More than 300 students of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Speech Therapy, Psychology and Physiotherapy took part this Saturday 1 April in a new edition of the Health Festival that is held every spring in the Plaza de la Virgen in Valencia on the occasion of World Health Day. This edition was the first to be held in the city after the pandemic and was a great success with the public. This year's theme was sustainability: 'Our planet, our health'.
The Valencian Association of Medical Students (AVEM) is organising this fair which aims to bring the various medical specialities and other health studies closer to the public. Last Saturday more than 20 tents were set up, attended by students from different medical specialities (digestive, nephrology, heart-healthy living, nutrition...) and health (pharmacy, dentistry, physiotherapy and psychology/logopedics). The students took part in various activities aimed at people who wanted to get to know these specialities more closely and directly. The activities organised were aimed at promoting healthy habits, informing about the most important current health problems and, above all, bringing the profession closer to the public.
The different pavilions that made up the fair had different specific themes and offered a large variety of information, advice and activities that were carried out during the event. Initiatives such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation techniques, exercises for the elderly, sign language, dermatological examinations, blood sugar and blood pressure measurements, the dental workshop, ophthalmological tests, workshops on sexuality and the prevention of STIs, alcoholism and drug consumption, among others, were carried out in the marquees. One of the most remarkable was the Ossicles Hospital, an initiative aimed at the youngest children to familiarise them with medicine and its procedures, and therefore lose their fear and mistrust of the white coat. But it was not all about medicine. During the afternoon activities such as Zumba were also programmed, and this year the prize for the best tent of the Health Festival XVI was announced as a novelty.
This event was attended by members of the medical team from the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy, Psychology-Logopedics, Physiotherapy and CAFÉ, as well as the Regional Minister of Health and the president of the Official College of Doctors of Valencia, Mercedes Hurtado, and her management team.
"One of the aims of this project is to bring medicine closer to the public and to involve them in protecting their health by mantaining a healthy lifestyle", explains AVEM president Jaume Aleixandre Lucas. For his part, the vice-president of AVEM, Daniel Cobus Urquidi, recalls that "after more than 15 years since its beginnings, and despite the impossibility of having carried it out since the pandemic by COVID-19 in 2020, this Health Festival represents, at the same time, a good opportunity to bring health closer to the population and for students to have contact with those who will be their patients in the future in a more comfortable and relaxed context, away from health and hospital centres".
The event was organised by the Valencian Association of Medical Students (AVEM) with the support and sponsorship of the University of Valencia and Valencian Association of Medical Students of Valencia.
