From the Wonca President
:
Understanding our Patients –
Can it be Taught?
2
From the CEO’s Desk
:
Highlights from the Kyoto Wonca
3
Executive Committee Meeting
From the Editor
:
Wonca’s Journey Told Through the
5
Stories of its Family Doctors
FEATURE STORIES
6
•Kyoto’s Asia Pacific Regional Conference Sets a Global Standard
•Wonca Welcomes Five New Member Organizations into the ‘Family’
Wonca REGIONAL NEWS
9
•The Greek Island of Kos to Host September 2005 Europe Regional
Conference
•Come to Colombo, Sri Lanka for the 2005 Wonca MESAR Conference
HEALTH AND HEALTH SYSTEM NEWS
10
•ICPC Global Popularity Growing in 2005
•A Letter from Banda Aceh, Indonesia
MEMBER AND ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS
14
•Meet Professor Igor Svab: Wonca Europe Region President
•Celebrating the Life of Scotland’s Alastair Donald
•Calvin Lucas Wilson, MD: July 2005 Global Family Doctor of the Month
RESOURCES FOR THE FAMILY DOCTOR
17
•Special Interest Group on “Ethics in General Practice”
•Wonca SIG in Psychiatry and Mental Health
•Wonca Special Interest Group in Travel Medicine
WONCA CONFERENCES 2005-2010 AT A GLANCE
20
GLOBAL MEETINGS FOR THE FAMILY DOCTOR
21
VOLUME 31
NUMBER 4
AUGUST 2005
CONTENTS
Wonca website:
http://www.GlobalFamilyDoctor.com
Wonca President
Prof Bruce Sparks, South Africa
2 Cruden Bay Road
Greenside
Johannesburg 2193
South Africa
Tel: 27 11 646 2140
Fax: 27 11 717 2558
Email: brucespa@global.co.za
Wonca Chief Executive Officer
Dr Alfred W T Loh
Wonca Administrative Manager
Ms Yvonne Chung
World Organization of Family Doctors
College of Medicine Building
16 College Road # 01-02
Singapore 169854
Tel: 65 6224 2886
Fax: 65 6324 2029
Email: admin@wonca.com.sg
Wonca President-Elect
Prof Chris van Weel, Netherlands
Wonca Immediate Past President
Dr Michael Boland, Ireland
Honorary Treasurer
Richard Roberts, MD, USA
Wonca Regional Presidents
Dr Abra T Fransch, Africa
Warren A Heffron, MD, Americas
A/Prof Goh Lee Gan, Asia Pacific
Prof Igor Svab, Europe
Dr Shatendra K Gupta, Middle East
South Asia
Dr Adolfo Rubinstein,
Iberoamericana-CIMF
Wonca Executive Members at Large
Dr Javier Dominguez del Olmo, Mexico
Prof Michael Kidd, Australia
Richard Roberts, MD, USA
Chair, Bylaws and Regulations
Dan Ostergaard, MD, USA
Chair, Publications & Communications
Dr Geoffrey D Martin, Australia
Editor, Wonca News and Editorial Office
Marc L Rivo, MD
4566 Prairie Avenue
Miami Beach, Florida 33140, USA
Tel: 305 671 7327
Fax: 305 674 8839
Email: marcrivo@aol.com
WONCA GLOBAL SPONSORS
FROM THE WONCA PRESIDENT:
UNDERSTANDING OUR PATIENTS -
CAN IT BE TAUGHT?
“Be sure that you go to the author to get at his
meaning, not to find yours.”
John Ruskin 1819-1900
It was Wednesday morning at a community-based
primary health care centre in Northeastern
Johannesburg. Alexandra clinic caters to the lower socio-
economic community living in humble dwellings and
shacks of the ‘black-only’ township established in 1914.
I was sitting in a consulting room, observing con-
sultations conducted by a young family medicine
resident in my department. The morning was literally a
cornucopia of educational gems and examples of every
aspect of our discipline. One theme which developed
was that of cross-cultural barriers in the patient
encounter and the importance of effective listening.
