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The World Health Organization
(WHO) has identified unequal access to prevention and care, rising costs of
health care, inefficient health care systems, and weak emphasis on generalist
training, as major barriers to equitable health care in developing countries.
It also acknowledges the
family medicine practitioner as a physician most capable of overcoming those
barriers.
These will be key issues
for debate at the Family Medicine Conference being organised by Aga Khan University
(AKU) at its auditorium on February 21-23, 2003. The theme of this conference
will be "Family medicine - challenges for the next decade".
There is world-wide recognition
that trained family physicians combine knowledge and skills from various medical
specialities with knowledge of their patients' holistic dimension to offer accessible,
high-quality and cost-effective care. The Department of Family Medicine at
AKU is striving to prepare competent, caring, compassionate family physicians,
committed to serving individuals and community through a four-year structured
training programme approved by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan
(CPSP) for FCPS and the Royal College of General Practitioners, UK (RCGP, UK)
for MRCGP, UK examinations. To celebrate the successful 10 years of completion
of this training programme, the department of Family Medicine has organised
this international conference in collaboration with World Organization of Family
Doctors (WONCA), RCGP, UK, and the College of Family Medicine, Pakistan.
A large number of foreign
and Pakistani physicians are participating in this conference and several foreign
and national speakers of high repute are addressing the delegates as well as
presenting original papers. On the side meetings delegates from developed and
developing countries will exchange ideas on promotion and accreditation of the
specialty of family medicine with focus on South Asia, Middle East and East
Africa. The president and the chief executive of WONCA and Director, International
Development Programme, RCGP are also attending this conference. WONCA is the
largest organisation of family physicians in the world with 180,000 members
across the world from North America to Fareast.
For these reasons, this
conference will be the first of its kind in Pakistan, with a large scale international
and national participation of the medical community.
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