EURACT - European Academy of Teachers in General Practice

Coming EURACT Meetings

• 2010 April 22-25, Bled, Slovenia - Spring Council Meeting

Past EURACT Meetings

• 2009 October 7-10, Witten, Germany - Autumn Council Meeting
  • One slide - 5 minutes presentations: Multiple Mini Interview, EURACT- Assessment Course, Belgrade,  UN petition
  • Presentations: EURACT- future development, Training and Re-training
  • Call for reviewers EJGP
  • Web based learning, E-learning
• 2009 April 25-29, St. Petersburg, Russia - Spring Council Meeting National Vlinical Protocoll, Transforming your practice into a challenging learning environment, Communication between doctor and patient as important component of health care quality
• 2008 October 8-12, Larnaca, Cyprus - Autumn Council Meeting [Report]
  • One slide - 5 minutes presentations: Slide1, Slide2, Slide3, Slide4, Slide5
  • Educational Research Papers: Paper1, Paper2; Paper3, Paper4
  • Conference day with Family Physicians from Cyprus: Ruth Kalda; Phil Phylaktou, M Avraamidou, Mladenka V. Keglevic; Francesco Carelli: Presentation1, Presentation2
• 2008 May 7-11, Mosta, Malta - Spring Council Meeting [Report]
  • One slide - 5 minutes presentations: Slide1, Slide2, Slide3, Slide4
  • Educational Research Papers: Paper1, Paper2
  • Workshop on CPD/Lifelong Learning: CPDWS1, CPDWS2, CPDWS3
• 2007 October 3-7, Ölvkarleö Herrgard, Sweden - Autumn Council Meeting [Report]
• 2007 May 9-13, Zagreb, Croatia - Spring Council Meeting [Report]
• 2006 October 11-15, Prague, Czech Republic - Autumn Council Meeting
• 2005 April 20-24, Palota Szalló, Lillafüred, Hungary - Spring Council Meeting [Report ]
• 2004 September 22-25, Aarhus, Denmark - Autumn Council Meeting [Report ]
• 2004 April 21-24, Madeira, Portugal - Spring Council Meeting [Report ]
• 2003 June 19th, Ljubljana, Slovenia - General Meeting [Report ]
• 2003 Autumn, Leicester, England - Autumn Council Meeting [Report ]
• 2003 May 7-10, Vilnious, Lithuania - Spring Council Meeting [Report ]
• 2002 September 25-28, Dublin, Ireland - Autumn Council Meeting [Report ]
• 2002 April 10-13, Maastricht, The Netherlands, Spring Council Meeting [Report ]
• 2001 October 10-12, Barcelona, Spain - Autumn Council Meeting [Report ]
• 2001 May, Tampere, Finland - ESGP Meeting
• 2001 April 4-7, Eger, Hungary - Spring Council Meeting [Report ]
• 2000 October 19-21, Kusadasi, Turkey - Autumn Council Meeting [Report ]
• 2000 July 2-6, Vienna, Austria - WONCA Europe/ESGP-FM Regional Conference
• 2000 March 1-4, Eilat Israel - Spring Council Meeting [Report ]
• 1999 October 20-24, Zagreb, Croatia - Autumn Council Meeting
• 1999 September, Bled, Slovenia - Teaching Chronic Care in General Practice
• 1999 August, Leuven Belgium - "Finding an answer to clinical problems"
• 1999 May, Mallorca, Spain - First European Network Organizations Open Conference
• 1999 March, Krakow, Poland - Council meeting [Report ]
• 1998 November, Maastricht, The Netherlands - Council meeting [Report ]
  • Lessons from Educational Research
• 1998 April, Murren, Switzerland - Council meeting [Report ]
• 1997 September, Bled, Slovenia - Council meeting and general meeting
• 1997 Athens, Greece - Council meeting
• 1996 Tartu, Estonia - Council meeting
• 1996 January, Kibbutz Harel, Israel:
  • General Practice in Basic Medical Education
• 1995 October, Strasbourg: council meeting
  • First meeting - European Society of General Practice
• 1995 March, Cambridge, UK Council and general meeting, elections:
  • Accreditation and reaccreditation
• 1994 Budapest Hungary - Council meeting
• 1994 19-20 October, Copenhagen: Uemo/Euract meeting
  • Vocational training
• 1994 4-8 May,Leuven: council meeting:
  • Vocational training, where do we stand in view of '95 ?
• 1993 18-21 November, Gottingen: first general meeting:
  • Drug education in general practice

