swimsa is the independent and politically neutral umbrella organization for Swiss medical students. The first association of individual medical student organisations was formed in 1917 – today swimsa has over 10,000 members and represents the interests of students at the faculties of Basel, Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Lausanne, Lugano, Luzern, Neuchatel, St. Gallen and Zurich as well as ETH Zurich at a national and on an international level.

The Association of Swiss Clinical Associations (VDSK, founded in 1917) was a founding member of the IFMSA (International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations, 1951) and laid the foundations for the organization’s commitment to global health issues, which continues to this day. The IFMSA is recognized by the UN and the WHO as the representative body of over one million medical students and is involved in the areas of medical education, refugees and peace, reproductive health and AIDS, public health and professional exchange.

From 1968, medical students were united under the name VSM (Swiss Medical Students’ Association). After the student-political VSM and the exchange organization IFMSA-Switzerland had parted ways in the meantime, the two organizations were reunited in 2006 under the name Swiss Medical Students’ Association. The founding members are the student associations VSM-AEMS, IFMSA Switzerland, the ‘Achtung Liebe’ project and Gruhu, an association from Zurich that organises internships mainly in Africa. Over the past five years, swimsa has focussed on the new state examination and the Bologna reform in medicine. In addition, a number of projects have been launched that impressively demonstrate the diversity of student involvement.