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World Organisation of Family Doctors (Wonca) perspectives on person-centered medicine

2010; Ubiquity Press; Volume: 10; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5334/ijic.475

1568-4156

Iona Heath,

Empathy and Medical Education

The acronym Wonca stands for the World Organisation of National Colleges and Academies of General Practice/ Family Medicine.This has now been shortened to the World Organisation of Family Doctors although we retain the rather endearing acronym.Wonca is indeed a global organisation with 119 member organisations in 116 countries across every continent.The stated aspiration for Wonca is "A family doctor for every family in the world" and, by implication, because not everyone lives in a conventional family, "A general practitioner for every person in the world".When, as an adolescent, I was first thinking of studying medicine, my own family doctor told me that:"In hospitals, the diseases stay and the people come and go; in general practice, the people stay and the diseases come and go."In this sense, general practice is fundamentally person-centered and it is Ian McWhinney who has pointed out that [1, p. 433]:"[General practice] is the only discipline to define itself in terms of relationships, especially the doctor-patient relationship.… Clinicians in other fields form relationships with patients, but in general practice, the relationship is usually prior to the content.We know people before we know what their illnesses will be."