Meeting of the Council
of the European Academy of Teachers
in General Practice (EURACT)
held in LillafA1red, Hungary, April 20-23, 2005

• LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
• PROGRAM OF THE MEETING
• REPORT OF THE MEETING
  • Pre-Council Executive Board meeting
  • Session 1: Country reports
  • Session 2: Executive TASK Force presentation
  • Session 3: Committee work
  • Session 4: Discussion of Executive Task Force recommendation
  • Session 5: Business meeting
  • Session 6: "5 minutes 1 slide" presentations
  • Session 7: Task Force groups
  • Session 8: Future plans
  • Session 9: Reports
  • Post-Council Executive Board meeting
  • Summary of EURACT Council and EB decisions
• ANNEX 1: Review of national activities
• ANNEX 2: Hon. Treasurer report
• ANNEX 3: List of new EURACT members
• ANNEX 4: Reports of Standing Committees
  • Continuous Medical Education
  • Specific Training Group
  • Member Services Committee
• ANNEX 5: Educational Research Strategy

Wednesday 20 April 2005

Pre-Council Executive Board Meeting

Session 1: Country reports

Thursday 21 April 2005

Session 2: Executive Task Force presentation
Session 3: Committee work
Session 4: Discussion of Executive Task Force recommendation
Session 5: Business meeting
Session 6: �o5 minutes 1 slide�? presentations

Friday 22 April 2005

Session 7: Task Force groups

Saturday 23 April 2005

Session 8: Future plans
Session 9: Reports

Post-Council Executive Board Meeting

Wednesday 20 April 2005

Pre-Council Executive Board Meeting

The Executive Board met before the Council Meeting and discussed the following issues:

• A common format for reports on fees collected by National Representatives is needed. The Council will consider this problem when the financial report is discussed.
• New Council Members will introduce themselves to small groups only. The Council will be divided into 3 groups and each of the groups will interview each new member. Then 5 bullet points about each person will be presented to the whole Council.
• Job Metsemakers will present the concept of the new group on educational research. A general discussion will follow.
• The Definition revision was completed by Justin Allen and will be presented to the Council.
• The �o5 minutes 1 slide�? will include max. 6 presentations and each Council Member will be allowed to give only 1 presentation. Deadline for application – lunchtime Thursday.
• The feedback session must be organized carefully, giving the opportunity to everybody to take part.
• The decisions about EURACT involvement in the program of Kos WONCA Europe Conference have to be taken before the end of Council meeting. This will be discussed with the President of WONCA Europe, who will attend the Council meeting as an observer.
• Leaders for the Vasco da Gama meeting, which will take place before the WONCA Europe Congress in Kos, have to be appointed. The open invitation will be addressed to the whole Council.
• The new President will take office at the last session of the ongoing Council meeting.
• The General Meeting should appoint new auditors. Potential candidates are Philip Evans and Harry Crebolder.
• A new correspondent for EJGP is needed.

Session 1: Country reports

The President welcomed the Council Members and especially the President of WONCA Europe – Professor Igor Svab, who joined the meeting for the first time as an observer. There were 3 new Council members: from Malta, UK and Serbia. The whole Council was divided randomly into three parts to interview each of the new colleagues. The President also described the agenda of the ongoing meeting. The plan was approved. After the small group discussions the representatives of each group reported back to the Council about the new members.

Roger Price is working as a Postgraduate Dean in Leicester. He is responsible for organization of postgraduate teaching. He is married and has two children. He has been elected as a new UK EURACT representative.

Mario R. Sammut is a GP in Malta. He works for government and in private practice. He has 20 years of experience as GP. He has been working for 4 years as an academic teacher of general practice for undergraduate students. He wants to develop vocational training. He is married and has three children. He is a new Malta representative.

