From the CEO's desk: awards, conferences, resources.

October, 2014

Hello again from Bangkok. This month I want to concentrate on WONCA awards, WONCA conferences and WONCA resources.

WONCA Awards

Two sets of awards are currently available for WONCA members. The Montegut Scholarship awards provide support for one doctor from each of the seven WONCA regions to attend their regional conference annually. The Taiwan Family Medicine Research awards are available to three young researchers, to present their research at the Asia Pacific conference in Taipei next March.

Montegut Scholarships

The Montegut Global Scholars Program, established by the American Board of Family Medicine Foundation (ABFM-F) in 2010, will provide a USD2,250 scholarship for one family physician selected from each of the seven WONCA regions to attend their respective regional WONCA meetings in 2015. If there is no meeting planned for a region in 2015 then it will be permissible for the nominee from that region to use the scholarship to attend a meeting in another region. Further details are available from the WONCA Secretariat (manager@wonca.net) or on the WONCA website.

Taiwan Family Medicine Research Award

As the result of a generous donation from the Chinese Taipei Association of Family Medicine WONCA is pleased to seek applications for the Taiwan Family Medicine Research Award for new primary care researchers. Three awards will be given, each of $1,000, to support three junior and emerging researchers to travel to Taipei, Chinese Taipei, to present his or her paper at the WONCA Asia Pacific Region conference, being held in Taipei from 4th to 8th March 2015. Further details are available on the WONCA website. Closing date for applications is Friday 28th November.

WONCA Conferences 2015

South Asia in Chennai in August was the last conference of 2014. However there’s a really busy schedule of meetings and conferences, so make sure you get the dates into your diary now.

South Asia Region Dhaka, Bangladesh             13-14 February
Africa Region Accra, Ghana                               18-21 February
Asia Pacific Region Taipei, Chinese Taipei         4-8 March
Iberoamericana-CIMF Montevideo, Uruguay     18-21March
Rural Health conference Dubrovnik, Croatia     15-18 April
Eastern Med Region Dubai, UAE                       30 April-2 May
Europe Region Istanbul, Turkey                         22-25 October

more information on all WONCA conferences

WONCA Resources

Finally for this month, a special offer on some WONCA resources. Many resources are freely available on the WONCA website, but for the remaining three months of 2014 we are offering a discount to anyone purchasing both the WONCA Guidebook: “The Contribution of Family Medicine to Improving Health Systems” and the WONCA Mental Health book: “Integrating Mental Health into Primary Care” (pictured right). The guidebook sells for $65 whilst the mental health book is priced at $45. However for the rest of this year we are offering the two books together for $90.

At the end of October I will take part in a Conference Planning Committee meeting in Rio, as part of the preparations for the 2016 World Conference. Drs Bohumil Seifert and Dan Ostergaard will join me as we meet with our Brazilian colleagues over two days of discussion and visits and I’ll write more on this in a future column. Over the coming weeks we will also be sending out a questionnaire to all Member Organizations asking for feedback on a number of issues, so I hope very much that we can encourage a good response.

Good wishes to all WONCA members globally.

Dr Garth Manning
CEO