EUROPREV POLICY STATEMENT ON PREVENTION 2010 APPROVED BY WONCA WORLD
The new Wonca Europe President, Professor Job FM Metsemakers, announced during the 2013 Joint Wonca Europe Meeting that the EUROPREV Policy Statement on Prevention and Health Promotion in Primary Care had been adopted by Wonca World in spring 2013. This statement had been compiled in May 2010 by EUROPREV in collaboration with the Norwegian College of General Practitioners, and approved by the Wonca Europe Council in Malaga, Spain, in October 2010.
NEW EUROPREV WEBSITE
Until 2013, the EUROPREV website had been hosted by semFYC—the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine. As EUROPREV is a network organization within Wonca Europe, EUROPREV chair Professor Mateja Bulc asked if the EUROPREV website could be hosted on Wonca Europe's new website, and this request was kindly accepted. Under the direction of Dr Mario R Sammut as Chairman of the EUROPREV Website Editorial Board, Board Secretary Ms Nina Štojs worked hard to re-launch the EUROPREV website at http://www.europrev.woncaeurope.org/ in May 2013. Many thanks go to Dr Carl Steylaerts, the former Wonca Europe webmaster, for his vital collaboration in this project.
EUROPREV AT WONCA WORLD 2013 PRAGUE AND OTHER CONFERENCES
At the 20th Wonca World Conference held in Prague, Czech Republic on 25– 29 June 2013, EUROPREV organized one pre-conference meeting and three workshops. A pre-conference meeting on Family Violence was held successfully on 25 June 2013 in collaboration with the Wonca World Working Party ‘Women & Family Medicine.’ EUROPREV endorsed and approved a proposal taken during the meeting to apply to Wonca World for the status of a special interest group. It was agreed that the official EUROPREV delegates to this future Wonca World body will be Professor Mateja Bulc (EUROPREV chair), Dr Leo Pas as the convenor of the body and Dr Carmen Fernandes Alonso (Spain), and Dr Hagit Dascal-Weichhendler (Israel), both members of the EUROPREV working group on family violence.
The three workshops held during the Wonca World Conference were on good practice in cardiovascular prevention (facilitated by Ton Drenthen, Mateja Bulc and Sirkka Keinänen-Kiukaanniemi), on family violence (led by Leo Pas), and an update on preventive primary care health promotion and prevention services in Europe (presented by Leo Pas and Mateja Bulc). All workshops were a success with many participants attending and showing interest in EUROPREV.
Delegates from EUROPREV also participated in the 18th Nordic Congress of General Practice (21–24 August 2013) in Tampere, Finland, with a workshop on the preliminary results of the Euro Heart II study (Carlos Brotons and Mateja Bulc); the 1st Preventing Overdiagnosis Conference organized by the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice (10–12 September 2013) in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA (John Brodersen); the 4th Congress of the General Medicine Doctors of Serbia (19–22 September 2013) in Zlatibor, Serbia (John Brodersen and Mateja Bulc); and the 34th Prevention Annual Conference of the Slovak Society of GP (17–19 October 2013), Vysoke Tatry, Slovakia (Mateja Bulc).
EUROPREV SKYPE MEETING AUTUMN 2013 LJUBLJANA
Following the customary EUROPREV Summer Meeting held during the Wonca World Meeting in Prague, the Autumn Meeting of EUROPREV on 8 November 2013 took place for the first time using an electronic medium. Chairperson Professor Mateja Bulc, member Dr Leo Pas and secretary Ms Nina Štojs were physically present in Ljubljana, and the rest of the participating EUROPREV delegates communicated from their different countries through the use of Skype.
The meeting was so successful that another meeting was agreed upon for January 2014 to follow up on various activities waiting in the pipeline. Besides the work in various groups on different prevention themes (including a new EUROPREV project on applicable evidence-based recommendations for general practitioners/family physicians in the field of prevention and health promotion), these also include collaboration with other organizations involved in disease prevention and health promotion including the Wonca special interest groups IPCRG (International Primary Care Respiratory Group) and ESPCG (European Society for Primary Care Gastroenterology). Preparations were also started for the usual EUROPREV workshops during the forthcoming 19th Wonca Europe Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, on 2–5 July 2014.