MEDCONFERENCE/ The Third Edition is starting

On Friday, October 21, at 8:30 pm, with a benefit concert in Florham Park, NJ, in honor of  Father Aldo Trento, an Italian missionary in Paraguay, the 3rd edition of the MedConference will begin.

The MedConference was born out of the desire of a group of physicians, nurses and students to pursue within the medical fields the ideals for which they decided to embrace the medical profession. The organizers of this conference strongly desire to provide a yearly meeting place where health care professionals may encounter others with a desire to rebuild a more person-oriented health care.

From the website of the MedConference we reprint the scope of this relevant event in the health care world.

The Medical Profession
The core of the medical profession, which is the relationship between patient and caregiver, is too often reduced to a sort of mechanism. The very nature of medical care is at risk, because the concept of ‘person’ is confused.

The nature of the person is expressed by critical questions which easily emerge in front of sickness, sorrow and death. What is the meaning of this illness? Why is there pain and death? Why is it worthy to be a doctor or a nurse today? What is it that a patient asks of a caregiver?

The Human Adventure Corporation and the American Association of Medicine and the Person (AAMP) invite you to a three-day medical conference for physicians, nurses and med students. This project is supported by a grant from the ‘Cesare Zorzoli Donation.’

The Theme
Medicine’s goal is to heal the life of our patients, because life is a fundamental good. Historically, medical care focused on alleviating the patients’ suffering, more recently the developments of science and medical technology have made possible the healing of an increasing number of sick persons. However, when the impossibility of cure becomes apparent, a new risk emerges: that of abandoning the patient.

We submit that, even when a medical or surgical cure can no longer allow a complete recovery, much can still be done to care for the patient. This is not something to be underestimated, because every individual patient, even one who is incurable, bears an inherent unconditional value, which constitutes the indispensable basis of every medical intervention.