Many of the residents are from foreign African states
and do not speak the local languages, but use either
sophisticated West-African English or a heavily accented
‘French-English’. Most patients can understand some
English.
The first patient was a 36 year-old man who had
been referred back to the clinic by the local hospital. He
had diabetes which appeared to be totally out of
control. He had been admitted regularly to the hospital
with marked hyperglycaemia. While he claimed to be
taking his drugs regularly his HBA1C indicated poor
control. The doctor, after examining him chastised him
for his dietary control and indicated that without
compliance his condition could affect other vital organs.
His record card indicated similar, regular admonish-
ments. As he was leaving I asked him about his sources
of income and where he lived. He was in fact
unemployed, lived on the streets with friends, ‘wherever
he found a place’ and apart from drinking large amounts
of alcohol, ate whatever came his way in handouts.
On further questioning he admitted that he purposely
induced hyperglycaemia, to escape from the cold streets
of winter, preferring the warm beds and regular meals of
the hospital wards. To him being healthy was associated
with misery, hunger and cold winter nights. Adherence
to our protocols did not feature in his explanatory
model of health and disease!
The next patient was a 4 year-old girl brought in by
her 20 year-old mother, Martha. Martha seemed typical
WONCA
News
FROM THE WONCA PRESIDENT
2
of the poor disadvantaged people of the township with
limited schooling. But, she said, “Lucy has tonsillitis and
I think she needs amoxicillin!” Missing the obvious
cues, the doctor took a brief focused history, examined
the child and confirmed the mother’s diagnosis but
stated that he didn’t think she needed an antibiotic
because it didn’t look infectious! He proceeded to write
a prescription for paracetamol and was about to dismiss
them, when the other resident struck by the incongruity
between the mother’s appearance and background, and
her clinical knowledge, asked Martha where she worked.
She said, “No I have never worked.” “How do you know
about amoxicillin” she was asked. The consulting
resident was visible stunned when she replied, “I have
HIV, you know. I am on ARV (antiretroviral therapy), my
CD4 is 320 and my viral load has decreased since being
on ARV. I know about infections, PCP, TB and strep. I
am well now but if I can only live to see Lucy start
school then I will be happy.” The language, nature,
content and outcome of the consultation changed
dramatically with discussion of the mother’s health and
the need to prevent complications to her health. Her
frequent visits to the HIV clinic and community
counselling had totally altered her understanding of
health and disease.
Many of the patients visiting the clinic are HIV
positive. Having now been sensitised to HIV the
resident diagnosed the next patient, a 52 year-old thin
man with a persistent mild cough, as a patient with
possible TB and HIV, and referred him for a chest x-ray
and sputum analysis, with verbal advise on the
necessity for ‘safe-sex’. As the patient was about to
leave I asked the resident about the patient’s dark
pigmentation on the face, around the neck, and on the
hands. Further history (in Zulu) and examination
confirmed pellagra as a result of heavy drinking and
poor diet. This man lived alone in a backyard shack, ate
a limited diet of porridge and occasional meat which he
cooked on a paraffin stove. His main daily activity was
drinking with his pals and doing ‘odd handyman jobs’
when he could get them. He did not have TB nor HIV.
He had been celibate for years since he became
impotent. His main reason for encounter today was to
obtain assistance with his alcohol problem. He did not
understand the resident’s “French-English” and nodded
confidently when asked questions he did not
understand.
Other patients that morning demonstrated similar
missed or confused diagnoses. Regretfully the resident
had also failed to communicate adequately, possible for
many reasons – foreign language, missed cues, poor
basic medical training, failure to explore the social
context, poor clinical reasoning, biased index of
WONCA
News
FROM THE WONCA PRESIDENT / FROM THE CEO’S DESK
3
FROM THE CEO’S DESK:
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE KYOTO WONCA
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
The first full business meeting of the new Wonca
Executive for this 2005 to 2007 triennium was held in
Kyoto, Japan from Wednesday, 25th–27th May 2005 just
before the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference held at the
same venue. All Executive Members attended with the
additional presence of the Chairs of the Wonca Bylaws
& Regulations Committee and the Wonca Communi-
cations and Publications Committee in ex-officio roles.