Smiljka Radic works as a GP in Belgrade. She is a state employee. She is involved also in a vocational training scheme at the university, where she serves voluntarily as a mentor for trainees. She is working on her PhD thesis in the field of doctor-patient communication and hopefully she is going to defend it soon. She is married and has two children. She is the first representative of Serbia and Montenegro to EURACT.

Then reports on the key activities were given to the Council.

• Prof. Jan Heyrman informed us that the new version of educational agenda was developed. All the comments sent until now are included in it. The final version should be ready for Kos Conference. Comments are still welcome and should be sent to Prof. Heyrman not later than June 1, 2005. Chapters 7 and 8 still need a lot of work to be finished. This is planned for the group sessions on Friday afternoon.
• Prof. Job Metsemakers reported the progress of the work in the field of educational research. Many Council Members expressed their interest in the subject. The discussion paper was developed by Prof. Metsemakers to start discussion with the Council.
• Dr. Justin Allen reported on the progress of the work on development of a shorter version of New Definition, which will be offered to WONCA Europe for approval. The final document should be also ready for Kos Conference.
• Dr. Egle Zebiene reported on preparation for the next edition of the Leonardo EURACT course. Negotiations are still going on about participation of some teams, especially from Cyprus, Czech Republic and Albania. Teams from Greece, Turkey, Romania, Bosnia & Herzegovina have met all the criteria and are already approved.

Thursday 21 April 2005

Session 2: Executive Task Force presentation

• At the beginning amendments to the program were announced by the President and by Dr. Janos Szabo. A new Council Member then arrived – Dr. Jaroslava Lankova for Czech Republic – and introduced herself. She is a GP working at the Department of Family Medicine of the Charles University in Prague.
• Prof. Job Metsemakers gave the report from the work of the Task Force set-up to develop the rules for internal relationship within the Council. The group developed proposals for the changes in the constitution and the draft of less formal document called EURACT guidelines. The main constitution changes relate to the following issues:
  • Membership – application can be submitted only through the national representative. The fee should be paid after approval of the Council
  • Council has the possibility of establishing committees or task forces which could be chaired by one person for not longer than six years
  • Co-option is only possible for a specific EURACT task. Co-option is for a maximum of 3 years with a maximum 3 co-opted members and no voting rights for co-opted member
  • The Executive board membership will consist of the President, Hon. Secretary, Hon. Treasurer and 3 other Council Members. Election is by simple majority with only one renewal for three years possible. There will be a maximum of 12 years for EB membership. Committee chairs are not the part of EB but can be invited to attend meetings.
  • Quorum – A minimum 20 members must be present to hold a council meeting.
  • The General meeting must be held once every two years.
• The following Guidelines were proposed:
  • Transparency as a rule
  • Councillors have access to all the information but they are not expected to take a decision unless they are consulted on the matter.
• Specific issues are:
  • I. Information – clear time limits
  • II. Consultation – enough time for discussion and chance to speak for everybody
  • III. Communication at the Council – certain rules of communication
  • IV. Obligations of the councillors – no major changes in the existing version.
• Questions for clarification were asked by several Council Members. Prof. Job Metsemakers clarified the doubts giving the view of the task force.

Session 3: Committee work

The Council was working in small groups. The committees on BME, VT, CPD and Member Service were working separately.

Session 4: Discussion of Executive Task Force recommendation

The proposals for changes to the constitution and the EURACT guidelines were discussed and these proposals, which did not achieve consensus, were put forward to the business meeting for voting. EURACT guidelines were commented on generally. The new version will be proposed at the next meeting in Vienna. Written comments still can be sent to Prof. Job Metsemakers who will develop new proposals.

