From Ralph Sinn, ICMDA General Secretary

ICMDA is continuing the search for a new General Secretary and a number of wellqualified candidates have applied for the post. Interviews will be held soon. Depending on the nationality of the new candidate the ICMDA Office may well move from its current location in Canada.

Mark Pickering finished after five years as ICMDA Student Secretary at the beginning of October. He hands over to Mark Chandra, a newly-qualified Canadian GP, but continues as the ICMDA area student rep for Western Europe.

From Peter Pattisson, ICMDA European Regional Secretary

One of those who attended the conference for students and young doctors in Samara, Russia, in July (see report on page 1) was a senior medical student from Belarus. He has established a Russian language web site to carry articles and news for Christian medical students and doctors from all over the Russian-speaking world. Among other material, he has translated articles from Triple Helix and Nucleus and plans on doing more. In a spiritual desert where very little such material is available in Russian or local languages, what he is doing is of critical importance. Some small designated gifts to CMF or to ICMDA would greatly facilitate his work.

In August the Romanian CMA held their annual conference at a beautiful site in the Carpathian mountains. In all about 100 students and doctors attended. The students had one day of their own before the main conference began. About 25 of them were dental students. Vigorous debate was conducted on how to bring a Christian dimension into a chaotic health-care system, strapped for cash - sounds familiar!

Marius Radu, a leading philosophy teacher and husband of the secretary of the Romanian CMA has recently joined the team developing Saline Solution in Central Europe. They call it 'With Salt' in Romania. He will be part of a team presenting a Saline Solution seminar in the pre conference days of the ICMDA European conference in Germany, September 2004.

In June three British junior doctors went over to Germany to join the German junior doctors' conference. This was a tremendous experience on both sides and we are keen to encourage more of such exchanges. If you would be interested contact the CMF office or ICMDA Europe.

The German committee is moving ahead well with preparations for the European conference. They are planning for 300 doctors and spouses and 200 students from right across Europe. The location has been settled at Krelingen, close to Hanover in Northern Germany.

The dates are 8-12 September 2004 with the students and junior doctors starting a few days earlier on the 6th. The theme is 'Who Cares?' and the usual mix of Bible ministry, plenary lectures, multiple seminars and plenty of time for building friendships will make up the conference.

Plenary speakers include John Wyatt, John Patrick, Pablo Martinez with Klaus Teschner giving Bible readings. Concurrently with the student and juniors' conference, there will be a consultation for Christians involved in medical education, a Saline Solution seminar and the international executive committee of ICMDA will be meeting.

This will be a great opportunity for new friendships and for learning from across Europe. Even if you have never attended an ICMDA conference in the past take the opportunity of this one within easy reach and plan on joining us.

You can contact Peter at - prmp@ukonline.org