It is an honour for us to be able to invite you to attend the Conference of the European Society of General Practice/Family Medicine - WONCA Region Europe. The Conference will run from 18 to 21 June 2003 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The event offers possibilities of meeting your friends at the crossroads of the West and the East, the South and the North, as well as examining the future challenges of our profession in the ever-changing world.

Besides "The Future Challenges of General Practice/Family Medicine", the main topic of the Conference, several other issues will be explored; Lifestyle Problems, Acute Problems, Communication with Patients, New Technologies, Quality and Humour in Medicine, which have been selected as the main topics of the Conference. Through a wide variety of topics in the invited plenary lectures, symposia, workshops, demonstrations, freestanding paper sessions and poster exhibition the delegates will gain interesting scientific experience.

The programme committee has carefully prepared the programme with the help of the international advisory board that includes the ESG/FM network organisations EURACT, EGPRW and EQuiP. In addition to those, the national colleges, EUROPREV and EURIPA have been consulted in the preparation of the programme, developed in order to get an insight into the latest and "burning" clinical advances in family practice. With your contribution the Conference will evolve to become the forum for the exchange of the best developments in the profession. Therefore you are invited to present your stories of breakthroughs in one of the suggested topics, and in one of the forums of networking organisations or within the freestanding papers sessions. General practitioners will be able to share their personal experience at the end of each day.

The venue of the conference will be Ljubljana, the scenic capital of Slovenia. The country is situated in central Europe, in the southern portion of the mountainous Alps. It is a land of friendly people with a population of two million. The coutry has experienced rapid development since its independence in 1991 that can be envied by many other countries. Ljubljana is the heart of the political, economic, cultural and scientific life of the Slovene nation and has a reputation of being a modern town and one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.

An interesting social programme will provide you with opportunities to meet GPs from Europe and the world. In close vicinity of the congress venue you will be able to discover nice parts of our country - from the blue Adriatic to green fields of the Pannonia, from the deep mysterious underground world of Postojna Caves to the top of the Alps, from the vineyards to the hottest spas. All pleasant locations are accessible in just a day and the romantic town of Bled is less than an hour away. The nice climate, many natural beauties, the friendly people and safety are all reasons why Slovenia is worth visiting in 2003!

On behalf of our Society we look forward to welcoming you to WONCA Europe 2003 in Slovenia from 18 to 21 June 2003!

Professor Igor Švab
Vice President, Wonca Europe Region Regional
Chair of the Scientific Program Committee
igor.svab@mf.uni-lj.si

Janko Kersnik MD, PhD
President of SFMS
Chair of the Organising Committee
janko.kersnik@s5.net