Session 5: Business meeting

• The Council approved the report from the A�rhus meeting.
• The copy of Leonardo-EURACT course materials will be distributed to all Council Members. EURACT will meet the mailing costs.
• In seven countries second respondents did not respond to the questionnaire about current situation in teaching of general practice in Europe. So, Agnes Goethuys will ask for third person to be proposed by the Council Members. In case of conflicting answers the Council Members will be asked to clarify this. Dr. Roar Maagaard commented that at least interim report is needed immediately even with some possible mistakes.
• The President informed the Council that he represented the Council for the last time during the WONCA Council meeting in Orlando, USA. This is the last Council meeting chaired by Dr. Justin Allen who is stepping down from the Presidential Office. He expressed his good feelings about the years of his presidency.
• Dr Athanasios Simeonidis presented his report as the Honorary Treasurer. 25633 euro – this is the amount which EURACT spent to run the organization and its activities. Income is 34947 euro. The current balance is 35432 euro. Dr. Simeonidis is also stepping down from the post of Hon. Treasurer. It was agreed that in the future the reports would be distributed before the Council meeting.
• Dr. Egle Zebiene informed us about the WONCA Europe EB meeting, which took place in Ljubljana, where she represented EURACT. She informed the Council that the idea of more close collaboration between the three networks was discussed. The document of Educational Agenda was well received by the EB. Also the idea of short version of New Definition was welcomed. The European EB thinks that most probably it is also time for revision. So there is a chance that it will be accepted as a new edition. WONCA Europe is happy with EURACT involvement in the Junior Doctor Project and expects us to continue it.
• Prof. Igor Svab informed the Council about the current structure and working plans of the new EB of WONCA Europe. He stressed the importance of EURACT as an important and active organization in collaboration with WONCA Europe. They especially appreciate the quality of the position documents developed by EURACT.
• The amendments to the constitution were pointed out. Prof. Job Metsemakers is responsible to introduce them. The voted solutions were:
  • two-step procedure (first application, then fee)
  • nomination of the chair by the committee and approval by the Council
  • maximum 12 years in EB
• There were also new issues raised by several Council Members. Finally the following amendments have been recommended:
  • special membership should be offered also to young doctors,
  • to introduce the limit of three members in the country to allow to elect the Council Member,
  • in the case of resignation the newly elected Council Member completes only the remaining time of the 3 years term,
  • direct members of WONCA are eligible to pay half of the membership fee.
• Dr. Filipe Gomes (Dr. Fergus O'Kelly – reserve), Dr Athanasios Simeonidis, Dr. Roar Maagaard, Dr. Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic, Dr. Justin Allen (Dr. Monica Lindh – reserve), Prof. Job Metsemakers, Dr. Jaroslava Lankova, Dr. Roger Price are prepared to serve as group leaders for Junior Doctor Project to work before the WONCA Europe Conference.
• The keynote speakers for the conference who were appointed previously are expected to work in collaboration with the representatives of two other networks. There are still considerable difficulties to agree the final structure of the plenary sessions.
• New members from the following countries were approved: Austria – 4, Belgium – 2, Bosnia & Herzegovina – 6, Germany – 1, Greece – 4, Italy – 10, Portugal – 1, Romania – 4, Turkey – 4, UK – 2.

Session 6: �o5 minutes 1 slide�? presentations

• Prof. Job Metsemakers – Dutch Council Member – produced the document on European Primary Health Care (PHC). It is available on the web-site www.healthcouncil.nl. It can help to develop further PHC in different countries and give a lot of outputs. There is a new initiative to create European Forum to gather politicians and other decision makers to put forward the development of PHC.
• Dr. Francesco Carelli introduced the product of University of Milan – training between BME and VT (in Italian). He also stressed the need to develop further the idea of Educational Research.
• Dr. Dolores Fores wants to explore further consequences of part-time work of doctors. What does it mean for further development of general practice and teaching. A second issue is that many doctors are moving across the borders. Some less developed countries are losing the best people.
• Dr. Janko Kersnik made promotion of the conference (Assessment in GP), 23-24 September 2005. The conference, under patronage of EURACT, will be held in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. It is possible to submit abstracts (deadline – 20 June). There are also 5 sponsored places + 5 sponsored for the course.

