The difference a bursary makes: Tin Myo Han

As secretary of Internatonal Relations of Myanmar GPs society, I alway try to attend the WONCA Asia Pacific Regional meeting and conference, other primary care conferences and the region Primary Care Research conference. Almost all of the costs to attend these conferences have to be borne myself because of the limited funds of our Myanmar General Practioners’ Society.

While I knew that I could get valuable experiences by attending the both WONCA Asia Pacific region council meeting and conference as a representative of Myanmar, there were financial constraints. The bursary, of USD500, and the reimburstment of conference registration fees, assisted in solving the finanial constaints for me.

When I attended the Council meeting on May 23, “The Jeju 2012 Declaration on Family Medicine Enhancement” was presented by our regional president , Dr Donald Li and discussed by our regional leaders/ scholars of family medicine including Prof Goh Lee Gan (Singapore). This declaration guided me on what I should do and how to do to upgrade family medicine in Myanmar.

All plenaries refreshed my knowledge on both clinical competency and provided the current situation of family medicine in our region. Of particular value was the symposium on Wonca Asia Pacific Region: Challenges and Opportunity presented by Dr Donald Li; Future Perspective of Family Medicine in Asia Pacific Region; and symposia regarding Clinical Practice Guidelines by Prof Michael Kidd (Australia) and Prof Hyeong Sik Ahn (South Korea).

I also participated in the Women and Family Medicine Workshop and Writing for publication workshop”. The experiences I got from these workshops increased my confidence to continue my work of strengthening private primary care services provided by our Myanmar GPs. I also shared my experiences on application of electronic medical records for quality primary care in the Health Informatics symposium. Prof K H Cho (South Korea) taught me a lot in the presentation Semantically Interoperable Electric Health Records in this symposium.I also participated in the primary care oral presentation section, by sharing our findings on Primary care Physicians Profile and CME activities of Malaysia, Myanmar and Philippines. We got an opportunity to discuss with other primary physicians from the Netherlands, Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea regarding care consumption at GP co-operatives, adequacy of primary care, and patient-centered care.

All experiences I got from the conference highlighted for me, the ways I should approach things for Myanmar Primary Care. As well, I also had the opportunity to engage in discussion with our regional colleagues during coffee breaks and the social events of the conference.

Tin Myo Han