Aims of the Informatics Working Party

(a) to promote international co-operation and dissemination of information, experiences and sources of information in the field of family medicine informatics;

(b) to promote research and development in this field, and international collaboration;

(c) to promote and assist the development of high standards in the application of work in this field;

(d) to encourage high standards in education in this field;

(e) to seek and maintain formal channels of communication with relevant professional and governmental organizations.

Wonca Executive Committee and World Council has endorsed eight recommendations of the Informatics Working Party:

Recommendation 1: Wonca should encourage each national college to develop its own web page with links to the Wonca web page and also links to useful Internet resources for family doctors in their countries.

Recommendation 2: Wonca should encourage national colleges to help their members with basic training on the use of information technology in family medicine and how to gain access to the Internet and benefit from its use.

Recommendation 3: Wonca should contribute to the development of professionally driven performance measures and outcome measures on how this technology can be used in family practice to benefit the profession, the community and the health system in each of our member nations.

Recommendation 4: Wonca should assist in making information simple on web sites. Many web sites are very complex and it is difficult to find the information one is seeking.

Recommendation 5: Wonca should promote the use of the Internet for free Medline access and Continuing Medical Education for all family doctors.

Recommendation 6: Wonca should encourage each national college to publish their education and other resources on the Internet to allow sharing of information.

Recommendation 7: Wonca should facilitate the sharing of the uses and benefits and technological aspects of telemedicine in teaching, research and clinical practice. This is especially important for family doctors working in isolation.

Recommendation 8: The Wonca Working Party on Informatics should publish a site with links to general practice informatics research and education projects around the world, listing key centres and key individuals.

Membership of the Informatics Working Party

Membership is open to representatives of each of the national colleges and organisations of general practice/family medicine which make up Wonca. A number of key figures in the area have also been co-opted to the working party. If a GP wishes to join the working party, please contact the convenor by email, indicating your area of interest and the process by which you will be representing your relevant national organisation. Current members are:

Activities

The Informatics Working Party supports the following activities:

a. Wonca Website Global Family Doctor - Wonca Online (GFD)

The homepage is at www.globalfamilydoctor.com

The website has been established to serve a number of roles:
* Identify useful links to the increasing number of sites of interest to family doctors on the Internet.
* Develop electronic linkages to Colleges of Family Medicine/General Practice, University Departments of Family Medicine/General Practice and other relevant organisations and individuals.
* Develop electronic links between people working in areas of education and research in family medicine through the development of a comprehensive list of individuals involved in family practice, family medicine research and family medicine education and publish their names, institutions, email addresses and projects as part of the Wonca web resources.

b. gp-wonca-inform - the Wonca Informatics Listserver:

This is open to family doctors around the world.

To join gp-wonca-inform send your email address to Peter.Schattner@med.monash.edu.au

c. Wonca Meetings:

The first workshop meeting of the Wonca Informatics Working Party took place at the Wonca Regional meeting in Stockholm in July 1996. Since then, the working party has tried to present workshops and symposiums on information management and technology at most of the Wonca conferences. Their aims are to share knowledge and ideas, assist in the education and training of GPs in the field of informatics and to develop projects which encourage the optimal use of computers in general practice.

d. Publications