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International Federation of Medical Students' Associations

organization

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ1537047
Source-derived summary

The International Federation of Medical Students' Associations (IFMSA) is a non-governmental organization representing associations of medical students. It was founded in May 1951 and currently maintains 133 member organizations from 123 countries around.

History

The International Federation of Medical Students' Associations was one of the numerous international student organizations set up directly after the end of the Second World War. The first meeting that saw the establishment of the Federation was held in Copenhagen, Denmark in May 1951. The first members of this new organization were the United Kingdom, Austria, the Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Denmark. London saw the first General Assembly of IFMSA in July 1952. The meeting had a total of thirty participants from ten countries.

Starting from the exclusively European founding organizations, the Federation has expanded to include 136 members from all over the world.

The IFMSA has always focused on student mobility and exchange as well as conference and workshop organization. The first conferences were known as the Student International Clinical Conferences, and they were quite successful in the 1950s.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “International Federation of Medical Students' Associations” as organization. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around International, Federation and Medical.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1951, 1952—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1951. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with International, Federation and Medical providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “International Federation of Medical Students' Associations”, the useful work is to connect “organization” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1537047. VIAF identifies the subject as 139500604. The Library of Congress control number is n2019186591. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1951 and 1952.

Critical limits

Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “International Federation of Medical Students' Associations”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow International Federation of Medical Students' Associations primary sources, International Federation of Medical Students' Associations archive and International research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “International Federation of Medical Students' Associations”?
  2. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from International Federation of Medical Students' Associations” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.