“Our aim is to foster connections between young FDs whilst also promoting FM”. An interview with Daria Gheorghe, EYFDM’s President

Published on 26 March 2025.

 

  • There is an overall feeling of friendliness and peer-support at our events that participants appreciate and which leaves them feeling even more motivated about our lovely specialty

 

  • We wish for as many of our members as possible to attend our events but we know that this is a challenge for lower income country members

 

  • I think Family Medicine might evolve to an even more global patient approach through community health and social prescribing all whilst paying more attention to the social determinants in health.

 

Daria Gheorghe was born and grew up in Romania where she attended "Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy" in Bucharest. She did her specialty training in Family Medicine in Strasbourg (France) where she is currently working as a General Practitioner but also at the Family Planning providing sexual health consultations and at the Office for Immigration and Integration, providing healthcare consultations for refugees and asylum seekers

Daria will start a new position at the Medical University of Strasbourg at the end of Spring in teaching and research in Family Medicine

Dr Gheorghe has been actively involved in various organizations since she was a student: member of EMSA (European Medical Students Association) as a medical student, President of the regional association for family medicine trainees in Alsace (France) as well as member of the Executive Board of the National Union for Family Medicine Trainees and French National Delegate for EYFDM before becoming President

 


 

 Daria, you are EYFDM President since 2025. Congratulations

  1. How would you introduce EYFDM to our readers? 

EYFDM – the European Young Family Doctors Movement – is one of WONCA Europe’s networks, dedicated to family doctors in the early stages of their career so either trainees or doctors during their first five years of training. Our aim is to foster connections between young family doctors whilst also promoting Family Medicine and we do so through our exchanges, Forums and preconferences. 

There is an overall feeling of friendliness and peer-support at our events that participants appreciate and which leaves them feeling even more motivated about our lovely specialty. With that being said, if there are any young doctors reading this that are still hesitating on participating in one of our next events, I strongly encourage them to attend as our amazing EYFDM community will welcome them with open arms!

 

  1. What are your goals for the next years?

I think one of our main strengths is bringing people from different countries and backgrounds together, allowing them to discover how family medicine is practiced abroad by discussing with their peers at events or by experiencing different medical systems firsthand with our exchanges. 

It is something that I would want to keep focusing on in years to come. For me it is the heart of EYFDM and I think it what makes our members so fond of the network as well. 

We have also worked towards making our events more family friendly and our next goal would be to make our events more accessible and more eco-friendly as well.

 

  1. 9th EYFDM Forum 2025 with the theme “Good practices with our European neighbours” will take place 25-27 April 2025 in the ‘Grand Région’, hosted jointly by Luxembourg, Germany and France. https://www.eyfdmforum2025.com/ . What can you tell us about it?

It is an exciting event as it is the first Forum that will take place in three countries! That means that not only will participants get to attend conferences and workshops in three different settings but that they can also apply for a preconference exchange in either Luxembourg, Germany or France. 

Collaboration between European family doctors is one of EYFDM’s aims and it is only fitting to offer our members a conference where it is highlighted in more ways than one. Speaking about collaboration, I want to thank my fellow host organizing committee members in Germany and Luxembourg who have worked hard to make sure that everything will go smoothly and that our participants will enjoy the Forum. It is also a special event for me as I am very happy to welcome everyone to my city, Strasbourg, on the last day. 

 

  1. What are the main challenges for EYFDM right now? 

We wish for as many of our members as possible to attend our events but we know that this is a challenge for lower income country members, hence the bursaries and lottery prizes that we offer for each of our events. Furthermore, climate change is one of the main contemporary issues, affecting us all; we are thus working on making our events more sustainable.

 

  1. How do you think Family Medicine will be in ten years’ time?

Family medicine is one of the pillar specialties in medicine and I do not see it going away anytime soon. I however think it might evolve to an even more global patient approach through community health and social prescribing all whilst paying more attention to the social determinants in health.

 

  1. What will be your contributions to WONCA World 2025 conference (and preconference) in Lisbon? 

I am very excited to take part in my first WONCA World and I am happy that my fellow EYFDM members will have the opportunity to experience such an event too. We have a very active Host Organizing Committee, working to prepare an amazing preconference and a group discussion buzzing with interesting abstracts.

 

  1. What are the relations of EYFDM with the rest of the WONCA Europe networks and Special Interest Groups (SIG)? And with the WW youth movement?

For SIGs specifically, we have collaborations between EYFDM and WONCA Europe SIGs that have turned out great, for webinars and presentations for instance. As for other WONCA Europe networks, we meet at least once a year at the WONCA Europe conference; the rest of the year, we keep in contact and promote them and their events amongst our members. With the WONCA World youth movement, we have an online meeting once every two months, we promote each other’s events and webinars and we organize intercontinental exchanges. 

 

  1. Which book are you reading now, and do you recommend it? 

I am currently reading “El olvido que seremos” by Héctor Abad Faciolince; the book was also translated to English and adapted into a movie called “Memories of my father”. It tells the story of the author’s father, a doctor and professor of Public Health at the University of Medellin, Colombia. It is a story about standing up for what you believe in, even in difficult times, about the evolution of medicine throughout the years and last but not least, an ode to family and love.

 

  1. A final greeting to our readers

First of all, thank you for reading this interview until the end. If you want to start your EYFDM journey but do not know how, you can follow us on Instagram at @eyfdm, sign-up for our newsletter or send us an e-mail. https://eyfdm.eu/  Hopefully I will see as many of you at the WONCA World event in Lisbon!