Newsletter: December 2017

As the Western calendar year draws to a close, I hope this finds you well and that family medicine is thriving in your country. On behalf of all of us in the WONCA World Executive and Secretariat, I want to wish you and your families a peaceful and successful year ahead for 2018.

Alors que le calendrier occidental touche à sa fin, j’espère que cette lettre vous trouvera en bonne forme et que le monde de la médecine se porte bien dans votre pays. Au nom de nous tous au comité de direction et au secrétariat de WONCA, je vous souhaite, à vous et vos familles, une excellente nouvelle année dans la paix pour 2018.

Mientras las fechas especiales del calendario occidental se acercan, espero que estas lleguen a vosotros y a vosotras en un buen momento y que la Medicina de Familia se encuentre en una situación próspera en vuestros países. En nombre de todos nosotros y del Ejecutivo y Secretariado de WONCA, quiero desearos a todos y todas y a vuestras familias un exitoso y pacífico nuevo año 2018.

​As forecast in last month’s column, November has been a month of conferences and conference activities. The WONCA CEO reports on conferences in Thailland, Nepal and thinks forward to the 2018 World conference in Korea.

As a new initiative, WONCA's Young Doctors' representative on World Executive, Ana Nunes Barata (Portugal), is coordinating regular news from our seven region Young Doctors' Movements. Not every region's movement will always provide news but each two months we hope to bring you news from some of the regions.

WHO has announced that Governments endorsed the Montevideo Roadmap 2018-2030 on NCDs as a Sustainable Development Priority at the opening of the three-day Global Conference on Noncommunicable Diseases in Montevideo, hosted by WHO and the Presidency of Uruguay.

We invite you to 15th WONCA World Rural Health Conference at New Delhi from 26-29 April 2018. Registration and Abstract submission is open for all. Last Date for Abstract Submission is 31st December.

Early bird registration closes December 31, 2017 and abstracts are open only until December 17, for WONCA Europe Kraków. Prof Adam Windak, Conference Scientific Committee chair, speaks to the WONCA editor about this conference and comparisons to the previous excellent one he help organise in Warsaw in 2011.

WONCA's next world conference comes to Seoul, Korea from October 17 - 21, 2018. The theme of the conference is “Primary Care in the Future: Professional Excellence," and will cover diverse disciplines of family medicine from the present to the future. For the vision of future family medicine, we plan to offer a dynamic and stimulating array of scientific and practical hands-on programs as well as special events. Find out more.

En este último foro de la Organización Mundial de la Salud, que tuvo lugar en la capital de Irlanda, Dublín, entre los pasados días 13 y 17 de noviembre, asistieron como representantes de WONCA hasta tres miembros del Ejecutivo Mundial (Anna Stavdal, Job Metsemakers y Ana Nunes Barata, en representación de nuestro Movimiento de Jóvenes Médicos de Familia), así como un importante número de representantes de nuestro Grupo de Trabajo en Medicina Rural, incluyendo John Wynn Jones, Bruce Chater, Jim Rourke.

This WHO forum, held from November 13-17, 2017, in Dublin Ireland, was attended on behalf of WONCA by three members of our World Executive (Anna Stavdal, Job Metsemakers, and Ana Nunes Barata for our Young Doctors’ Movement), and a number of the WONCA Working Party on Rural Practice leaders.

Climate change is the biggest health threat of the 21st century--and tackling it is perhaps our best opportunity to better global health. How are current medical learners and health professionals interacting with international climate change negotiations?

We invite you to 15th WONCA World Rural Health Conference at New Delhi from 26-29 April 2018. Registration and Abstract submission is open for all. Last Date for Abstract Submission is 31st December.

Drs Leslie and James Rourke are announced as co-WONCA Five Star Doctors for the region of North America. A joint award for the WONCA North America 5-Star Doctor may be unconventional, however, in addition to being partners in marriage, James and Leslie Rourke have been practice partners throughout their careers. Both James and Leslie Rourke exemplify the five pillars of the WONCA Five Star Doctor.

Early bird registration closes December 31, 2017 and abstracts are open only until December 17, for WONCA Europe Kraków. Prof Adam Windak, Conference Scientific Committee chair, speaks to the WONCA editor about this conference and comparisons to the previous excellent one he help organise in Warsaw in 2011.

Attending conferences in Africa is difficult in most cases due to lack of funding. I was privileged to be offered the Montegut scholarship for the WONCA Africa region 2017. The scholarship enabled me to attend the WONCA Africa regional conference. It was a big learning experience!

​An aesthetic walk along the border between the worlds of art and science at the WONCA Europe Prague conference tried to find insight into the mystery of doctor patient encounters.

The 2017 Five-Star Doctor Award in the WONCA Asia Pacific Region is awarded to Prof Tai-Yuan Chiu of Taiwan. Congratulations to Prof Chiu for his great achievements in advancing family medicine and primary health care.

Dr Chhabi Lal Adhikari, Professor and GP Course Coordinator, Department of General Practice at Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan writes on the journey that has led to Bhutan’s first GP specialist training programme and then to that programme becoming a WONCA Academic Member Organization.

There is a SPAM email which appears to be from Amanda Howe seeking money to be sent to the Philippines to help a colleague. IGNORE THIS EMAIL.