Dear colleagues,

We have had a number of WONCA conferences this year, with WONCA Europe still to come in Istanbul in October. This month we begin collating photographs from those conferences here. If you know of any other readily accessible collections please e-mail editor@wonca.net.

A reminder that the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine scholarship application closes on September 30. This scholarship is to attend their annual conference in April in Minneapolis, and is for someone from Mexico, Central or South America.

Find out about two of our newer Special Interest Groups (SIG) – on Point of Care Testing and also on Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine.

This month’s featured doctors are Viviana Martinez-Bianchi (well-known in both North and South America regions) and Enrique Barros (from Brazil), who has just been appointed the pro tem chair of the WONCA Working Party on the Environment.

Dr Karen Flegg, WONCA Editor

See Online

From the President: WONCA and the new UN Sustainable Development Goals

As a frequent visitor to Brazil and other countries in Central and South America over the past few years, I am very impressed by the work our WONCA member organisations are doing in this part of the world, especially to ensure both quality and equity in family medicine for the people of this region of the world.

From the CEO’s desk: reminders from vacation

The CEO is on vacation but has found time to give us some timely reminders on next year’s conferences including announcing two new speakers for the world conference in Rio.

Policy Bite: Gender and health – a major equity agenda

A new publication from colleagues in the Nederlands came my way this month, and reminded me of why I got involved with WONCA in the 1990s. The report was drawn to my attention by Professor Toine Lagro-Janssen, who was an academic colleague of our Past President Prof Chris van Weel.

Scholarship to attend the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine’s 2016 Annual Spring Conference

We’d like to inform you of a scholarship opportunity for one International Scholar to attend the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine’s Annual Spring Conference, April 30-May 4, 2016 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Rural Round-up: a history of the WONCA Working Party on Rural Practice

Ian Couper, Roger Strasser, Jim Rourke, John Wynn-Jones have published a history of the WONCA Working Party on Rural Practice 1992 to 2012 in the journal “Rural and Remote Health”. It includes some fascinating memories and conclusions about the state of play at the moment.

2015 WONCA conference photos

2015 has been a big year for WONCA conferences – with more still to come. A collection of links leading to photos of WONCA conferences held so far in 2015.