The Final Game is the culminating event where the top four teams compete in a quiz-style challenge. Teams showcase their theoretical knowledge and problem-solving skills, answering questions on various medical topics. This challenge not only tests participants' understanding of medical concepts but also their ability to think critically and apply their knowledge in different scenarios. The competitive aspect adds excitement and motivation as teams vie for the prestigious Golden Prize, promoting camaraderie and a spirit of excellence among participants.

Join us for an enlightening conference by Dr. Giovanni Briganti, titled "AI 4 Health," where he delves into the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare. Dr. Briganti, Chair of AI & Digital Medicine at Université de Mons, will share his expertise gained through years of research and practical experience. From pioneering work in Network Psychiatry to leading AI4Health initiatives at AI4Belgium, his insights promise to reshape our understanding of healthcare delivery. Don't miss this opportunity to explore the future of medicine with Dr. Giovanni Briganti.

Prepare to embark on a journey into the fascinating world of gut health with Professor Nathalie Delzenne in her conference titled "The Gut Microbiome as a New Target in the Management of Health." As a distinguished full professor at UCL's Faculty of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, Professor Delzenne's expertise in pharmaceutical sciences and human nutrition sets the stage for an illuminating discussion. With over 250 publications to her name, Professor Delzenne's research at the Louvain Drug Research Institute focuses on unraveling the intricate interactions between nutrients and the intestinal microbiota in various health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and nutritional disorders. Her contributions extend internationally, as she leads efforts in prominent research consortia including the KBBE MyNewGut and FOOD4GUT Excellence Project. Recipient of numerous scientific accolades, including chairing the Belgian Nutrition Society and membership in esteemed scientific councils, Professor Delzenne's insights are at the forefront of advancing our understanding of gut health. Don't miss this opportunity to delve into the cutting-edge research shaping the future of health management with Professor Nathalie Delzenne. Join us for an enlightening exploration into the transformative potential of the gut microbiome. Follow the link : https://fb.me/e/4gzLWBEAO

Watch the fabulous opening of the MedCup, the first medical world cup. Come and get your dose of motivation. Click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2X_7pz6VSA

Join us for an enlightening conference by Professor Karelle Leroy on "Alzheimer's Disease: In Vivo and In Vitro Models." As the recipient of the prestigious Simone and Pierre Clerdent Prize, Professor Leroy's groundbreaking research in the field of human neurological diseases has earned her significant recognition. This esteemed award will provide funding of €400,000 over three years for her research project. As a researcher at the Laboratory of Histology, Neuroanatomy, and Neuropathology at ULB, Professor Leroy leads the research group focusing on Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. The laboratory's research activities are primarily dedicated to unraveling the etiopathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases of the nervous system, particularly Alzheimer's disease and tauopathies. Investigations are conducted in both pathological tissues and cellular and transgenic models to validate concepts and hypotheses derived from observations. Don't miss this opportunity to gain insights into Professor Leroy's multidisciplinary approach, utilizing a variety of neurobiological techniques, from molecular and cellular to behavioral levels. Her expertise extends to comparative neurobiology of brain aging and calcium signaling. Join us as Professor Leroy shares her expertise and advances in understanding Alzheimer's disease at this enlightening conference. Follow the link : https://fb.me/e/4gzLWBEAO.

Get ready to explore the intriguing phenomenon of the normobaric oxygen paradox with Professor Costantino Balestra in his captivating conference titled "The Normobaric Oxygen Paradox: From Breath-Hold Diving to the Patient’s Bed." As an accomplished associate professor specializing in environmental physiology of extreme conditions, Professor Balestra brings a wealth of expertise garnered from his diverse research endeavors. From unraveling the mysteries of neurophysiology to delving into the complexities of extreme environments such as space, scuba diving, and high altitude, Professor Balestra's career spans a remarkable breadth of disciplines. His contributions to research programs for NASA, oil companies, and the European Space Agency (ESA) attest to his invaluable insights into the physiological intricacies of extreme conditions. With over 200 international publications and a commitment to teaching, Professor Balestra continues to inspire and educate future generations in physiology, biostatistics, and research methodology. As the Vice-President of DAN Europe and past president of the European Society of Hyperbaric Medicine, his expertise is unparalleled in the field. Don't miss this opportunity to delve into the fascinating world of extreme physiology with Professor Costantino Balestra. Join us for an enlightening exploration that promises to unveil the secrets of the normobaric oxygen paradox.