At the start of the meeting the Wonca President
informed the Executive of the passing of one of Wonca’s
Past Presidents, Dr Donald Rice from Canada. Dr Rice
was Wonca’s 2nd President from 1974-76. He was
awarded the Wonca Fellowship and Honorary Life
Membership in 1980. Executive stood for a minute’s
silence in his memory.
The agenda items took the full two-and-half days set
aside for the meeting with several significant issues
discussed and important decisions made on behalf of
Wonca’s Member Organisations and Direct Members. I
hope to cover just a few of these issues in this column.
Implementation of Standardised Dues
Wonca Executive was informed that the
standardization of both the Direct Members’ and
Member Organization’s membership dues have been
implemented beginning in 2005 following Wonca World
Council’s acceptance of the CEO’s recommendations to
have a more structured policy.
New Direct Member applicants pay a once off
processing fee of US$40 with annual membership dues
of US$25 per year, or $75 for three years. In addition to
these scheduled Direct Member dues, regional dues of
the different Regions would be added. Currently, this
applied to the European and Asia Pacific Regions only.
Member Organizations (MOs) are now categorized
into three broad groups based on their GDP per capita
from World Bank figures. The following discounts are
applicable to the amount of organizational membership
dues payable:
suspicion towards HIV and TB, or even a lack of cultural
and social understanding of the community, to name a
few. Korin and Lebensohn wrote “The differences in the
meaning of suffering and disability in many ethnic and
socio-cultural groups often conflict with the traditional
model in which physicians operate. Most doctors think
that treatment should include intervention and that
biological anomalies should be corrected. However,
some ethnic and socio-cultural groups view disability as
a spiritual rather than a physical phenomenon, and
might believe that disability itself is a blessing or
reward for ancestral tribulations.”
Those foreign doctors attending the family medicine
programmes in South Africa are probably fortunate to be
part of a formal training programme, and we are more
than willing to assist. But most of the over 50 states in
Africa have no family medicine / primary care training
beyond their basic ‘inoculation’ as medical students.
Wonca is mindful of this hiatus in the training and
expertise of this region’s primary care practitioners,
particularly if one considers the high prevalence of HIV
related illness, TB, and the high burden of disease and
childhood deaths rates from infective and preventable
conditions. To this end Wonca is developing major
projects in collaboration with many organisations,
international pharmaceutical companies and funders to
attempt to establish and nuture educational pro-
grammes based on local needs and priorites. The
Flemish Departments of Family Medicine have assisted.
Recent meetings with GAME (Global Alliance for Medical
Education) and Project GLOBE for Global Education of
Family Doctors look very promising. The focus of such
programmes must be on improving the quality of health
care through optimising practitioner expertise and not
by purely rolling out and reprocessing CME from
developed countries. We must not encourage Academic
Neo-Colonialism!
But such programmes must address not only the
numerous clinical issues and challenges of the
developing world, but also the cultural diversity of the
continent. Korin and Lebensohn ask, “But how can
physicians promote and focus on such dialogue? Self-
awareness and reflection about their cultural values,
beliefs, and social location is a first requisite, plus a
posture of genuine curiosity and ‘cultural humility’ vis-a-
vis the patient’s/family’s culture”.
Bruce Sparks, M.D.
President
World Organization of Family Doctors
WONCA
News
FROM THE CEO’S DESK
(1)MOs with GDP per capita above the world’s
average. They pay the full MO dues.
(2)MOs with GDP per capita between the world
average and 50% of that average. They receive a
33% discount on the dues payable.
