World Medical Association (WMA) perspectives on Person Centered Medicine

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Published: Mar 31, 2012
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5750/ijpcm.v2i1.188
Keywords:
Person-centeredness Person Centered Medicine World Medical Association

Main Article Content

Jon Snaedal

Abstract

The World Medical Association (WMA) has been involved in the person-centered medicine initiative since it’s inception in 2008 with the annual Geneva conferences, an activity that later led to the creation of an organized partnership called the International College of Person Centered Medicine (ICPCM) and further by the establishment of the College’s official journal the International Journal of Person Centered Medicine (IJPCM). The WMA has in its policy documents addressed person-centered and related matters, even though there is not a specific policy on this issue at the time of writing. Among the policy documents of the WMA are International Code of Medical Ethics and the Helsinki Declaration on Research Involving Human Subjects as well as the Lisbon Declaration on the Rights of Patients. Nevertheless, the WMA clearly needs formally to articulate its policy in person-centered matters and that is one of the tasks that lies ahead.

Article Details

Issue
Vol. 2 No. 1 (2012)
Section
Stakeholders’ roles and contributions beyond annual meetings: next steps to advance person- and people-centered care
Author Biography

Jon Snaedal

Born in 1950 in Iceland, Jon Snaedal received his medical degree from the Medical Faculty, University of Iceland in 1976. He specialized in internal medicine and geriatrics in Sweden during 1979 –1984. He has worked as a specialist in Geriatric Medicine, National University Hospital in Reykjavik, Iceland 1984-1997 and since then he has been the head of the Psychogeriatric Clinic, including the Memory Clinic at the same hospital. Since 2004 he is Associate Professor in Geriatric Medicine. He has done research in the fields of geriatrics and dementia, specially Alzheimer´s disease, and is the author and coauthor of many papers on that subject in Icelandic and International medical literature. He was the vice president of the Icelandic Medical Association 1996-2004, the chair of the Nordic Medical Council 2003-2005 and a member of the Council of the World Medical Association 2001-2005. During 2003-2005 he was the chair of the Medical Ethics Committee of the WMA. In 2006 he was elected President of the WMA for the period 2007-2008. He is now an honorary member of the Icelandic Medical Association.He is married to Gudrun Karlsdottir RN and they have altogether seven children. 

References

Mezzich, J. E. (2011). The Geneva Conferences and the emergence of the International Network for Person-centered Medicine. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 17, 333-336.

Miles. A. & Mezzich, J.E. (2011). Advancing the global communication of scholarship and research for personalized healthcare: The International Journal of Person Centered Medicine. International Journal of Person Centered Medicine 1 (1) 1-5.

www.wma.net/e/policy

Caring physicians of the world. Ed. Yank Coble. WMA and Pfizer Medical Humanities Initiative 2005.