The Congress Becomes a "Social Event": the World Medicine Park Opens in Minorca, the First Multidisciplinary Park for Medical Sciences
MAHON, Minorca, May 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --
From 8-11 May 2014, the pearl of the Balearic Islands becomes a global "campus" for medicine, welcoming more than 1,200 specialists from a wide range of disciplines to discuss the many aspects of health and healthcare, marked by an increasingly "holistic" approach to patients. The main theme of this first edition is dealing with pain as an illness. Thanks to an innovative application (app), the work sessions are interactive, enabling people to share ideas and clinical experiences, thereby setting up a dialogue between the various medical sciences. The new format also aims to foster interaction between research, industry and medicine. As part of the multidisciplinary approach, there is also a parallel forum alongside the main theme of pain, focusing on important subjects in the field of pediatrics.
Today marks the opening of the World Medicine Park - not just a congress but a park for medical sciences involving more than 1,200 clinical professionals with various specializations from several European countries. The aim is to create a meeting point for the international healthcare community, focusing onmedicinein the widest sense. The event is promoted by the World Health Association (WHA) - a recently created scientific organization, bringing together the world's leading researchers and clinical specialists in order to identify common pathways linking the various medical disciplines. The World Medicine Park is an actual place, made up of several locations on the island joined together in a network, helping to foster the circulation of ideas and the sharing of knowledge. Participants can join discussions dealing with all aspects of a patient's wellbeing. This is not a traditional congress focusing on a single specialization, but for the first time, it is an interactive health forum, based on the concept of systemic and multidimensional medicine.
The common thread for this first edition is pain, viewed not merely as a symptom but as a real illness which, according to recent estimates, affects 20% of allEuropeans, with an impact on the National Health Services amounting to 300 billion euros a year.
"The World Medicine Park has evolved from the Multidisciplinary Mediterranean Pain Forum organizedfor the last eight years here on Minorca," says Jordi Moya Riera, President of the congress and of the World Health Association. "We have moved onfrom an event that brought togetherthe world's leading experts on analgesia to a broader format involving a wide range ofspecialists. We aim to develop new paradigms for proper healthcare in the broadest multidisciplinary sense. Pain is an excellent starting point since it represents an ideal case where asystemic approach to the patient makes all the difference. And Minorca is the ideal setting for this first edition of the event, firstly because it was awarded the title of the 'Isla sine dolore' (island without pain) in 2013, and secondly because it has always shown interest in subjects relating to healthiness."
Reflecting this specific interest, the opening ceremony for the World Medicine Park (WMP) was held yesterday evening at the Headquarters of Minorca Insular Council, with participants from important Spanish and Minorcan organizations.
The sessions of the congress will deal with a wide range of topics such as the latest developments in the pharmacological field and the possibility of operating with the most recent mini-invasive surgical techniques. Furthermore, there are a number of eagerly awaited themes, much discussed by the international medical community, such as genetic predisposition to pain, personalized medicine with its ethical and legal aspects, and the usefulness of ultrasound ecography in analgesic therapy.
"A common thread running through all the discussions-and a distinguishing feature of the World Medicine Park compared to other medical congresses-is the predominant role of digital technologies and their applications for mobile devices," says Guido Fanelli, Professor of Anesthesiology and Reanimation at the University of Parma (Italy), amongst the supporters of the WMP and the WHA together with other medical experts. "Thanks to the widespread use of modern technologies and the high level of interaction amongst the participants, for the first time we can speak of a congress that is truly 'social'. Participants can ask questions in real time and get answers immediately. And communication will also flow in the opposite direction-while examining clinical cases, the speakers will involve the audience directly, and for each step of the analysis, they will redirect the discussion according to the feedback received. Therefore, the congress no longer consists of frontal delivery of prepared papers, but a discussion that is built up from live exchanges. The digital platform employed will encourage people to share information during time spent in the scientific park, as well as fostering live interaction during the sessions."
In addition to the international forum on pain, the World Medicine Park will also host another congress focusing on important subjects in the field of pediatrics, as well as a series of events in collaboration with some of the main companies in the field of analgesic therapies. Another important aim of the WMP is to encouragecontactsbetween research centers, industry and clinical practices which are still not sufficiently integrated.
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