News flash: medical students redeem themselves

Having given me plenty of reasons in the past to suppose that your average bunch of medical students couldn't organise a carve up in a mortuary, I am pleased to report that my mind has been changed. I gatecrashed a student conference on global health this weekend (gatecrashed in the sense that I legitimately paid for a 'non-student' ticket, but nonetheless felt a bit of an interloper surrounded by all these clinical types) and I have to say that the organisation was fantastic. They had done a really good job - everything ran really smoothly, there were lots of people to help lost visitors, registration was painless, and only one session overran. So, well done to them. It's easy to point out the bad, but good should also get credit.

What's more, they had really given a lot of thought to the wider messages they were promoting. The conference pack came in a Fairtrade cotton bag, contained some Fairtrade chocolate, and a mug to be used in the tea breaks, thus saving on plastic waste or the cost of hiring crockery. Surefire way to win me around!

One the other hand, I recently got to see the printed copy of the magazine mentioned below. I haven't given it a thorough read yet, but it generally looks good. I did note, however, that the article I had gone through thoroughly and changed every erroneous 'practise' to 'practice' had been published without those corrections. Sigh.