Lebanon a founding member of the WONCA Education Working Party

WONCA (World Organization of Family Doctors) had its meeting from July 20-27, 2007 in Singapore. In this meeting WONCA elected a new president and cabinet, had its 18^th World Conference that takes place every three years, approved the establishment of a new region-the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) and formed a new working party on education.

Professor Chris van Weel of The Netherlands was elected as the new president. The world conference theme was Genomics and Family Medicine. Around two thousand people from the four corners of the world attended the conference. Six Arab countries (Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates) are expected to meet in Cocoon-Mexico in 2010 to formalize the formation of the WONCA-EMR.

WONCA announced in its meeting the establishment of the Education Working Party. Dr. Micheal Kidd from Australia supervised this initiative. The innovative work in the field of communication skills sponsored by the department of family medicine at the AmericanUniversity of Beirut and the Lebanese Society of Family Medicine (www.aub.edu.lb/~webcomm) opened the door for Lebanon to be a founding member of the WONCA Working Party on Education. Other founding countries are Denmark, Hong Kong, Lithuania, United Kingdom, and the United States.