From the President: Strengthening Future Family Medicine
Strengthening Future Family Medicine
What Strengthens Family Medicine?
A list I often give in talks is:
- Dedicated training for our specialty
- Continuing professional development
- Mentorship of younger colleagues
- Research into our discipline
A New Group of Rural Medical Students
In my country, the Academic year has just commenced. We welcomed a new batch of medical students at the Australian National University. Our Rural Clinical School looks after 30 students who are placed in a rural town for a full year in their first clinical year. The six main towns vary from as small as 7500 to 25,000 in population. Some are on the coast, another in the alps area and others are in farming regions focussed on sheep and wheat farming.
The photo shows this year's ANU Rural medical students ready to live and study in their 2025 towns.
It is my hope that some of these young people will become the rural doctors of the future and may even take an interest in WONCA. Dedicated training strengthens Family Medicine.
WONCA Mentoring for Young Doctors
WONCA is increasing the support for our young doctor colleagues through the introduction of a Young Doctors' Movement (YDM) Global Mentorship Project.
Mentoring strengthens Family Medicine. This is an exciting new initiative designed to support and further develop young doctors and through that, to strengthen family medicine. By connecting new family doctors as well as doctors in Family Medicine training with experienced mentors, the project aims to combat isolation, reduce burnout, and enhance professional growth.
We hope it will also encourage our young family medicine colleagues to join WONCA. This initiative is focused on young doctors from the Africa, Iberoamericana and South Asia regions.
Drs Sankha Randenikumar and Cheryl Chan Yuen Ching, past and current YDM representatives on WONCA Executive.
The project is led by Drs Sankha Randenikumar and Cheryl Chan Yuen Ching, past and current YDM representatives on WONCA Executive (pictured), with co-leads Dr Maira Alejandra León Solarte and Dr Kinley Bhuti.
The team is calling for mentors who have expertise in family medicine and are willing to make a commitment to a two-year relationship with a mentee. Becoming a mentor offers a unique opportunity to share knowledge and experience. Mentors and mentees will be paired based on shared interests, language, time zones, and cultural considerations.
To participate as a mentor or mentee, sign up through the application forms.
The Montegut Global Scholars Program
At the WONCA Executive Committee meeting, in February 2011, it was agreed to accept the generous offer by the American Board of Family Medicine Foundation (ABFM-F) to establish the Montegut Global Scholars Program (MGSP). This was established to foster international education, research and collaboration, in the specialty of family medicine.
Alain Montegut MD, a member of the Board of Directors of the ABFM and former WONCA North America Region President.
The program is named in honour of Alain Montegut MD, a member of the Board of Directors of the ABFM and former WONCA North America Region President. His career has been devoted to developing high quality family medicine practice internationally, especially in underserved and/or undeveloped countries.
The first Montegut scholar was Dr Kyriakos Maltezis, of Greece, who was supported to attend the WONCA Europe conference in Warsaw in September 2011. Read more about Kyriakos and see other past winners here.
This year the MGSP will support attendance at the WONCA World Conference in Lisbon, Portugal taking place from 17 - 21 September 2025. Deadline for applications is 21 March 2025 and application form is available here.
Thank you to the ABFM again for this generous support.
WONCA Conferences 2025
Continuing Professional Development strengthens Family Medicine so why not register to attend a WONCA conference in 2025 and also hear about some of the latest research into our discipline.
As well as the world conference coming to Lisbon in September, WONCA regional conference are coming in April and May in India, South Korea, Morocco, and Uruguay. Information on all conferences is available on the WONCA website.
Photos from the history books, at the WONCA World conference in Cancun 2010, WONCA Executive members Nabil Al Kurashi (Saudi Arabia), Wesley Schmidt (Paraguay) and Preethi Wijegoonewardene (Sri Lanka) and on the right, WONCA Past President Richard Roberts (USA) with Zorayda 'Dada" Leopando and Soraya Abubakar (both from the Philippines).
I hope to see you at a WONCA conference in 2025
A/Prof Karen Flegg
WONCA President