WONCA Working Party: eHealth

Dr Pramendra Prasad Gupta(Nepal)

Dr Pramendra Prasad Gupta is Associate Professor in Department of General Practice and Emergency Medicine at BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, in the eastern part of Nepal. He is involved in clinical practice, research, teaching for undergraduates and postgraduates, ehealth and rural practice. He is a Life Direct Member of WONCA.

Since 2014 he has been the medical coordinator for the eHealth and Telemedicine Program of Eastern Nepal and it is a joint work with University of Geneva RAFT Project. He has been involved in eLearning where topics are presented as CME for the health care professionals of Eastern Nepal, and then in Telemedicine, where patients are seen and managed via internet from remote places. I am also actively involved in WONCA’s Working Party on Mental Health and Special Interest Group on Emergency Medicine.

Email Convenor

1. to promote international co-operation and dissemination of information, experiences and sources of information in the field of family medicine informatics;
2. to promote research and development in this field, and international collaboration;
3. to promote and assist the development of high standards in the application of work in this field; 
4. to encourage high standards in education in this field; 
5. to seek and maintain formal channels of communication with relevant professional and governmental organizations.

The first workshop meeting of the WONCA Informatics Working Party took place at the WONCA Regional meeting in Stockholm in July 1996. Since then, the working party has tried to present workshops and symposiums on information management and technology at most of the WONCA conferences. Their aims are to share knowledge and ideas, assist in the education and training of GPs in the field of informatics and to develop projects which encourage the optimal use of computers in general practice.

WONCA Informatics Policy

WONCA Executive Committee and World Council has endorsed eight recommendations of the Informatics Working Party:

Recommendation 1: WONCA should encourage each national college to develop its own web page with links to the WONCA web page and also links to useful Internet resources for family doctors in their countries. 

Recommendation 2: WONCA should encourage national colleges to help their members with basic training on the use of information technology in family medicine and how to gain access to the Internet and benefit from its use.

Recommendation 3: WONCA should contribute to the development of professionally driven performance measures and outcome measures on how this technology can be used in family practice to benefit the profession, the community and the health system in each of our member nations. 

Recommendation 4: WONCA should assist in making information simple on web sites. Many web sites are very complex and it is difficult to find the information one is seeking.

Recommendation 5: WONCA should promote the use of the Internet for free Medline access and Continuing Medical Education for all family doctors.

Recommendation 6: WONCA should encourage each national college to publish their education and other resources on the Internet to allow sharing of information.

Recommendation 7: WONCA should facilitate the sharing of the uses and benefits and technological aspects of telemedicine in teaching, research and clinical practice. This is especially important for family doctors working in isolation.

Recommendation 8: The WONCA Working Party on Informatics should publish a site with links to general practice informatics research and education projects around the world, listing key centres and key individuals.