"Bacteriophage therapy in the battle against bacterial infections" Presented by Dr. Saartje Uyttebroek, MD and fellow PhD. Dr. Uyttebroek is mainly involved in Rhinology research at the KU Leuven, with main interest in upper airway disease in patients with cystic fibrosis and bacteriophage therapy in the treatment of therapy-resistant chronic rhinosinusitis. She collaborates with the laboratory of Gene Technology in Arenberg, Leuven, and the Queen Astrid Military Hospital in Brussels. In this lecture she will talk about bacteriophages that could be a solution to antimicrobial resistance. This is a growing global threat according to the WHO. Phages are naturally occurring viruses, omnipresent across the globe, that are able to infect and lyse bacteria. In this talk, the general concept and history of bacteriophages, as well as the available literature on safety and efficacy of phage therapy will be discussed.

"Life in the fast line: work and life as an emergency physician in humanitarian settingst" presented by Dr. Brecht De Tavernier, MD, MSc. Dr. De Tavernier is a specialist in emergency medicine and is a consultant for MSF, where he has carried out several missions in the paediatric emergency and trauma department as well as for the GZA Hospitals in Antwerp. In this lecture, he will talk about his personal experience, his feelings as an emergency doctor in low-income countries, his reflections, the challenges but also the good times and the positive points of emergency humanitarian work.

"One of the most worldwide performed surgery" by Dr. Vincent Qin who obtained his medical degree from the Catholic University of Leuven in 2012. In the same year, he also obtained a master's degree in Management Engineering. He then specialised in Ophthalmology and surgery at the Saint-Luc Hospital and at the Rothschild Ophthalmological Foundation, Paris. Since 2018, he is the president of the European Meeting of Young Ophthalmologist. Cataract surgery is one of the most frequently performed surgeries worldwide. world. During his lecture, Dr. Qin will explain this surgery in detail, detailing his procedures.

“Interventional radiology, We chose to go to Mars!” presented by Pr. Vincent Vidal, PhD, MD. Pr Vidal is the head of Interventional Radiology in the Imaging Department at Timone University Hospital in Marseille (France), Professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Director of the Experimental Interventional Imaging Laboratory at the Aix-Marseille University (France). During distant astral travel, particularly for the MARS mission, medical problems will have to be managed autonomously with small, versatile equipment. The impossibility of heavy surgery and direct interaction with the earth will also limit the management of a good number of pathologies. Interventional radiology is, by definition, a speciality that responds to several of these problems, in particular access to deep organs under ultrasound control (a typical example being the drainage of a life-threatening digestive abscess). The doctor who embarks on this mission will have to be extremely versatile and have skills in interventional radiology.

"Reaction to excerpts from medical series" presented by Prof. Dr. Preiser who is the Director of Research at the HUB. He was head of clinic for 10 years at the ULB. He is also involved in research in the intensive care units. In this lecture, he will share his impressions on the practices that can be found on screen in current series and compare them with his extensive experience in the field.

"The lessons of the covid-19 pandemic" presented by Pr. Michel Goldman, MD, PhD who is the founding President of the I3h Institute for Interdisciplinary Innovation in healthcare at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). He is Professor emeritus in immunology at ULB, and a Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium. Michel Goldman was the first Executive Director of the European Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and is the Editor-in-Chief of Frontiers in Medicine. The COVID-19 pandemic was a stark reminder that the fight against infections is a never-ending war. The lessons we must learn from this go far beyond infectious diseases. As a medical researcher concerned with putting innovation at the service of patients, Michel Goldman emphasises the importance of interdisciplinarity and collective intelligence in overcoming major health challenges. He also highlights the study of rare diseases and the importance of digital technologies to develop more precise medicine based on the molecular foundations of diseases. In reality, these are the new frontiers of medicine that Michel Goldman is committed to defining.

Join the closing ceremony where you can find the announcement of the winners of the challenges during the two previous days, the conferences of our sponsors and guests, the intense and emotional final game with the winners and the consecration of our great champions of this second edition.

"Docs, science and media in times of crisis: the impossible balance?’’ presented by Pr. Smeesters, a pediatrician, working as the head of the pediatric department from the Academic Children’s Hospital Queen Fabiola at the Free University of Brussels (ULB). His team has also set up and validated a new typing tool for Streptococcus pyogenes which has been endorsed by the American CDC and is now broadly used for molecular typing and vaccine development.

