Newsletter: August 2018

We all need to thank each other this month – which is the start of a new financial and academic year for some, a well-earned holiday period for others, and a really really busy time for the WONCA leadership and Secretariat as we run towards the Seoul conference and the WHO meeting in Astana.

Todos y todas debemos darnos las gracias mutuamente este mes de agosto, el mes en el que comienza un nuevo año fiscal y, para algunos y algunas, un nuevo año académico. Agosto también es el inicio de un periodo de vacaciones muy merecidas para otros colegas, y un verdadero (muy verdadero) comienzo de periodo ajetreado por parte de los directivos de WONCA y su secretariado mientras nos acercamos al Congreso de Seúl y al encuentro de la Organización Mundial de la Salud en Astana.

What a busy few weeks!! Since last I wrote I’ve been in Geneva, for World Health Assembly, then on to Krakow for the WONCA Europe conference and then to Warsaw for a meeting of the WONCA Executive. After that it was off to Toronto, to undertake a Program Accreditation visit at University of Toronto, before heading away for some much-needed leave time.

The American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) and the ABFM Foundation are pleased to announce the establishment of the Center for Professionalism and Value in Health Care based in Washington, D.C. The Center will be led by Robert Phillips, MD MSPH, who has been named as its founding Executive Director.

Find out who the plenary speakers are for WONCA Seoul...

I hope all WONCA members reading this will know that in July there was a very short period when the final draft of the “Astana Declaration on Primary Health Care: From Alma-Ata towards Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals” allowed people to comment on this version. in this policy bite the president and Vivi Martinez-Bianchi consider making a global declaration – how to influence and advocate?

Prof Christos Lionis (Greece) writes: Rural primary health care research promotes excellence in clinical practice and has been shown to improve staff recruitment and retention. While progress has been made recently to support research excellence in rural health care in Australia, Canada, the USA and some European countries, research in rural primary health care settings has received insufficient attention worldwide.

Prof Christopher Dowrick, chair of Working Party for Mental Health tells us about the latest resource produced by a task group of the Working Party or use by family doctors : "Addressing the needs of patients with Medically Unexplained Symptoms (MUS)"

Kate Anteyi, chair of the WONCA Working Party on Women & Family Medicine (WWPWFM) reports on activities July 2017 – June 2018. The WWPWFM goals for the 2016-2018 biennial is to have a sustained impact in WONCA regions through expansion, networks and linkages, and address women’s health at primary care through family medicine perspective.

Prof Felicity Goodyear-Smith Chair reports on 2017-18 activities. Research WONCA has been very active in the past year, the membership has grown and communication is maintained via a Google discussion group, with 68 members of the Research Assembly.

An outline of the past years' activities of the Working Party on Quality and Safety.

During the 23rd WONCA Europe Conference held in Krakow in May 2018, the VdGM Family Violence Group presented a workshop in collaboration with the WONCA SIG on Family Violence, focusing on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and its impact on exposed children.

WHO EMRO Regional Director, His Excellency Dr Ahmad Almandari visited Jordan recently. During his short stay, a WONCA East Mediterranean region (EMR) delegation comprised of Dr Mohammed Tarawneh, WONCA EMR president; Dr Mohamed Rasoul Tarawneh, Jordanian Society of Family Medicine president; and Dr Oraib Alsmadi, WONCA EMR treasurer; (all from Jordan) were able to arrange a meeting

Dr Jacqueline Ponzo, president-elect of WONCA Iberoamericana- CIMF Region was recently interviewed in Barcelona while attending the semFYC (Spanish Society of Family Medicine) #BCNsemFYC Conference. This is a short version of the interview.

Prof Louis Ferrant, of Belgium, is WONCA Europe’s 5 Star Doctor for 2018. We congratulate Louis on this achievement. ouis’ nomination demonstrates that meets the criteria for a 5 Star Doctor (care provider, communicator, community leader, decision maker, team member) as follows..

Driven by the Future Plan for WONCA Europe 2016-2019 (our strategic document for the triennium with the three main goals to build identity, increase visibility and exert influence), the activities of our organisation were reviewed by the WONCA Europe Council in Krakow.