WONCA President's Address to the Congress of Delegates of the American Academy of Family Physicians

October 03, 2013

WONCA President's Address to the Congress of Delegates of the American Academy of Family Physicians

My congratulations to the members and staff of The American Academy of Family Physicians on the occasion of your congress of delegates being held in San Diego.  My name is Michael Kidd, I am from Australia, and in June I became the global president of WONCA, the World Organization of Family Doctors.

The AAFP, like all member organisations of WONCA, is dedicated to supporting your members in ensuring the highest possible standards of clinical practice and education and training and research in family medicine.

WONCA represents you at a global level.  WONCA advocates for the important work you do every day in meeting the health care needs of your patients, your communities and your nation.

WONCA has come a long way since it was established in 1972 by 18 national family medicine organisations including the AAFP. WONCA now has 118 member organisations representing over 400,000 family doctors in over 130 countries and territories around the world.  The 400,000 family doctors represented by WONCA, and including the members of the AAFP, each year have over two billion consultations with our patients. Two billion. That’s the scope of our current work and our influence.

But we need to do more. We need to continue to strengthen our global work with the World Health Organization, support the development of family medicine education and training in those 80 countries where it is not yet present, and support the next generation of family doctors, our recent graduates and residents in each region of the world.

As WONCA president I will continue the work of our past leaders, including the AAFP’s very own Richard Roberts, who ended his three year term as WONCA president in June.  Rich set an impressive precedent as our global leader, crisscrossing the world working for WONCA and international primary care. 
 
I congratulate you all on your commitment to making a difference to the lives of the people of your nation and our world.  I look forward to our work together during my time as WONCA president.

Thank you.


Michael Kidd
President
World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA)
September 24, 2013