Tobias Freund, Secretary of the Vasco da Gama movement, the WONCA Europe working group (VdGM) The Vasco da Gama Movement will launch on Friday its first PanEuropean meeting for Trainees and Junior Family Doctors. Why? VdGM aims to offer a platform for General Practitioner (GP) trainees and junior General Practitioners to meet and exchange ideas for practising and promoting Family Medicine in the 21st century. In addition to our annual preconference meetings at WONCA Europe Conferences the Forum provides the unique opportunity to enhance the relationships of our colleagues and friends from all over Europe, to broaden our perspective inspired by encountering new colleagues and to improve both our scientific as well as our practical skills by means of 21 sessions with more than 40 speakers from 13 different countries. Why did you choose as title of the VdGMForum “One Strong Voice for the Family Doctors of the 21st Century”? In face of the economic crisis, a decreasing workforce and increasing workload in Family Medicine in Europe we need to unite to one strong voice – not to claim but to wake up our colleagues and all stakeholders to develop concepts and ideas for the future of Family Medicine in Europe. It is our mission and our passion to make the first step ! What is the aim of the Vasco da Gama Movement? The Vasco da Gama movement is the WONCA Europe working group for new and future General Practitioners. The movement is the continuation of the work that was started during the first preconference meeting for junior doctors during the WONCA Europe conference in Amsterdam in 2004. The ideals were set down in a meeting in January 2005 in Lisbon, the home port of Vasco da Gama, from where he set out on a similar voyage of discovery, and for this reason his name has been applied to the movement. • Providing a forum, support and information for trainees and new GPs through access to WONCA Europe regional conferences and pre-conferences. • Establishing a communication network between European trainees and new GPs and identifying their concerns, doubts and needs and helping to address them. • Improving the quality of training programmes for general practice by establishing a central information database on European programmes, and setting quality standards. • Working with host organizing Committees in organising junior doctors' preconference meetings held during WONCA Europe regional conferences • Collaborating with national colleges and associations in general practice, and stimulating the formation of national representation of new and future GPs • Collaboration with international organisations of general practice and the representation of the movement at international meetings. You offer as preconference a Primary Care Workshop in the format of Design Thinking. Why? Design Thinking is about believing we can make a difference, and having an intentional process in order to get to new, relevant solutions that create positive impact. Putting the pieces together by a group of people who burn for exchanging ideas and solutions for the future of Family Medicine will give us the opportunity to contribute to our overall mission: Think globally – act locally! As destination for your first PanEuropean meeting for Trainees and Junior Family Doctors you chose Barcelona. Please explain your choice. Barcelona is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe ;-) And always worth travelling to! The Vasco da Gama Movement is the WONCA Europe working group for new and future General Practitioners. The movement is the continuation of the work that was started during the first preconference meeting for junior doctors during the WONCA Europe conference in Amsterdam in 2004. The Theme Groups are working on Research, Education and Training, Exchange, Image and Beyond Europe. The first Pan European meeting for trainees and junior Family Doctors will be held on 7 and 8 February 2014 at the Collegi Oficial de Metges de Barcelona. http://vdgm.woncaeurope.org, http://vdgm.woncaeurope.org/forum/welcome | ||||||