Global Standards In Medical Education For Better Health Care, an international conference for medical educators, originally scheduled for September 2002, has been rescheduled for March 15 to 19, 2003, in Copenhagen.

The World Conference on Medical Education is sponsored by the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME), whose purpose is “…to deliberate the case for standards in medical education and reach consensus about better health care of populations through educational programmes suited to societal needs.”

Founded in 1972 in Copenhagen, WFME has non-governmental organization (NGO) Status in relation to the World Health Organization (WHO) and has similar close relations with UNESCO. It also has a formal relationship with the World Medical Association (WMA). The World Conference on Medical Education is being arranged and held in cooperation with these organisations. Previously located in Edinburgh and since 1996 in Copenhagen, the central office of WFME is collaboratively hosted by the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and the University of Lund in Sweden.

The World Conference is specifically aimed at those responsible for providing doctors and health services of the quality now required worldwide. Participation is said to be relevant to everybody with an interest in medical education and its relation to health care delivery systems.

The conference organizers recommend attendance by undergraduate and graduate medical educators and administrators, as well as members of postgraduate-training bodies and institutions and national and international medical associations.

The Conference will be organised as a working and consensus conference. It will be built around three main topics with a full day devoted to each:

1. The Interface of Health Care and Medical Education
2. The Concept of Global Standards
3. Implementation of Standards in Medical Education

It will consist of plenary sessions with invited speakers, large group sessions dealing with major themes related to either basic or postgraduate medical education and smaller workshops on specified topics.

A number of preconference symposia will be organised on topics current in medical education and on the relation of medical education to health care delivery systems with emphasis on the significance for Global Standards.

Submitted papers will be reviewed by an international scientific committee for presentation in large group sessions, workshops and preconference symposia.

At a postconference seminar a review committee of international experts will compile and review the results of the Conference and plan the implementation phase.

To learn more, visit the WFME website.