"Technical evolutions in Cardiac Surgery: The Future is NOW!‘’ presented by Dr. Casselman, MD, Ph.D., and also FECTS. His interests include minimally invasive surgery (robotic and videoscopic), valvular reconstructive surgery, percutaneous valve replacement, and arrhythmia surgery. He is actively involved in cardiac clinical research and has participated in multiple multicenter trials (including Syntax trial, Partner and Prevail trial, …).

"Being a doctor in the tropics: a lesson in humility." presented by Dr. Nys who after having finished medicine at the University of Leuven and chose to specialise in paediatrics. She followed the postgraduate in tropical medicine and international health at the Tropical Institute of Antwerp. Thereafter she made her first humanitarian mission with Doctors without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières). Humanitarian work means daily confrontation with this sad reality, with diagnostic and therapeutical challenges and with working in a quickly changing and difficult environment. But there is more. It means also teamwork, on a small and larger scale, and it means looking at medicine and health from another broader perspective than we usually do as a doctor.

"Challenges of Innovating within Healthcare, Study Case of PeriKit" presented by Dr. Harfouche. It is not only about the explanation of an innovative product as such, but also about the journey to get the ideas off the ground: the advances, the difficulties, the prototyping, the medical thinking, the patient in focus, etc. PeriKit is the project of a lifetime: how and why to quantify as precisely as possible the segmental and volumetric variations in the limbs?

"Family Centered Care" presented by Dr. Devos. This presentation is based on his research works about the place of families when a patient is admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. Furthermore, Dr. Devos received the Prize of Specialist Doctor in 2017 for his research work about the visiting hours in the ICU. He divides his time between practicing medicine and participating in several multidisciplinary task forces aimed at reforming medicine and healthcare in Belgium.

"Saving lives with organ transplantation: progress through solidarity and science" presented by Pr. Wissing who is the head of the nephrology department of the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel and professor of internal medicine and nephrology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels. Professor Wissing has a long-standing interest in organ transplantation and is working as a clinical nephrologist and researcher in this field for more than 30 years. Organ transplantation has revolutionised treatment and enables patients with end-stage failure to escape certain death and lead normal lives. Transplantation is not possible without consent by deceased or living donors to provide life-saving organs. Transplantation also requires immunosuppressive medication to prevent rejection of the transplanted organ. The ultimate objective is to obtain a state of permanent donor-specific immune tolerance.

"Innovating for the vaccines of today and tomorrow” Presented by Dr. Louahed Jamila. She obtained her Ph.D. in Immunology and Molecular biology at Université Catholique de Louvain in Brussels and completed her post-doctoral training at Magainin Pharmaceuticals in Philadelphia. Her research has focused on the discovery and characterization of two cytokines (IL-9 & IL-22) as well as their role in cancer and chronic disorders. Following her post-doctoral training, Jamila held a senior researcher position at the Brussels branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. She joined GSK in 2005, taking on roles of increasing responsibility in immunology, translational research and biomarkers for patient stratification. She was heading the research and development of cancer immunotherapeutic from discovery to late clinical development. After heading the cancer vaccine program, she was appointed in 2015 Head of R&D for infectious vaccines. She is in charge of the life cycle management of the commercial vaccines and the development of the elderly and therapeutic vaccine portfolio.

"Deep learning for medical applications" presented by Mr. Quentin Bolsee who is a Ph.D. student at the Electronics and Informatics (ETRO) department of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium. He received the MSc degree in Electronics and Information Technology University of Brussels (ULB) in 2017. The same year, he was awarded a Fonds Voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO) Ph.D. fellowship to pursue his work on noise removal in multi-camera depth sensing. His current research activities involve acquisition systems for high-quality point cloud reconstruction, including deep-learning-based denoising.

"Reflections on the past and future of the art of healing" presented by Dr. Ouchinsky. He studied at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) with a specialisation in sports medicine and then continued with a DU in sports traumatology at the Pitié Paris XIV. In addition to his private consultations, he gives lectures in various masters, notably at the ULB and the UCL.

"From medical studies to McKinsey: my professional journey as a consultant" presented by Mr. De Smet. After obtaining a degree in Medicine and Business Engineering from the KU Leuven, he joined McKinsey in January 2019 after his role as Head of Finance at Nextbook. He has since worked in a variety of industries such as Telecom, Media & Technology, Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, or the Public & Social Sector. During his conference, he will talk about the path leading from his medical studies to joining McKinsey as a consultant, and how his background has benefitted his professional and personal development.

