Presidents' Letter - Looking back at Family Doctors Europe 2020 Virtual ConferenceDear Members, Dear Colleagues WONCA Europe conferences had roughly from 1500 to 5000 participants each year, and we heard that this conference had 1560 participants for the main program while 161 to VdGM preconference. This may be considered the largest virtual conference up to now in this level for WONCA worldwide. A virtual conference for WONCA Europe is for the first time ever in our history. It is really a new experience for family doctors around the world to have such a large conference kindly hosted by DEGAM. I know WONCA and its regions were waiting to see how this meeting would be, what the outcome would be and what lessons there would be for them to improve after such a large conference in Family Practice. I would like to repeat our appreciation to DEGAM for their great work in such a period with a pandemic the humans face once in a hundred years. The virtual conference we have just completed will be a pioneer and took its place in our history in a good way, having many positive feedback from our members. The VdGM pre conference was held between 9am and 2pm CET on December 16, via zoom with an excellent topic, “Change” while the main conference itself had “Core Values” as its main theme. The pre conference opened with wonderful ballet exercises and a nice opening led by Wolfram & Hannah followed by keynotes. One can easily see that many people are afraid of change although they say they like changes. Those following words belong to the young doctors which are meaningful; “we do not need to change the core values but we do need to change how we deliver them”, we are future yes but we should focus on now”... |
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Featured Network: EURACTAre you a family doctor who is actively involved in teaching GP/FM, as well as in Basic Medical Education, Specialty Training and/or Continuing Medical Education? Are you interested in what EURACT, the European Academy of Teachers in General Practice/Family Medicine, can do for you as a teacher? Read here what we stand for and get to know us better. EURACT is a WONCA Europe Network and it roots back to 1974, with the creation of the Leeuwenhorst Group. It has grown to be the largest personal membership organization in Europe, with over 800 individuals and organizations in collaboration (OIC) as members in 42 countries. These countries and their members are represented in the EURACT Council (one delegate per country) and these delegates, in their turn, elect the Executive Board of the Organization. |
The World Book of Family Medicine - WONCA Europe Edition 2020“Conceiving of a World Book of Family Medicine is easy. Actually making one is a lot harder.” That’s how we started the prologue of the World Book in 2015. Now, 5 years later, in dramatic circumstances that are almost equal to a World War, we present you a new edition of the World Book of Family Medicine, the 2020 European Edition. Let’s hope that this goes viral too! Since WONCA is all about collaboration and inspiration, the main focus of this edition lies on working together, with our partners, the networks. But also talented individuals.... |
CORE VALUES OF FAMILY MEDICINE: THREATS AND OPPORTUNITIES - Statement of the WONCA Europe Conference 2020, BerlinThe Covid-19 pandemic is affecting every aspect of society. Obviously, it also affects healthcare provision. There are strong tendencies towards fragmentation of care. Digital technologies as a mean to tackle CoViD- 19 induced restrictions are gaining importance. Conflicting interests are influencing the patients´ choices of services and treatments, but also those offered by health professionals to their patients. Working conditions and preferences of family doctors are rapidly changing... |
Keynotes and Plenary Session recordings from the Family Doctors Europe 2020 Virtual ConferenceYou may view the Keynotes and Plennary Session recordings from the Family Doctors Europe 2020 Virtual Conference on our YouTube page. |
ObituariesWONCA Europe pays tribute to the family doctors/general practitioners who have died from COVID-19 during the coronavirus pandemic also by creating a section on our website under News > Obituaries, where we uploaded the names and photographs which were collected from our Member Organizations: https://www.woncaeurope.org/m/obituaries |
COVID in London – the surge of the new variant & How did we fail?by Dr. Sonia Tsukagoshi These are the words of my friend from medical school when we used to talk about night shifts. You cannot survive a night shift with style or with flair; you cannot make it looks good; you just make it to 9 am with (hopefully) no one dying on your watch. I used to repeat this phrase to colleagues tongue-in-cheek at the evening handover meeting to make light of the battlefields that we were about to enter... |
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