 |
|
Subscribe to the MGSD.org newsletter to get more informations.
|  |
|
 |
 |
|
The MGSD is a specifically Mediterranean organization.
The Mediterranean Group for the Study of Diabetes was set up in 1985
on the initiative of Prof Molinatti (Turin) to meet the unrequited needs
of all those health professionals in the Mediterranean area involved in
the delivery of diabetes care. Although legendary for its blue sky, warm
sea, hospitality, generosity, and gastronomy, the Mediterranean basin has
not been spared the harsh realities of diabetes: the epidemiologic evidence
shows increases in both the incidence of the disease and its complications.
Two other considerations also inspired the founders of the MGSD:
the underrepresentation of the Mediterranean basin in the major international
diabetology associations, whether with a research or clinical basis, and
linguistic specificity, French still being a lingua franca for many of the
region's specialists.
Although this was sufficient justification in itself for setting up the
MGSD, the founders felt duty bound to develop their aims and working
practices along similarly original lines. It soon became apparent that on
top of conventional meetings bringing health professionals together and
keeping them abreast of the latest key developments in the specialty, there
was little point, given the absence of adequate training and resources,
in trying to set up topic-based study groups to produce clinical or epidemiologic
studies. For this reason, thanks to the unflagging commitment of its successive
presidents - Profs Molinatti (Italy), Alivisatos (Greece), Serrano Rios
(Spain), Crepaldi (Italy), Drouin (France), Kadiri (Morocco), Charbonnel (France) and Duran-Garcia (Spain) - the MGSD
sought to establish training programs empowering those entering the specialty
with the requisite technical skills to conduct broad national studies. Postgraduate
courses and fellowships are now offered in two languages to supplement the
training of young specialists.
The Mediterranean is nothing if not welcoming, of course, and the major
MGSD meeting, held every 2 years, provides the perfect forum for
scientific exchange, most notably in the fascinating poster sessions. Members
mingle, meet and talk, applaud the winners of the Hippocrates and Averroes
prizes awarded for the best two posters, and conduct MGSD official business,
electing the board and appointing the president. The last meeting, following
those held in ROME, ATHENS, NICE, MADRID, TUNIS, ROME, MARRAKECH, LISBON and NICE, was held in Istanbul from 26th to 29th April, 2007.
 To round off these activities the MGSD also boasts an information and communication
organ, ME.DI@.NEWS, which previously
has been available on paper only, but which became digital from November
2002. A Web presence is obviously a mark of modernity but also, and above
all, it is a rapid and reliable method of communicating with the entire
MGSD membership: in addition to ME.DI@.NEWS,
the MGSD will be offering abstracts and full-text articles over the
web, slide packages on specific topics.
All in all, with some 525 members on its books, backed by a committed board
and chairman, the MGSD, which has been a member of the International
Diabetes Federation since 1995, has more than fulfilled its founders' purpose
in focusing on specifically Mediterranean issues in diabetes and the delivery
of diabetes care. For its part too, SERVIER has been committed to
providing financial and logistic support to the project since its inception.
Each MGSD member is being invited to inject their own input into
supporting, expanding, and advertising the activities of not just another
group, but a group which was set up to cater for the specific needs of a
region and a disease.
Credits : Mastino et W Seltzer
|
 |
|
This web site is the property of MGSD © 2008 Mediterranean Group for the Study of Diabetes - All rights reserved.
|
