AMSE at The Research & Innovations for Health Professions Conference hosted by IGHPE (Innovations in Global Health Professions Education), 28 – 29 April 2016, in Venice / Italy

Innovations in Global Health Professions Education (IGHPE) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal published by Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar and edited by a board of renowned experts in all areas of healthcare education. The mission of the journal is to promote the advancement of global health education, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, and to engage practitioners, researchers, students, and teachers in revolutionizing the quality and distribution of care.

IGHPE:

• provides a forum for the exchange of information that addresses the achievements and the challenges of global health education and practice,
• illuminates innovations that facilitate globalisation in health education,
• engages opinion leaders worldwide in policy making endeavours relevant to global health education,
• stimulates a consistent and productive debate on global health education and
• enhances the delivery of the journal content by using up-to-date technologies.

This conference is the second annual conference hosted by IGHPE. The event focused on research and innovations that advance performance of the health professions and is part of an ongoing aim to build an active health profession community inspired to lead transformative initiatives. The programme was structured around three core discussions:

1. The Vision for Our Health Professions
2. Healthcare Without Borders
3. Preparing for Digital Healthcare

At the beginning of the conference AMSE President Peter Dieter presented in a lecture the main activities of AMSE. He also talked about the challenges of the uncontrolled increase of medical schools, the absence of common quality standards for medical education and medical schools, free movement of doctors within Europe and possible risks for health and patient care in the future. Representatives of about 20 AMSE member medical schools attended the conference and contributed significantly to the success of the meeting. At the end, the main conclusions of the conference were highlighted such as:

• to define the needs of the health care of the future globally as well as locally,
• to define minimal competencies of doctors and other health care providers practising across our globe,
• to define standards of education programs and institutions delivering these programmes and
• to develop an international quality assurance system for recognition.

Altogether, this conference provided further ideas and necessities to enhance the quality of health care and to protect the public in the future.