wma 7-2.indd - World Medical Association

WMA news
tries by supporting education and training
curricula of health professionals and community
health workers, in order to facilitate
the creation of institutional Research
Ethics Committees.
Speaking book
WMA launched the Speaking book on
Clinical Trials on the occasion of its General
Assembly in Seoul 2008. This project
was done together with the South African
Medical Association, the SADAG (South
African Depression & Anxiety Group) and
the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics in Johannesburg.
The purpose of the project is to
provide proper information on clinical research
to illiterate populations so that they
can make informed decisions about participation.
The project was made possible by
an unrestricted educational grant provided
by Pfizer, Inc.
Caring Physicians of the World (CPW)
Initiative “Leadership Course”
The CPW Project began with the Caring
Physicians of the World book, published
in October 2005 in English and then published
in Spanish in March 2007. Regional
conferences were held in Latin America,
Asia-Pacific and Africa regions. The CPW
Project was extended to include a leadership
course organized by the INSEAD Business
School in Fontainebleau, France, in December
2007, in which thirty-two medical
leaders from a wide range of countries participated
and the second Leadership Course
was held at the same place in December
2008 for one-week with thirty participants
and it turned out with successful results
and feedbacks. Planning has begun for the
third Leadership Course at the INSEAD
Business School in Singapore in February
2010. The curriculum includes training in
decision-making, policy work, negotiating
and coalition building, intercultural relations
and media relations. The courses were
made possible by an unrestricted educational
grant provided by Pfizer, Inc.
2. External Relations
World Health Professions Alliance
The WPHA is now a decade old. The context
within which it is working has changed, and
so have the organisations which make up the
alliance. Three of the four organisations have
taken on new leadership since the alliance
was created. As a result, the CEO’s feel that
it is time to refresh its strategy, and identify
how it can best use the resources available to
achieve its objectives. This will be done in a
two-day strategy seminar in June 2009.
World Federation for Medical Education
The WFME brings together medical faculties
and the profession. During recent years
it has focused on describing global standards
for basic and post-graduate education of
physicians as well as for the Continuing Professional
Development. The WMA General
Assembly endorsed these standards.
Currently, the WFME works on encouraging
and supporting countries and medical
schools to engage in, or to improve, their accreditation.
Although not itself an accrediting
body, the WFME - together with WHO
- strongly support the use of accreditation as
a method of documenting and improving the
quality of education and achieving comparability
in the international arena.
Based on a mutual agreement with the
WHO, the WFME together with the University
of Copenhagen (which hosts the
WFME office) has taken over from WHO
Headquarter the register of institutions
for higher education in health care. The
WFME now develops this register in an
online database called Avicenna Directories,
which will not only list the institutions
as named by their governments, but also
provide information about their accreditation
status and the accrediting body.
Administration
After renegotiating the contract with the
company DGN-Service, the WMA has
finally signed a contract with DGN to develop
and install a new web portal for the
WMA. The new web portal will provide the
platform for cooperation with the members
of WMA, allow online payments for meetings,
books and associate membership dues,
and, most of all, it will facilitate more timely
presentation of content on the public website.
Work on the new design and information
structure, as well as for the payment
system, is underway.
The Secretariat wishes to record its appreciation
to member associations and international
organizations for their interest in, and
cooperation with, the World Medical Association
and its Council during the past year.
It thanks all those who have represented the
WMA at various meetings and gratefully acknowledges
the collaboration and guidance
received from the officers, as well as the Association's
editors, its legal, public relations
and financial advisors, and its officials.”
Council then received the Reports of
Standing Committees, noting the appointment
of Dr. Jen Winther Jensen as Chair
of Ethics Committee, of Dr. Haikerwal as
Chair of Finance and Planning and of Dr.
J.C.Gomez Amiral as Chair of Medical
Social Affairs Committee.
Ethics Committee Report
In the course of consideration of the report
of the Ethics Committee, Council approved
the following new or revised statements
for referral to the General Assembly
and recommended their adoption:
• Declaration of Madrid on Professionally
led Regulation ( revised May 2009);
• Statement on Conflict of Interest
• Revision of WMA Declaration of Ottawa
on Child Health (Section 1)
• Revision of Statement of Medical Process
Patents
• WMA (revised) Statement on Genetics
and Medicine.
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