The network - Towards Unity For Health

MEMBER AND ORGANISATIONAL NEWSABOUT OUR MEMBERSTASKFORCESD E C E M B E R 2 0 0 8N E W S L E T T E R N U M B E R 0 2 | V O L U M E 2 726Family Medicineand Primary Healthcare in Africa• Primafamed is a two-year projectwith a mission to improve the healthof the population of Africa and toreach equity in healthcare deliveryby strengthening community-orientedprimary healthcare. Primafamed is coordinatedfrom Ghent University andtries to support African universitiesin their efforts to establish and improveprimary healthcare education.More information can be found at thewebsite: www.primafamed.ugent.beKey activities include:- In July 2008, a meeting was held betweenPrimafamed and the two partneruniversities in Sudan to establishfamily medicine training.Gezira University has developed aone-year family medicine trainingprogramme that started in August2008.Ahfad University is working on afour-year family medicine curriculumwith the Arab Board of Medicine tobe initiated in December 2008.- Primafamed also organised a conferencein Uganda (17-21 November,2008) to share experiences, ideas,knowledge and skills on training Africanfamily physicians.- During the Primafamed conference,the African Journal of Primary HealthCare and Family Medicine waslaunched. This open access journalserves as a repository for cuttingedge,peer-reviewed research in allfields of primary healthcare and familymedicine (PHCFM) in a uniquelyAfrican context.Encouraging scholarly exchange betweenfamily medicine and primaryhealthcare researchers and practitionersacross Africa, PHCFM provides acontextual and holistic view of familymedicine as practised across thecontinent. The journal is availableonline at www.phcfm.org- The Flemish Government and Primafamedhave been key supports in theprocess of Defining Family Medicinein Africa. Networking and communicationis a key project outcome.Therefore a Google Group has beenstarted (http://groups.google.com/group/african-family-medicine).It provides an opportunity to networkacross Africa in a closed forum,communicate and shape key issuesin these developments.- The Network: TUFH has become amember of the International InterdisciplinaryAdvisory Board of Primafamed.Dr. Bishan Swarup Garg(member of the Network: TUFH ExecutiveCommittee) will be the representative.• The WONCA Africa Regional Conferenceis planned for 25-28 October2009, in Johannesburg, South Africa:Family Medicine in the African Context.INTERPROFESSIONAL EDUCATIONTASKFORCE: AN UPDATEThere seems to be a resurgence of interest inIPE internationally this year as more countriesgrapple with:• an increasing ageing population;• a decreasing youth to take up traditionalhealthcare professional education and positions;• the 70% shortage internationally of healthprofessionals which is becoming more apparent;• the brain-drain from developing countriesto westernised countries which continues;• the focus on prevention, primary and communitycare which continues.Health professionals are now being educatedto work more flexible hours, and encouragednot to think they will be operating in thesame profession for the rest of their lives (aswas once the case).The way in which healthcare personnel are educatedis constantly under review. In the UKnow the professional bodies require a proportionof the curriculum to be multiprofessional,and often this means interprofessional.Changes in legislation in Canada have meantthat litigation is not just the concern of thosemedically qualified, and that the leader - orthe person responsible within the interprofessionalteam - is legally responsible.The All Together Better Health Conferenceheld in Stockholm this year was attended byover 300 people interested in IPE developmentsinternationally, and the collaborationbetween the IPE networks continues to grow.The World Health Organization will launchtheir Framework for Action of Inter-professionalCollaboration and Practice. I hope thisstimulates colleagues into thinking throughother ways in which we can encourage thesharing of good practice in IPE.Dawn Forman | Chair of the taskforce IPEEmail: dawn.forman@btinternet.com