Friday 22 April 2005

Session 7: Task Force groups

The Council split into 4 groups working separately on the following issues:

• Educational Agenda
• SCOT analysis
• Educational Research strategy
• Short version of New Definition

Saturday 23 April 2005

Session 8: Future plans

• Dr. Monica Lindh is going to take part in the Conference & 25 Years Jubilee of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care, held on 5-7^th August 2005 in South Africa. The Council asked Dr. Lindh to pass EURACT's best wishes and greetings of further development.
• Dr. Egle Zebiene presented her plans as the new President of the Academy. She wants to continue the current working style of the Academy focused on delivery of products available to teachers in Europe. She also wants to create better and closer contacts with other networks. She thinks that we should also collaborate better with Vasco da Gama movement of young doctors. She will be happy to preserve the friendly atmosphere in the Council and wish for collaboration. The challenge for the future would be to increase the volume of work between the Council meetings.
• Dr. Justin Allen summarized our doubts concerning the content and structure of the plenary sessions in the WONCA Europe conference in Kos. We still do not have the details about keynote speakers from other networks. Their role is a little bit unclear. The way of use of the voting system is also unclear. Who is going to coordinate preparations? Dr. Simeonidis answered some of these questions but still a measure of uncertainty exists. Letters explaining our position will be sent by the President to the host organizing committee and two other networks. There will be also a certain number of EURACT workshops presented during the WONCA Europe Conference in Kos. BME, VT, CPD and Member Service Committees submitted the abstracts. There is also an abstract on Educational Agenda. During this Conference EURACT General Meeting will be organized preferably on Monday, during the lunch break. Reports of President and Hon. Treasurer will be presented. A proposal of changes in the constitution will be discussed and approved. EURACT is also prepared to contribute to Vasco da Gama Movement. We have a long list of volunteers. The Host Organizing Committee has to decide how many persons from EURACT they really need. Dr. Justin Allen is the liaison officer for this project.
• Plans for future meeting of the Council in Vienna were discussed. The meeting will be held on November 2-6, 2005. The meeting will start on 5.30 p.m. and before a regular EB meeting will take place. On the last day (Saturday) the symposium on Medical Education in Mental Health Care will take place. Speakers from EURACT and Austrian College will have presentations during the symposium. Several Council Members stressed that the symposium program should not be filled with too many presentations. There should be enough time for questions and other interactive activities. Dr. Justin Allen is the liaison officer for this meeting.
• The Spring 2006 meeting will take place in Turku, Finland on 3-7 May, 2006. This meeting will be also connected to the local event organized jointly with the Finnish College. Dr. Adam Windak is the liaison officer for this meeting.
• Autumn 2006 meeting probably will take place in Prague, Czech Republic.
• Spring 2007 – plans for Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Session 9: Reports

