Newsletter: April 2016

This was my 8th visit to the People’s Republic of China since I became WONCA president in May 2013. WONCA has a long history of supporting our colleagues in China in the development of family medicine, dating back to the work commenced in the 1980s by past WONCA president, Dr Peter Lee, from Hong Kong.

Esta fue mi octava visita a la República Popular de la China desde que me convertí en Presidente de WONCA en mayo de 2013. WONCA tiene una larga historia de apoyo a los colegas chinos en el desarrollo de la Medicina Familiar, anterior del trabajo que empezó en los años ochenta por parte del anterior Presidente de WONCA, el Doctor Peter Lee, de Hong Kong.

C'était ma 8ème visite en République populaire de Chine depuis ma nomination à la présidence de WONCA en mai 2013. WONCA s'est forgé une longue histoire dans le soutien des collègues de Chine en ce qui concerne le développement de la médecine familiale, depuis le travail débuté dans les années 80 par l'ancien président de WONCA, Dr Peter Lee de Hong Kong.

Shenzhen is one of the miracles of modern China. Prior to 1979 it was a small market town. In that year it was established as the first Special Economic Zone in China, opening up opportunities for rapid foreign investment. It became one of the fastest growing cities in the world and now has a population of over 10 million people and a reputation for innovation and “leading the way”.

This month the CEO anticipates his coming attendance at a number of WONCA conferences and meetings. He also reminds us that World Family Doctor Day comes on May 19 and it certainly time to start planning activities. This year's suggested theme is smoking cessation and there are a number of resources available.

What is your Member Organization planning will this year's World Family Doctor Day? This year we’d especially like to highlight smoking cessation. Read more here.

Are you interested in hosting a young GP from overseas? The FM 360 program is looking for host practices particularly in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This program is supported by WONCA and works thanks to the collaboration of the seven WONCA Young Doctors’ Movements.

Who are the speakers for WONCA Rio? Many concepts and topics related to the development of family medicine will be discussed, such as quaternary prevention, "overdiagnosis", electronic health records, management of common health problems, quality assessment, the pre-test probability, system management of health and organization, etc

Ulrika Sandén is a social worker pursuing doctoral research of cancer processes at the Ingvar Kamprad Design Centre, Lund University, Sweden - meet her in Copenhagen! Remember: final deadline for very late abstracts is 31 March

Our next WONCA World conference is coming to Rio in November. Discount registration closes on April 30. The Host Organising committee has released details of abstracts received.

Great news: The participants of WONCA Copenhagen will be able to train skills that are important to the daily work of a GP. We have created a “Skills lab” in an open area in the conference center.

Dr Enrique Falceto de Barros, Pro-Tem Chair WONCA Working Party on the Environment, message to members of the working party encouraging their participation in the WONCA World conference coming to Rio in November this year.

En catalán tenemos un dicho que dice "roda el món i torna al Born", que significa que después de viajar por un tiempo; la gente tiene una tendencia natural a volver a su lugar de origen

In Catalan we have an expression that says “roda el món i torna al born”, it means that after travelling for a while; people have a tendency to come back to their native place.

On 25 February 2016, an exciting event occurred in Malawi, the launch of postgraduate family medicine training. Malawi is a landlocked country of about 17 million people in Southern Africa, one of the least developed nations in the world, but known as the warm heart of Africa.

The Bangladesh Academy of Family Physicians reports on recent activities including the annual conference, the WONCA South Asia Region conference held recently in Colombo, the Academy CME programs, the family medicine diploma course and finally the coming WONCA world conference in Rio.

'The Universal Doctor’ is presented an example of the power of doctors’ stories. We are seeking more stories from family doctors from around the world to contribute to a new edition on humanity, human rights and resilience.

The Indian Association of Occupational Health has just published a book, titled "Basic Occupational Health Service for Informal Industry: Manual for Primary Care Providers". The book is edited by well-known WONCA leader, Dr Ramnik Parekh and Dr Suvarna Moti.

WONCA Working Party on Research members, Felicity Goodyear-Smith and Bob Mash have edited a new book due for release in May: International Perspectives on Primary Care Research.

RCGP publishes Roger Neighbour's 'The Inner Physician' -