The Spice Route young doctors report on Colombo

An update from WONCA South Asia region conference 2016

Reported by
Dr Bhavna Matta, Dr Pratap Prasad, Dr Raman Kumar, Dr Santosh Kumar Dhungana, Dr Hiranthini De Silva, Dr Zakiur Rahman, Dr Ali Shareef, Dr Rabeeya Saeed and Dr Md. Idris Shareef.

Over 650 delegates attended the magnificent WONCA SAR 2016 conference at Waters Edge, Colombo Sri Lanka organized and hosted by College of General Practitioners of Sri lanka. The theme of the conference was ‘Reaching across the shores to strengthen primary care’.

The Spice Route Movement session on 12 February 2016 (pre conference)

Attendees:
- Dr Bhavna Matta
- Dr Hiranthini de Silva
- Dr Maliha Khanam
- Dr Santosh Kumar Dhungana
- Dr Rabeeya Arsalan
- Dr Ali Shareef
- Dr Mohammed Idris Shariff
- Dr Zakiur Rahman
- Dr Malkanthi Galhena - Dr Anojana Jeyaseelan
- Dr Kalpanie Wijewardana
- Dr Dumindu Wijewardana
- Dr R. Gobith
- Dr Dinusha Perera
- Dr Roman Schlager
- Dr Sankha Randenikumara
- Dr Jithendrie Perera
(Countries represented: Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Germany)

The conference was preceded by ‘The Spice Route Movement session’ at Sri Lanka Medical Association, Colombo on 12 February 2016. The session manifested over seventeen young doctors representing seven different countries. The agenda of the session was already planned and circulated via Skype calls and emails to National Chairs of The Spice Route Movement representing respective SAR countries.

The session was opened with introduction of attendees and discussion of purpose of the session. Following topics were discussed: Non communicable diseases (NCD), Elderly Care, FM 360 exchange and Social Media. Leads of topics were as follows: NCD- Dr Hiranthini De Silva, Elderly Care- Dr Dinusha Perera, FM 360 exchange- Dr Bhavna Matta and Social Media- Dr Md. Idris. The session involved discussion on challenges faced by GPs during Non communicable disease consults, with focus on counselling the patient regarding lifestyle modification. The session transformed into a creative role play (real time doctor-patient interaction) this seemed to be an excellent idea to be presented on the successive day.

Discussion on the challenges faced by GPs during elderly care consult and highlighting patients’ perspectives of GPs brought in the idea of bringing real time patients into the house for our main session to be presented on the successive day. WONCA FM 360 Exchange program was introduced to all. Challenges faced by trainees and young doctors to consolidate their plans for exchange were discussed. Induction of Young Doctors to facilitate the process of exchange in their respective country and training institute/ university/ area of practice was done. Social Media activities were introduced to the attendees. Focussed discussion on use of Social Media to participate in global Family Medicine activities followed. Use of Facebook, twitter, whatsapp and hike messenger, etc to facilitate future discussions and continuation of our activities in various countries of SAR was discussed. Further discussions were encouraged in groups for facilitation of next day’s session. Exchange of ideas to build a stronger team and to carry out various projects collectively were discussed. Contribution to literature in the form of research and representation of Young Doctors team from SAR at WONCA World Conference at Rio was discussed. The Spice Route Movement Research group formation is in the pipeline being lead by Dr Sankha Randenikumara from Sri Lanka.

The Spice Route Movement workshop on 13 February 2016

The Spice Route Movement workshop on 13 February was labelled Symposium 12, at Hall D Albatross room at Waters Edge, Battaramulla, Colombo. “The Spice Route movement for Young and Future South Asia Family Practitioners” is a WONCA forum for young, new and establishing family medicine doctors in the South Asia Region. It includes medical students, residents, trainees and recently qualified Family Medicine doctors within first five years of practice. The workshop was chaired by world leaders of Family Medicine namely Prof. Amanda Howe, WONCA President elect, Dr Pratap Narayan Prasad, President WONCA SAR, Dr Ramnik Parikh, Hon Secretary WONCA SAR and Dr Raman Kumar, young doctors' representation on WONCA World Executive. The workshop commenced with delivery of presentation by Dr Bhavna Matta who introduced “International WONCA Young Doctor Movements”. There are seven Young Doctor Movements namely Vasco da Gama movement, The Rajakumar movement, The Waynakay movement, The Al Razi movement, AfriWon movement, Polaris and The Spice Route movement. This was followed by presentations from the previous day discussions namely:

a. Challenges in day to day consult of patient with NCDs- Dr Hiranthini De Silva and team
b. Elderly care and Geriatric patients’ perspective- Dr Dinusha Perera and team
c. FM 360 Exchange program- Dr Bhavna Matta
d. Social Media updates and live Skype call with Kyle Hoedebecke (Polaris Chairperson)- Dr Md Idris

This was followed by felicitation of ‘Jyoti & Ramnik Parekh Scholarship’ award winners. ‘Jyoti & Ramnik Parekh Scholarship’ award partially supported travel of four young doctors of different SAR countries to attend WONCA SAR 2016 Colombo conference. Dr Ramnik Parekh, Dr Pratap Prasad and Dr Raman Kumar gave a brief account of lying down of foundation of ‘The Spice Route Movement’ and encouraged young doctors to be a part of the movement. Announcement of ‘The Spice Route Movement Constitution’ undertaking was made