(3)MOs with GDP per capita less than 50% of world
average. They receive a 50% discount.
Members of Executive felt a need to consider
extending the 3 categories discount policy. A motion
was adopted to add a 4th category to include member
organizations in countries with GDP per capita of less
than 75% of the world average. These members would
receive a 75% discount. This proposal would take into
account countries with US$2000 GDP per capita or less,
and of which currently 7 Member Organizations exist.
This additional category will be implemented
immediately.
Standardising the National Licensing Royalties
for ICPC-2
The CEO proposed to Wonca Executive to
standardize the approach in the royalties payable for
national licenses for ICPC-2. The old method of
calculation was based solely on GDP, the economic
output indicator or wealth of a country, but did not take
into account the GDP per capita, or the average
economic output per person. The GDP per capita was
felt to be a better measure of the average earning of
the population, and therefore, would give a better
gauge of the affordability of the average citizen. This
should be reflected in the calculation for the national
ICPC-2 license.
The new approach would use the GDP and GDP per
capita of all countries listed by the World Bank. Using
these figures from the World Bank would ensure
impartiality. Also, the figures provided were updated
annually to reflect the current status of the economies
of the various countries. The initial step would be to
categorize the GDP per capita of all countries into three
broad groups (as for the calculation of the Wonca
organizational membership dues):
(1)Countries with above world average GDP per capita.
The baseline for the calculation for the national
license would be US$1,000,000.
(2)Countries with below world average GDP per capita.
The baseline would be US $670,000, a 33%
discount.
4
(3)Countries with 50% or less below world average
GFD per capita. The baseline would be US$500,000,
a 50% discount.
The quantum for the national license for a country X
would then be calculated using the ratio of the GDP of
Country X over that of the USA, (the USA being the
leading world economy) multiplied by the baseline to
which Country X belongs, ie:
Total GDP of
Baseline or
Country X
×
Discounted Baseline
Total GDP of USA
of Country X
As countries at the lower ends of the three groups
(1), (2) and (3) would need to pay extremely low prices
for ICPC-2 national license, it was suggested that a
minimum sum be set for each group as follows:
(1) Countries with above world average GDP per capita:
Minimum sum for national license of ICPC-2 is
US$8,000
(2) Countries with below world average GDP per capita:
Minimum sum for national license of ICPC-2 is
US$5,000
(3) Countries with 50% or less below world average GFD
per capita: Minimum sum for national license of
ICPC-2 is US$3,000
For Wonca Member Organizations purchasing the
national license, there would be a discount of 20% to
the royalties calculated above.
Wonca Executive agreed to the proposal to
encourage the widespread use of ICPC-2 without making
cost an obstacle for obtaining a license, yet receive
some revenue to cover the administrative costs for
Wonca and WICC. The Wonca Executive requested that
this be implemented with immediate effect for all new
purchasers of ICPC-2.
Standardised Conference Contract
At the Wonca World Council in Orlando, the CEO
gave background regarding a contractual document to
be signed between Wonca World and the Member
Organization hosting a Wonca conference.
WONCA
News
FROM THE CEO’S DESK / FROM THE EDITOR
5
The contract document stated
the obligations of the Host Member
Organization and that of Wonca
World. The document was meant to
serve as a guide for those
organizations who wished to bid to
host a Wonca conference. The
document would help that
organization to understand the
seriousness of the bid it had
undertaken to meet the obligations
of hosting a Wonca conference.
This initial contract document
was presented to the 2004 Wonca
World Council Meeting in Orlando.
Following comments and
suggestions from Wonca World
Council, further changes were made.
This revised document was
discussed in detail by Executive at
this meeting in Kyoto.
The document would spell out
clearly the various responsibilities of
the Host Organising Committee, the
Host Organisation and also Wonca.
With the increasing interest shown
by member organisations in hosting
Wonca World and Regional
Conferences, this document was felt
by Executive to be timely and
necessary.
