From Camelia C. Isaic, Czech HAE Junior z.s.
HAE Junior raising disease awareness among medical students in the Czech Republic
At the invitation of ČAVO (Rare Diseases Czech Republic), our organization, HAE Junior, took part in the ‘University lectures’ educational project at the beginning of October 2025. Through seminars and lectures, this project seeks to introduce medical students to the life experiences of patients with rare diseases. During the lecture held at the 2nd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague, a brave HAE Junior representative shared her story describing both the disease experience and the challenges faced on her patient journey. Such insight gave the medical students a unique opportunity to learn about hereditary angioedema from the patient’s perspective and ask questions directly. At the same time, the future doctors were able to find out more about HAE Junior’s awareness projects and activities.
Our patient organization regularly joins similar events dedicated to educating medical students. For example, last year we held a similar presentation at the 3rd Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Prague, also at the invitation of ČAVO. We also displayed a drawing exhibition by children with HAE at the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University in Brno (2023) and the 2nd Faculty of Medicine of Charles University at Motol University Hospital in Prague (2022). In addition, we previously distributed to all medical faculties in the country the printed Czech version of the educational poster ‘Not all angioedema is caused by allergies’, issued by HAE International and translated into Czech by HAE Junior.