• Prof. Job Metsemakers presented the results of the discussion of the group working on Educational Research Strategy. This group worked on the document developed by Prof. Job Metsemakers. The discussion focussed on 5 topics:
  • Stimulation of teaching of research
  • Promotion of educational research
  • Organization of courses on methodology
  • Conduction of multi-national research
  • Presentation of the results of educational research
• The group has made rather precise plans for further work on the topic. The whole report is available in Annex 5.
• Dr. Francesco Carelli reported the content of discussion of BME. They discussed the Kos workshop, BME organizers checklist and the issue of early clinical exposure. The workshop in Kos will be on multicultural differences in teaching.
• Dr. Roar Maagaard presented the results of VT committee discussion. They will be also presented during the Kos Conference. They will focus on differences in recruitment procedures for VT in Europe. There was also a discussion on the length of VT in Europe. The group strongly needs the Excel file produced by Prof. Jan Heyrman. Potential contacts and links to Vasco da Gama Movement were also discussed. Another issue was the updating of the document on trainers selection. Potential survey on financial arrangements for the training in Europe was also discussed. The full report is available in Annex 4.
• Prof. Paula VainiomA�ki reported on CPD committee work. The group is becoming larger. They discussed the idea of the �otoolbox�? for GPs who want to continue their academic development. Probably the document will be produced in two versions: �oshort�? for general audience and �olarge�? in academic version. The arrangements for further work were done. Prof. Jan Heyrman will coordinate the workshop in Kos. There are also plans for further collaboration with EQuiP. The small group of 3 persons will contact EQuiP to discuss possibilities for further collaboration. The need for review of the landscape document was also discussed. The full report is available in Annex 4.
• Dr. Egle Zebiene reported on the discussion of the Member Service committee. The committee wants to appoint new chairman and wants to propose Dr. Filipe Gomes to overtake this duty. The Council approved this decision. The group discussed the preparations for the Leonardo-EURACT course in Kusadasi. Financial input from EURACT will be 6000 euro as it was agreed earlier. The local organizer is going to find the remaining sum to cover the expenses. Eight countries were approved to the course and there are 2 paying members. Altogether there should be 34 participants. Next Leonardo-EURACT course will take place in Portugal. This will be a course for Spain, Italy, Malta, Ireland and Portugal. If there is further interest in such courses in other regions it will probably be possible to organize them. Sponsoring for the Bled courses will stay as it was agreed earlier (5 x 500 euro for the course + 5 x 100 euro for the conference in Kranjska Gora). The idea of assessment course was also discussed.. Prof. Jan Heyrman declared that Dr. Jan Degreese is ready to develop this kind of course. The full report is available in Annex 4.
• Dr. Justin Allen reported on the progress of the group, which worked on the shorter version of New Definition. The document is nearly ready and will be presented to WONCA Europe conference in Kos. The draft will be circulated to the Council Members with the request for comments. The current version is available as Annex 6 .
• Prof. Jan Heyrman reported on the work on the document on Educational Agenda. New version was designed. The draft will be distributed in May. Comments are welcomed till the end of June. Certain concerns about the structure of the document have been expressed. Authors and the editor are aware of limitations, however its value is undisputable.
• Dr. Roger Price reported on the discussion on SCOT analysis. The group reviewed the items. They feel the need for general brainstorming on the subject during the next Council meeting. They stress the need for circulation of the draft documents for comments as early as possible. Another issue would be a further development of international conference of teachers.
• At the end of the session Dr. Justin Allen summarized the meeting experiences. He asked all the Council Members to reflect on it. Most of them stated enormous change in the working style and atmosphere, which went in very positive direction. Finally Dr. Egle Zebiene thanked Dr. Janos Sabo for all his efforts to organize the Council meeting. On behalf of the Council she expressed grateful feelings for marvellous arrangements offered by the organizers. At this point the meeting was officially concluded.

Post-Council Executive Board meeting

• Dr. Justin Allen is a co-opted Council member for one additional year. He is expected to attend next two meetings and to assist the EB in its work.
• EB meeting before the Council meeting in Vienna will start on Wednesday, 2^nd November at 15.00. Wolfgang will confirm the place.
• Due to a significant number of Council members unsatisfied with current procedure, country reports are coming back to the previous version. Written forms will be distributed at the meeting and attached to the report. There will be no posters.
• Introduction to the task force work should be limited only to a 5 minutes -1 slide presentation.
• New ideas on proposals for task forces should be proposed during the regular 5 minutes 1 slide session.
• The invitation to the General Meeting will be put on the web-site. The Agenda and proposal for the changes in the bylaws will be also on the web-site. Prof. Job Metsemakers and Dr. Justin Allen will develop the final version to be proposed to the General Meeting.
• Prof. J. Metsemakers will re-draft the EURACT Guidelines and the new version will be considered during the next meeting.
• Adam Windak will develop presentation leaflets about the Leonardo EURACT course in Portugal. The course will take place on May 17-21, 2006. Leaflets will be available on EURACT booth in Kos.
• Teaching materials for the Leonardo EURACT course will be mailed to all Council Members together with the report from the Council meeting. EURACT will pay for the mailing costs.
• Agnes Goethuys will organize new election of Cypriot representative. Only 5 fully approved members will participate in it.
• Dr Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic will be a EURACT reporter for EJGP responsible for regular writing (4 times a year) news from EURACT.
• Dr Jaroslava Lankova will be reimbursed on the level of 20 cents/1 km for the travel to the meeting. This is equivalent to the reimbursement used by WONCA Europe and can be used in future for reimbursement of car travels if needed.
• The cost of the web-site is very high. Current arrangements perhaps should be re-negotiated or/and other potential solutions should be explored.
• Reimbursement of the travel expenses:

