[Visual Impressions of the Conference "Family-friendliness in Medical Under- and Postgraduate Education" ]

 Ralf Peßmann ¹
Johanna Niehues ²
Hubert Liebhardt <sup>2

1</sup> PERANET * creativ solutions, Ulm, Germany
² University Clinic Ulm, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, Ulm, Germany

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Conference documentation

The conference on Family-Friendliness in Medical Under- and Postgraduate Education took place from the 14th to the 15th of October 2010 at the University of Stuttgart-Vaihingen (see Figure 1 ) in Auditorium V9.01 (see Figure 2 ) with over 80 participants from all over Germany.

The conference was opened with a speech by Ministerial Director Klaus Tappeser, Office of the Chief Minister for Science, Research and Arts of Baden-Württemberg (see Figure 3 ) and Karin Maag MP (CDU) (see Figure 4 ). Both presenters emphasised the need for more family-friendliness in the future and the challenges this posed to personal and corporate policies in the health service and in medical schools.

They were followed by Prof. Jörg M. Fegert, Medical Director of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, University Clinic Ulm (see Figure 5 ) with a lecture introducing the issue of family-friendliness in medicine. Mr. Erich Stutzer of Family Research Baden-Württemberg (see Figure 6 ) then gave a glimpse into the future using demographic data and best-practice examples from the health sector.

The key event was the presentation of the current study results by Dr. Katrin Prospero (see Figure 7 ) and Johanna Niehues MA (see Figure 8 ) of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, University Clinic Ulm. The study “Family-Friendly Medical Studies in Baden-Württemberg” was funded by the Ministry of Science, Research and Arts of Baden-Württemberg.

During the lunch break the participants had a chance to mingle (see Figure 9 ) and check out the open poster presentation (see Figure 10 ).

The afternoon session was opened by Dr. Hubert Liebhardt (see Figure 11 ), Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, University Clinic Ulm, with practical examples for family-friendly medical studies using the University of Ulm as an example.

Ulrike Leiblein from the Heidelberg Student Union (see Figure 12 ) gave a report on the specific family-friendly policies at the University of Heidelberg.

Cornelia Bressem (see Figure 13 ), senior official of the Government of Baden-Württemberg, was responsible for organising the conference and a helpful contact at the Ministry of Science, Research and Arts of Baden-Württemberg.

The conference highlight was the panel discussion with the following participants (see Figure 14 ), moderated by Dr. Daniel De Ridder (see Figure 15 ):

• Dr. Charles Benninger (Chief of the Medical Association of Baden-Württemberg)
• Prof. Dieter Bitter-Suermann (MFT)
• Prof. Jörg M. Fegert (Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy University of Ulm)
• Nora Heinemann, medical student (bvmd)
• Prof. Martina Müller-Schilling (Senior Chief Physician, Internal Medicine IV, University Hospital Heidelberg)
• Andreas Schütze, Assistant Secretary (MWC)
• Jutta Struck (BMFSFJ)
• Rudiger Strehl, Secretary General (VUD)

The second day of the conference saw a workshop on specific implementation opportunities and best-practice examples of family-friendly policies at universities and university hospitals in small groups (see Figukre 16 ). Dr. Daniela De Ridder hosted the workshop.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.