As agreed at the Orlando World
Council, all Wonca conferences to be
held after year 2007 will be covered
by the terms in the document. But
conferences being organised
between now and 2007 itself will
abide by the spirit of the document
as well.
Wonca Welcomes its Newest
Member Organisations
During the Kyoto meeting, Wonca
Executive agreed to accept the
membership applications of five
organisations. With these five new
Member Organisations, Wonca now
has a total membership of 105
FROM THE EDITOR:
WONCA’S JOURNEY TOLD
THROUGH THE STORIES
OF ITS FAMILY DOCTORS
“Since history has no properly
scientific value, its only purpose is
educative. And if historians neglect
to educate the public, if they fail to
interest it intelligently in the past,
then all their historical learning is
valueless except in so far as it
educates themselves.” George M.
Trevelyan, 1876-1962, British
historian. People, organizations,
nations, and our global community.
We learn through our individual and
collective experiences. Those
experiences, once recorded, become
the sum total of our history.
Learning from the lessons of history
is of immense value to our
individual and collective success.
Wonca is a learning community
of family doctors made up of its
component organization parts. At its
core, Wonca represents the sum
total of its knowledge experienced
daily through the senses of its
family doctors. Those shared
experiences help us learn and grow
as individual family doctors and as
an organization.
The stories in this issue of
Wonca News illustrate the richness
organisations in 88 countries
globally that cover over 80% of the
world’s total population.
Dr Alfred Loh
Chief Executive Officer
World Organization of Family
Doctors
of our global organization. At one
end of the spectrum, stories
describe the organizational
complexity of Wonca and the
collective work of our members,
from the recent Asia Pacific Regional
Conference in Kyoto, Japan attended
by more than 2300 family doctors
and others from more than 50
countries; to the highlights of
Wonca’s Executive Committee
Meeting held in Kyoto; to the work
of Wonca’s International Classi-
fication Committee members in
numerous countries throughout the
world, and to the work of Wonca’s
Special Interest Group members.
At other end of the spectrum,
the August 2005 issue of Wonca
News chronicles the stories of
individual family doctors. In this
issue, we read moving stories
of Slovenia’s Igor Svab, Scotland’s
Alastair Donald, the USA’s Calvin
Lucas Wilson and Canada’s Lynda
Redwood-Campbell.
Through these stories, both the
individual and the collective, we
celebrate our accomplishments,
identify our challenges and learn
from each other.
Please help us chronicle our
Wonca journey and learn from one
another by sharing with me your
collective and individual stories.
Marc L. Rivo, M.D, M.P.H.
Editor, Wonca News
marcrivo@aol.com
4566 Prairie Avenue
Miami Beach, FL 33140 USA
1-305-674-8839 (fax)
WONCA
News
FEATURE STORIES
FEATURE STORIES
KYOTO’S ASIA PACIFIC REGIONAL
CONFERENCE SETS A GLOBAL STANDARD
Kyoto, the enchanting ancient capital of Japan and
site of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol standards to control
global warming, served as an ideal venue for more than
2,300 family doctors from over 50 countries in the Asia
Pacific region and around the world to network together
and share their views on a global standard for family
medicine.
Their Imperial Highnesses Prince and Princess
Akishino graciously hosted the opening reception and
lent a dignified presence to the opening plenary
performances and a series of warm welcome addresses
by the Host Organizing Committee, including Honorary
Chairperson Dr Makoto Komatsu and Chairperson,
Professor Tsukasa Tsuda, from The Japanese Academy of
Primary Care Physicians. Greetings from the Wonca
Executive, who met in Kyoto in conjunction with the
conference, were given by Professors Goh Lee Gan,
Wonca Asia Pacific Regional President, and Bruce
Sparks, Wonca World President.
6
Plenary speakers expounded upon the conference
theme, “Family/General Practice as a Global Standard”.
Kiyoshi Kurokawa, President of the host Science Council
of Japan, opened with an expansive plenary address on
“Global Healthcare Challenges and Opportunities”.