  1. Samira	400X90% = 360
  2. Margus	294X90% = 265
  3. Okay	410X90% = 370
  4. Adam	480X90% = 430
  5. Smiljka	042X90% = 40
  6. Llukan	280X90% = 250
  7. Ruta	300X90% = 270
  Total output	1985 euro

Summary of EURACT Council and EB decisions – LillafA1red 2005

• The Leonardo-EURACT course materials will be sent to all Council members.
• Changes to the EURACT Constitution are recommended by the Council and will be presented to the General Meeting.
• Group leaders for Junior Doctor Project to work before the WONCA Europe Conference have been appointed by the Council.
• 38 new EURACT members from 10 different countries have been approved by the Council.
• The President will send the letters about the problems with Kos Conference to the host organizing committee and two other networks.
• Five EURACT workshops will be presented during the WONCA Europe Conference in Kos.
• The autumn 2005 Council meeting will be held in Vienna, Austria on November 2-6, 2005.
• The spring 2006 Council meeting will take place in Turku, Finland on 3-7 May, 2006.
• The country reports are coming back to the old written format distributed during the first session of each Council meeting.
• The 2006 Leonardo EURACT course will take place in Portugal on May 17-21, 2006.
• Dr Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic is responsible for regularly writing news from EURACT to EJGP.
• Any car travel costs for EURACT will be reimbursed on the level of 20 cents/1 km.

Annex 1
Review of national educational activities
after EURACT Council meeting
Aarhus, 2004

EURACT Council meeting
April 20-23, 2005
LillafA1red, Hungary

COMPILATION REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES
LILLAFAoRED MEETING, April 20-24, 2005

Annex 2
Hon. Treasurer Report

EURACT Council meeting
April 20-23, 2005
LillafA1red, Hungary

It seems that a stable income of membership fees has been achieved. Although a certain number of new council members joined Euract the last two meetings the fees collecting procedure seems quite understandable and practical. There is a need of seeking new funding sources like from Wonca Europe through special projects funding.

The healthy economical situation gives Euract the means to invest in activities for Academy's members and to all European teachers in GP. Apart from administrative expenditure an almost 30% of the money is spent in publications and other resources available through a renewed website as well as in organizing and running courses developing and promoting the teaching in GP.

Annex 3
List of new EURACT Members

EURACT Council meeting
April 20-23, 2005
LillafA1red, Hungary

Applications Hungary meeting, 2005*

Austria

1. Dr. Thomas Busch
2. Dr. Gustav Kamenski
3. Dr. Franklin Krause
4. Dr. Otto Pichlhoefer

Belgium

1. Dr. D. Devroey – VUB (e-mail)
2. Prof. Kartounian – VUB (e-mail)

Bosnia & Herzegovina

1. Dr. Z. Klaric
2. Dr. B. Gajanovic
3. Dr. E. Cerni-Obrdalj
4. Dr. A. Brkovic
5. Dr. G. Pivic
6. Dr. S. Selmanovic

Cyprus

1. Dr. N. Rossos (PIF)
2. Dr. M. Avraamidou
3. Dr. N. Panayides
4. Dr. K. Iacovidav-Balika
5. Dr. S. Missouri
6. Dr. A. Hajivassiliou
7. Dr. I. Cotter
8. Dr. T. Peta
9. Dr. C. Economou
10. Dr. I. Papapetrou
11. Dr. F. Theocleous
12. Dr. R. Kousoulidou
13. Dr. P. Avraamides
14. Dr. N. Theologos
15. Dr. A. Galazi
16. Dr. P. Arsiotou
17. Dr. P. Economou
18. Dr. E. Englezaki
19. Dr. P. Marouchos
20. Dr. P. Phylaktou
21. Dr. P. Gudenian
22. Dr. A. Philippides
23. Dr. A. Hadsicostas
24. Dr. M. Azina-Chronides

