77th WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific

Three WONCA Asia Pacific representatives brought the voice of family medicine to the 77th session of the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific (RC77), held in Manila, Philippines, from 19 to 22 October 2026.

WONCA Asia Pacific President-Elect Dr Aileen T. Riel-Espina, Member-at-Large Dr Leilanie Apostol-Nicodemus and Dr Michael Angelo J. Arteza, Chair of the Rajakumar Movement, the young doctors' movement of WONCA Asia Pacific, attended on behalf of WONCA. All three are from the Philippine Academy of Family Physicians (PAFP).

The Regional Committee brings together ministers of health and senior officials from across the Western Pacific, a Region home to more than a quarter of the world's population. This year's technical agenda covered artificial intelligence, hypertension control, immunization and tobacco control, and the Committee endorsed a regional guidance document or plan on each. As a non-State actor in official relations with WHO, WONCA submitted an intervention on all four items. Dr Arteza delivered the intervention on artificial intelligence in the plenary, and the other three were submitted in writing and published on WHO's RC77 website.

Primary care at the heart of responsible AI

On 20 October, Dr Arteza delivered WONCA's intervention under Agenda Item 9: Artificial intelligence (Document WPR/RC77/6). WONCA and the International Council of Nurses were the two non-State actors to speak on the item.

WONCA endorsed the draft Guidance for Responsible AI in Health in the Western Pacific Region. Using the Guidance's own example, Dr Arteza noted that a retinopathy-screening tool that is a productivity aid in a hospital can become the decision-maker in a rural clinic without an ophthalmologist, and that such tools will be used by primary care teams of nurses, midwives, community health workers and family doctors. WONCA committed to sharing primary care use cases and implementation lessons with the regional catalogue through its Working Party on Digital Health and member organisations, and to promoting regional learning platforms so that primary care teams know when to override AI and how to report errors. It urged Member States to include primary care and frontline clinicians in the governance of AI, to make accountability clear when an AI-supported decision is wrong and to fund the whole ecosystem, not just the pilot. It called on WHO to include primary care in the proposed regional technical advisory mechanism and to validate higher-risk tools in the primary care settings where they will be used. "AI used poorly, or not at all, risks deepening inequities. Used well, it extends the reach of primary health care," he concluded. The Committee endorsed the Guidance.

Read the full intervention

Continuity of care to control hypertension

Under Agenda Item 10: Hypertension control (Document WPR/RC77/7), WONCA endorsed the draft Regional Plan for Accelerating Hypertension Control in the Western Pacific Region. One in three adults in the Region lives with hypertension, and on current efforts 98 million people will have controlled hypertension by 2030, against the Plan's target of 203 million. WONCA said that gap closes when every patient has a named primary care team that follows them over time, treats to target and does not lose them after diagnosis. It committed to supporting team-based, protocol-driven care through family medicine training and continuing education, urged Member States to build patient enrolment with a named primary care team into universal health coverage benefit packages and to finance follow-up and uninterrupted medicines and called on WHO to involve family medicine and primary care associations in its training modules and communities of practice. "Control is won at follow-up, not at diagnosis."

Read the full intervention

Reaching every child through primary care

Under Agenda Item 11: Immunization (Document WPR/RC77/8), WONCA endorsed the draft Regional Plan to Accelerate Immunization Progress in the Western Pacific. With nearly 1.7 million children in the Region who have received no vaccine doses, WONCA highlighted that family doctors, working with nurses, midwives and community health workers, know their patients by name and follow families across the life course. It committed to building immunisation and vaccine-confidence competencies into family medicine training, and to working with community health workers and local partners to reach people not yet connected to clinics. WONCA urged Member States to include primary care and family medicine in their national immunisation technical advisory groups, and called on WHO to include primary care in zero-dose and catch-up planning, especially for Pacific island and remote communities.

Read the full intervention

Every consultation counts in tobacco control

Under Agenda Item 12: Tobacco control (Document WPR/RC77/9), WONCA endorsed the draft plan Accelerating Progress towards the 2030 Tobacco Control Target and its protection against tobacco industry interference. Tobacco causes about 3 million deaths a year in the Region, and the plan warns of an e-cigarette epidemic targeting young people. WONCA noted that prevention and quitting happen in consultations, where family doctors see adolescents and their parents again and again. It committed to promoting prevention advice and cessation support in family medicine training, urged Member States to enforce youth protections and to build brief advice and pharmacotherapy into primary health care packages and called on WHO to name primary care among the plan's key actors and to monitor cessation services. "Every consultation is a chance to stop someone starting, or help them quit."

Read the full intervention

Healthy ageing, partners and the next generation

Alongside the formal sessions, the WONCA delegation took part in wider discussions with WHO and partners.

• Healthy ageing: On 20 October, Dr Apostol-Nicodemus represented WONCA Asia Pacific at a high-level meeting, From commitment to action: Advancing healthy ageing in the Western Pacific through partnership, innovation and investment, co-convened by WHO and the Institute of Philanthropy alongside RC77. Two days later, WHO and the Institute launched a four-year partnership to advance healthy ageing in the Western Pacific, with support from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.
• Medical students: The delegation met representatives of the International Federation of Medical Students' Associations (IFMSA), led by Aryan Kadari, IFMSA Regional Director for Asia-Pacific 2026–2027, to strengthen dialogue between family medicine and the medical student movement on youth participation, leadership development and the future of primary health care.

WONCA's participation in RC77 showed how family medicine supports the Region's priorities, from responsible AI and hypertension control to immunization and tobacco control, and built links with WHO, partners and the next generation of doctors. As the delegation put it, "Family medicine must not only be part of the health system; it must also have a voice in shaping its future."

The conversation continues at the WONCA Asia Pacific Regional Conference 2027, "Family Doctors: The Heart of Quality Primary Healthcare", in Hong Kong SAR, China, from 22 to 25 April 2027. Abstracts and symposium proposals close on 15 November 2026.

Visit the RC77 website

Explore WONCA Asia Pacific

WONCA's statements and interventions to WHO are collected on the WONCA Policy Statements page. All four RC77 interventions are also on WHO's RC77 partner statements page.