Jonathan Rodnick, past Chair of Family and Community
Medicine at University of California, San Francisco, then
directly addressed the conference theme. He suggested
that a unified set of global standards for family
medicine is possible and proposed a set of standards
for consideration.
In the special Invited Symposium, enlightening
national perspectives on family/general practice as a
global standard from the Asia-Pacific Region were
presented from Hong Kong by Tai-Pong Lam, Associate
Professor of the Family Medicine Unit, Hong Kong
University; from Korea by Bong Yul Huh, Chairman of
the Department of Family Medicine, Seoul National
University Hospital; from Australia by Michael Kidd,
President, the Royal Australian College of General
Practitioners; and from Japan by Tomoyuki Kido, Clinical
Professor, Osaka Medical College and Kyoto University.
In addition, recent developments in the United Kingdom
were presented by Neil Jackson, Dean of Postgraduate
General Practice Education, the London Deanery; and in
the United States by Jonathan Rodnick.
Their Imperial Highnesses Prince and Princess Akishino at the opening
plenary
From left to right: Miss Jace Phang (CFPS Secretariat, Singapore),
Dr Chng Woei (Singapore HOC 2007 Committee), A/Prof Goh Lee Gan
(Regional President, Asia Pacific), Dr Tan Sze Wee(Singapore HOC 2007
Committee), Dr Tsukasa Tsuda (Chairperson, HOC Wonca Kyoto 2005),
Dr Makoto Komatasu (Honorary Chairperson, HOC Wonca Kyoto 2005),
Miss Mariko Sunaba (Conference Organiser, Wonca Kyoto 2005)
The magnificent Kyoto International Conference Hall
7
WONCA
News
FEATURE STORIES
A rich set of daily plenary perspectives were offered on Japanese spiritual health care by Tetsuo Yamaori from the
International Research Center for Japanese Studies; on global health challenges for family physicians by Shigeru
Omi, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific; on equity, health and primary care by MK Rajakumar, President
of the Family Physicians of Malaysia; and on the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC) as a global
standard for Family Medicine, by Henk Lamberts, Professor at the University of Amsterdam.
Conference participants enjoyed a brisk and diverse choice of excellent workshops organized by the Scientific
Program Committee and its Chairperson, Professor Nobutaro Ban, Chairman of the Department of General Medicine,
Nagoya University Hospital. The exhibit hall was full of informative poster sessions and booths, organized by the
Exhibition Committee and its Chairperson, Takashi Yamada, Director of the Institute of Community Medicine with the
Japanese Association for Development of Community Medicine.
In addition, Kyoto was the site of a preconference meeting of Wonca’s International Classification Committee,
organized by Committee Chair Neils Bentzen and hosted by Japan’s Institute of Community Medicine under the
leadership of its Director, Takashi Yamada. During the conference, Wonca’s Working Party on Women and Family
Medicine met under the leaders of Executive Committee members Sorayda Leopando from the Phillipines and
Amanda Barnard from Australia.
A 3-day post-conference workshop on family medicine teaching, organized by Dr Ryuki Kassai was held in
Ranzan. The theme was Clinical Education: making our teaching more humane and learner-centered. There were 54
participants including the resource persons. A highlight of this Workshop was cinemeducation, the use of clips from
the movies for learning and reflection of various topics: Akahige for the topic of mentorship; The Mighty for
narrative based medicine; and Good Will Hunting for trainee safety. The workshop consisted of plenary lectures on
mentorship, formative assessment, communication, and safety for trainees, each with an accompanying workshop.
There was even the experience of Zen in visiting a Zen temple in Kyoto. For the participants, it was an enriching
workshop on learning and teaching family medicine.
