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MedEx is an international, multilateral student exchange program offered by IPPNW to its students. With the help of our IPPNW affiliates around the world, we are able to offer you a unique exchange program which encompasses both clinical and social service experience.

The MedEx idea originated in IPPNW-Germany, which has been sending medical students on peace and development electives for seven years now. IPPNW's MedEx is open to any medical student, including those from the global South. The idea is to create even playing fields, where not only the traditional North-South exchanges take place, but students from all countries of the world are able to move freely and experience new cultures, learn different ways of practicing medicine and meet new friends.

How the program works

A local student or physicians group decides to create a MedEx-Site in their city. This means organizing a hospital placement, taking care of accomodation and determining a social project for a foreign medical student to work in. They then register this site with the MedEx Project, which adds it to its list of possible MedEx-sites after reviewing the conditions and approving the new site.

Students from all over the world can then apply for this site and, if their application is approved by the MedEx team, will be put into contact with the local organizers who then regulate all ensuing organizational details in close personal contact with the applicant. In case of problems with funding, visa regulations or other issues, the MedEx team and the individual affiliates can be called on to help and to try to find funding. This process will be very flexible and different from case to case. Whereas some students might not need any funding and can organize the visas themselves, other students will need travel grants and personal invitations in order to go to another country.

Once all these issues are solved, the student will travel to the MedEx site, be accomodated by the local group and will:

• work in a hospital for a certain amount of time
• participate in a social project, which will have a different topic, depending on the individual site
  • peace and disarmament
  • conflict and violence prevention
  • abolition of the nuclear threat
  • public health
  • refugee medicine
  • environmental health
• be hosted by the local group, which can - for example - organize a speech at the local university, show the student the country, have him or her participate at local meetings, etc

Since the program is very flexible, each exchange site will be different. Some may offer extensive hospital stays, other comprehensive social programs, some putting their emphasis on the IPPNW work, and others on the cultural exchange between countries. All MedEx exchanges will however cover the three basic premises for which the project was founded:

• professional medical exchange
• working in a social setting
• bringing IPPNW students from all over the world closer together