Professor Marvin Reid, director of the Tropical Metabolism Research Unit at UWI’s Caribbean Institute for Health Research (CAIHR), has been elected for a two-year tenure (2018-2020) as the president of the North American Region of the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA).

WONCA is a global network of approximately 2,000 family doctors from 150 countries, whose purpose is to improve the quality of life of the peoples of the world through the provision of appropriate high-quality primary health care.

Professor Reid, who is also the president of the Caribbean College of Family Physicians, was the clear choice of his peers for the prestigious appointment at the October 2018 Meeting of the World Organization of Family Doctors in Seoul, South Korea.

The recent meeting in Seoul saw the launching of the Seoul Declaration, which is essentially a commitment by WONCA to influence governments around the world to “prioritise the health needs of the most vulnerable”. The emphasis is on affordable health care for people who are often at a disadvantage in accessing health systems.

Such groups include immigrants, ethnic minorities, the elderly, children, women, the disabled, and people in rural regions. The declaration further affirms the importance and role of family doctors in achieving the adequate provision of health care for the various groups in need around the globe.

The Seoul Declaration also supports the World Health Organization’s ASTANA Declaration, which is an undertaking to bolster primary health care in order to actualise universal health coverage.

As president of the North American Region, Professor Reid is a member of the WONCA executive and has been tasked with the chairmanship of the Membership Committee and will play an integral role in the WONCA Working Party on Research.