of EFIM. In order to finance a feasibility study (project outlined below), the group is looking for contributions from National Societies. 
 
If you would like to sponsor this project, please contact Harry van Hulsteijn at h.vanhulsteijn@bernhoven.nl. More details are available here.

This year’s Summer School was held in Brighton, a historic seaside city on the South Coast of the UK. We were able to use the facilities generously provided by Brighton & Sussex Medical School and the residents stayed on the University campus. This proved a good choice, with high ratings by both Residents and Faculty for the venue and the Scientific programme. Full details of the Course, including the formal evaluation and interviews with residents and Faculty, can be found on the website: www.esim2010.org. Next year’s summer School is planned for Sept. 4-9^th 2011, again in Brighton; for details contact the Director, Dr Chris Davidson at: Davidson@doctors.net.uk.

This project, which is promoted by the European Federation of Internal Medicine and the European Foundation of Internal Medicine, aims to investigate the prevalence of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and other alcohol related diseases among inpatients in medical wards across Europe and to assess the recognition of AUDs by their attending physicians.
The project was developed after the Clinical Research Seminar of the Young Internists Workgroup that was held in Paris in April, 2008. In this meeting the ASMI study was presented. This study examined the prevalence of risky and harmful drinking in Internal Medicine wards in 21 Spanish Hospitals. It was promoted by the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine through the Grupo Español de Estudio de Alcohol y Alcoholismo of the Spanish. Due to its simplicity and interesting results, it quickened the idea of performing the study at the European Level.
The scientific interest of this project is of great value to increase the knowledge and awareness of alcohol related problems in hospitalised patients. Its results can help as well to promote public awareness of the risk of alcohol consumption and improve understanding of alcohol-related diseases. In addition, it can promote contacts with institutions and societies of different countries as well as when performed in collaboration with the Young Internist Workgroup it can enhance the network between young Internists across Europe. All of these are among the aims of the European Foundation of Internal Medicine.
For theses reasons the European Federation of Internal Medicine and the European Foundation are the promoters of the ALCHIMIE STUDY and are giving economical support and promoting its development through National Societies of Internal Medicine.
We ask National Societies to introduce the project to Hospitals that can be interested in performing the study, and to propose a National Coordinator for the project. Local Investigators of Centres that approve to collaborate should send back to the Scientific Board of the ALCHIME PROJECT the “application template”, also included as an annex to this letter. 
The project is scheduled to be performed next October 2010.

On March 4, 2010 EFIM Administrative Council voted for the election of the Russian Society of Internal Medicine as a member of the Federation.
Dr. Valentin Kokorin and Dr. Andrey Spassky were present to introduce a society that is more of  100 years old. They gave insight to the assembly on the position of internal medicine in Europe and shared the rest of the working week-end of the Council.
It is with great pleasure that we welcome the Russian Society of Internal Medicine in the Federation.
More can be read about this Society on: www.rsmsim.ru 

EFIM has published, via its professional issues working group, in March 2010 an official strategic document about the position of Internal Medicine in Europe.
Health reform discussions revolve around how best to achieve the goals of improving quality, increasing the access to care, and costs containment. However, in the current health reform debate, little attention is paid to how medicine is currently taught and practiced. Internal medicine does appreciate that the fundamental tenets of health arise from understanding the interaction among genomics, the external environment, and behaviour. Modern medicine often neglects this comprehensive model and treats disease in isolation, without taking into account the dynamic, integrative systems in the human body. Internal medicine can revive the essential approach in medical education and practice in looking toward "systems medicine”, which incorporates the complex biochemical, physiological, and environmental interactions that sustain humans. A holistic approach to medicine benefits patients and society, taking into consideration the ethical, socio-legal, and economic implications. Internal medicine recognizes the changing needs of a modern, health-conscious consumer. It promises greater precision in diagnosis, opportunity for earlier intervention, risk-based prevention, individualization of care, and optimization of the patient-clinician interface. This includes greater orchestration of patients, physicians and research teams, as well as an even greater demand for fully informed consent in which internists play a pivotal role.
The document is available here

It is with deep regrets that EFIM announces the cancellation of its 9th Congress in Stockholm, Sweden, that should have been taking place in September 2010. Today’s economic constraints forced the Swedish Society of Internal Medicine to cancel the meeting.
Our next Congress will therefore take place in Athens, on October 2-8, 2011. For more information, please visit www.efim2011.org
EFIM will also organise its first High Level Scientific Day in Luzern, Switzerland, on September 24.