Family Doctors at one of Kyoto’s beautiful outdoor receptions
WONCA
News
FEATURE STORIES
8
Wonca CEO Alfred and Yiau Leng Loh and their daughter, Abigail with the Japanese Geisha
Wonca Executive Committee Members and accompanying persons in Kyoto
The Host Organizing Committee’s welcome night, opening ceremony,
culture night party, closing ceremony and farewell party highlighted the
warmth of Kyoto’s citizens, its beautiful culture and illustrious history of
Japan’s ancient capital for over a thousand years. The conference excursions
and tours displayed Japanese traditional art, architecture, crafts and
gardening carefully preserved in its breathtaking Buddhist temples, Shinto
Shrines, gardens, ponds and scenic areas, including 17 UNESCO World
Cultural Heritage sites designated as National Treasures.
The inviting and informal conference structure and its warm surroundings
helped nurture the renewal of old friendships and the development of new
ones among the participants from the Asia Pacific and around the world.
The beauty of Kyoto, the scientific rigor of the conference and the
hospitality of the Japanese hosts made for a memorable Asia Pacific
Regional Conference.
Wonca Welcomes Five New Member Organizations into
the ‘Family’
We have been gratified that new organizations from new and existing
member countries continue to recognize Wonca as the leader in this
worldwide movement of family
medicine.
We are excited to see that many
new family medicine organizations
are being established across the
globe in countries with significant
health care needs from El Salvador
to Iraq to Myanmar.
At the June Executive meeting in
Kyoto Japan, five new member
organizations from four different
Wonca Regions were admitted as
full members of Wonca. This brings
us to 105 member organizations
from 88 different countries. The new
members (pending approval where
incidated) are
*Asociacion de Medicina Familiar
El Salvador. (AMEFAES) The
Family Medicine Association of El
Salvador, joining the
Iberoamericana-CIMF Region
The Iraqi Family Physicians
Society, joining the Middle East
South Asia Region
*Societe Scientifique
Luxumbourgeoise de Medicine
Generale. (SSLMG) Luxemburgish
Scientific Society for General
Practice, joining the Europe
Region
The General Practitioners’
Society, Myanmar Medical
Association, joining the Asia
Pacific Region; and
The Vietnam Association of
Family Physicians, joining the
Asia Pacific Region
*El Salvador and Luxembourg
were approved pending
completion of some final
administrative details.
Warren Heffron
Chair, Wonca Membership
Committee
WONCA
News
REGIONAL NEWS
9
WONCA REGIONAL NEWS
THE GREEK ISLAND OF KOS TO HOST
SEPTEMBER 2005 EUROPE REGIONAL
CONFERENCE
It is an honour and a privilege to invite you to the
11th Conference of the European Society of General
Practice/Family Medicine-WONCA Region Europe, which
will be held in Greece from the 3rd to the 7th of
September 2005.
The overall theme of the Conference has been
determined to be “From Hippocrates to the Human
Genome: The Past, Present and Future of General
Practice/Family Medicine.”
It is time to reexamine the Hippocratic principles,
taking into consideration the large and recent scientific
breakthroughs and to test, in terms of time endurance,
our classical values in order to reassure them. As far as
Greece is concerned, the country that has invented
Family Medicine in the past, it will have the chance to
reinvent it once more in the Conference, as well as to
reform any basic principles while monitoring the
evolution of General Practice along with its challenges.
We believe that the concept of Family Medicine is a
classical one. Nevertheless, we strongly feel that it is
our duty to argue on our belief and to prove that our
specialty is the actual core of Medicine itself; to such an
extend this is, that the later cannot evolve as a science
and a function in the absence of the former.
Bodossakis Merkouris
HOC Chairman
The Conference will be organized in the island Kos,
the birthplace of Hippocrates. Kos is a place where
antiquity and modern civilisation find themselves in
unison. The island of Kos is situated in the southeastern
region of the Aegean Sea and is the third largest
(295 sq. m.) of the Dodecanese Islands. Kos is an island
of magni-ficent beauty also described as the jewel of
the Greek Islands. Besides its breath taking golden