"Multidisciplinary Work" presented by Dr. Harfouche expresses one of the main problems in the care of a patient: managing to make the work of several disciplines and the point of view of several human beings coexist. The aim is to be able to use complementarity to solve health-related problems in the broadest sense of the term. Dr. Harfouche, in the context of his daily practice, will address the essential points of teamwork from several points of view.

The big closing ceremony of MedCup! Relive the announcement of the winners of each challenge, the final quiz of the best teams to define the grand winner and several great speakers.

"Technology at the service of urology" presented by Dr. Barmoshe, an Urological surgeon specialised in laparoscopic, robotic urologic surgery and endoscopic surgery. The integration of technology in urology. Miniaturisation, robotic interfaces and 3D imaging have made it possible to improve surgical procedures in terms of dexterity and to make them less and less invasive. These technical advances have led to shorter hospital stays, less blood loss and better oncological and functional results by accelerating the return to normal life.

"Ways of doctors to work with GSK: Different Perspectives" presented by Dr. Vetter. He was graduated from Medical School at the University of Munich, Germany in 1990. In 2006 he joined GlaxoSmithKline Germany responsible for paediatric vaccines within the medical department. There he received the certificate for clinical research. Now he works for GSK Vaccines in Wavre, Belgium as Global Medical Portfolio Lead for Classic vaccines.

“Facts, fake news, and future in neurosurgery. Scientific and ethical considerations" presented by Pr. Brotchi who is The Winner of several Neurosurgery Awards, he is a neurosurgeon and the founder of the neurosurgery department of the Erasmus Hospital. In 2005, he became president of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies for 4 years. He was also the honorary head of department and professor emeritus. During this conference, you are going to see how neurosurgery has evolved, from when neurosurgeons, as Pr. Brotchi, were able to find if there was a hemorrhage in the brain only based on the anamnesis until now where, in a few minutes, we can locate it using a PET Scan.

"Should we take care of the disease or should we take care of the patient?" presented by Pr. Thill who has a master's degree in business coaching and training in co-development. She uses neurosciences to effectively manage medical and paramedical resources in order to work in transgeneration and bring out talents and skills. The use of mindfulness in medicine, the search for the physical and mental well-being of the patient and the care teams are her motivations to contribute to bringing more humanity and efficiency in the world of care, which has often become too computerised and protocol-based. We often forget that we are treating a patient and not a disease. If we still want to keep our place as doctors alongside robots of all kinds, shouldn't we develop our empathy, which is not talked about enough in our university curricula? This may be the next revolution in health care.

"State of play and future of psychiatry" presented by Pr. Kornreich. He is Vice-President of the Master of Psychiatry and teaches regularly for future specialists in psychiatry. He got his MSc in medicine in 1986 at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, his specialization in psychiatry in 1992, a certificate of Cognitive and Behavioral Psychotherapy in 1993 and he defended his Ph.D. in 2003, entitled «Contribution to the study of emotional facial expressions recognition in addiction. He has authored around 150 peer-refereed scientific publications mainly in the domain of social cognition in addiction. His work is receiving wide and growing international recognition from peers, as evidenced by over 4600 citations (Google Scholar).

"About the Continuity of Consciousness: A concept based on scientific studies on Near-Death Experience" presented by Dr. van Lommel, who is interested in this unknown chapter of medicine. Dr. van Lommel specialised in cardiology at the University of Utrecht in 1976. He published several articles on cardiology, but since he started his research on near-death experiences (NDE) in survivors of cardiac arrest in 1986, he is the author of over 20 articles, one book, and many chapters about NDE.

”Military doctor: from dream to reality” is the first part of the conference and it will be presented by Dr. Lt Col François. A good operational military doctor is first and foremost a civilian doctor who has acquired complementary skills to work in critical medicine, in an austere and sometimes hostile environment. His area of expertise, whether general practitioner, acutist, anesthesiologist or surgeon, includes emergency medicine (trauma or medical), tropical medicine and disaster medicine. In addition, he must take into account sometimes complex tactical situations, in terms of security, evacuation times and logistical support, which makes his work all the more exciting and unique. “Becoming a doctor at the Medical Component. Normal, additional, special or lateral recruitment?” is the second part of this conference and it will be presented by Maj Van Hove and Maj Phm Monserez. During this part we will learn about the different possible recruitment options offered by the Belgian Defence and the career opportunities for medical students.”