Core values in family medicine: Inspiring global change

Anna Stavdal
WONCA Immediate Past-President

The WONCA Core Values Project was launched in March 2023 with an open invitation in my president message in the WONCA newsletter. Following up on an idea I shared already in my inauguration speech in 2021: “for a definition of family medicine to impact identity, members need to have a stake in it, that sense of ownership that comes from having won it for themselves.”

A designated e-mail address was included, for members to respond to with the invitation: “Please reflect on the values that mean most to you as a healthcare professional – both personally, within your specific context, and globally, within our shared profession”.

Background

Understanding, developing and defining family medicine is not something we do once and then we’ve got it. It’s an ongoing process; professional development is a core activity for family doctors, integrating research, experiential knowledge, reflection and implementation in a dynamic circular reciprocity.

Our values are our guiding principles. At the same time, practices and standards vary with different contexts, particularly when it comes to local needs, what the public demands and available resources. Diversity also reflects culture, religion, and where on the primary care journey the local community find itself.

We can recognize our differences better when we’re aware of our common ground, it also makes us better prepared to meet the challenges we face with shifts in societal trends, which are always reflected in health systems, not least in primary care.

Knowledge of our common ground also enables our collective efforts to be effective, such as when we develop training programs, define research agendas, agree on advocacy actions and plan activities that are well-dimensioned.

Family medicine has traditionally been defined and described from Western High Income Country (HIC) perspectives. The WONCA membership is growing, to large extent in Low/Middle Income Countries (LMIC). The discipline should reflect local context, it is not a copy/paste exercise to develop primary care and family medicine, it should be done with awareness of local culture and national health systems. That is why engagement from the broad WONCA community is important for a fruitful outcome of the Core Values Project.

How is it organized?

The project lead group consists of Prof Felicity Goodyear Smith (New Zealand), Prof Johann Sigurdsson (Iceland/Norway), and WONCA Immediate Past President Anna Stavdal. Handpicked regional leads were invited to recruit three additional persons each, preferably from different countries in their regions, to share responsibility and facilitate process on country level.

Nina Monteiro, liaison person to the WONCA Lisbon Conference 2024, is also part of the core group. The WONCA President, President Elect, and CEO are ex officio members.

Project goals

In short, our goal is to encourage and support WONCA member organizations (MOs) to define their profession in their local context, and to map what already exists of definitions, vision and mission statements.

Thanks to Felicity Goodyear Smith’s extensive efforts, we had a preliminary overview when the project took off for real: 40% of our member MOs do not have local descriptions of the discipline of family medicine available online and/or on their websites/other online entries.

We are now working on finalizing the map, and we are encouraging development where such documentation doesn’t exist. This year, all WONCA regions organize conferences, an opportunity for regional workshops for face-to-face discussions to happen. South Asia and Africa already organized well-attended workshops, and discussions sparked. APR is next, followed by Europe, EMR, CIMF, and North America.

What might emerge?

Dilemmas, needs for conceptualization, and clarifications are identified in the ongoing process, which takes place in writing, in online calls, and at face-to-face events. Input will be condensed and discussed further in the core group. A book abstract is accepted by the WONCA publisher Taylor & Francis, describing the state-of-the-art from regional perspectives and will be on the market in 2026. In the course of the project, maybe a manifesto will be drafted for Council handling, a step toward a statement of Global Family Medicine Core Values and Principles on which we could agree?

Outcomes will be presented at the WONCA World conference in Lisbon in September 2025.

The Core Values project workshop

The Core Values project was the topic of the workshop at the annual WONCA Council, which took place online in the end of June. It was met with enthusiasm and the workshop provided fruitful input.The main objective of the project is to contribute to the development of A SHARED VOCABULARY OF OUR HUMANITY ENABLING US TO REACH OUT TO COLLEAGUES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, ENRICHED RATHER THAN HINDERED BY OUR DIFFERENCES.

Do you want to take part?

Attend the workshops at the regional conferences. Contact your regional lead for guidance on how you can contribute. Write to CoreValues@wonca.net and we will forward requests. Use the same e-mail address should you have input or feedback to the project leads.

Happy brainstorming!

Read more: WONCA South Asia Region Core Values Workshop

Project leads: Felicity Goodyear-Smith, Johann A Sigurdsson, Anna Stavdal.