Germany

1. Dr. F. Peters-Klimm (PIF sent by post)

Greece

1. Karanasios
2. Koutsogiannis
3. Anastopoulos
4. Kyriakopoulos

Italy

1. S. Nobili (PIF email)
2. M. Baruchello (PIF email 10/11)
3. A. Stimamiglio (PIF email 5/2)
4. P. Marangoni (PIF email 18/3)
5. M. Manganelli (PIF email 18/3: omgezet tot doc file)
6. A. Nobile (PIF email 30/3)
7. A. Lupo (I send again the PIF)
8. A. Marino (I send again the PIF)
9. G. Nati (PIF)
10. M. Bruni (PIF)

Portugal

1. Torcato Santos (no PIF yet)

Romania

1. Dr. Loredana Piloff
2. Dr. Viorela Enachescu
3. Dr. Iuliana Picioreanu
4. Dr. Aurel Condrea

Turkey

1. Dr. Melahat Akdeniz - Akdeniz University Medical Faculty Family Medicine Department, Antalya-Turkey.
2. Dr. Kamile Marakoglu - Selcuk University Medical Faculty Family Medicine Department, Konya-Turkey.
3. Dr. Hatice Kurdak - Cukurova University Medical Faculty Family Medicine Department, Adana-Turkey.
4. Dr. Sevgi A�zcan PaycA1 - Cukurova University Medical Faculty Family  Medicine Department, Adana-Turkey.

Annex 4
Reports of Standing Committees

EURACT Council meeting
April 20-23, 2005
LillafA1red, Hungary

Report of CME Committee

CME/CPD COMMITTEE MEETING April 21^st 2005

Present: Samira Herenda, Jan Heyrman, Jaroslava Lankova, Iuliana Popa, Ruta Riba, Paula VainiomA�ki (chair and reporter), Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic.

1. The chair welcomed Jaroslava Lankova, the new member of the group.
2. Toolbook. According to the discussions in Madeira and Aarhus, an easy, simple and elementary book was supposed to be prepared for the use of practicing GPs, including GP teachers, to motivate them to start with their own professional development plan.

   Jan Heyrman had sent a draft for group members some weeks ago with few responses from the members. The draft had been prepared by an educationalist and Jan. It tries to induce the learning cycle, starting from defining the learning needs, making a learning agenda, setting out priorities, then organising a learning process, and reporting it finally in a portfolio. For each of the steps, the toolbook gives three methods, implemented and piloted in Belgium.

   According to the discussion, the draft does not include aspects like population view and assessment of one's own work, and in addition to personal learning plan other elements of CPD are missing. The draft was discussed main focus being on the high, mainly academic level of the draft, and it was supposed not easily to be applicable by GPs and GP- teachers all over the Europe. A remark was also made that there are many academic level books on the CPD topic already available.

   During the long discussion and analysis of different options, it was finally decided to have two different publications in plan: 1) a short version (possibly a series of leaflets) for elementary and ordinary use with the main idea to motivate GPs and GP-teachers in CPD, but 2) also an academic level paper, consisting also of other issues in continuing professional development as personal learning plan.

   Proposals were made that the group could meet in Vienna one day before council meeting if needed, but no actual decision was made on this. Another option would be to meet experts on CPD, but just after some work has been done. The group had used Rughani's book as a reference (Rughani A, The GP's guide to Personal Develoment Plans, Radcliffe Medical Press 2000). Jan presented another book, Wilcox & Campion-Smith: Practice Professional Development Plan.
   ACTION PLAN: the group committed to the challenge of publishing a short version and an academic version. Members promised to send their ideas to Paula (pavaini@utu.fi) within two weeks (before 3^rd May). Paula will send reminders and support the e-mail –discussion. The content for both publications will be drafted by Paula with the help of Jan, based on the ideas of members.

3. Kos conference. Jan had sent in again the Amsterdam abstract for a workshop on behalf of the group. The abstract was not available presently, and it was unclear whose names were on the abstract.
   ACTION PLAN: Jan will take care of the workshop, but tries to involve group members in the workshop planning and running. Jan will also send the abstract text with the names of authors to all group members.
4. Collaboration with EQuiP. EURACT has published a report with EQuiP concerning CPD. Jan has started a new collaboration with Luc Seuntjens, Joachim Szecsenyi and Martin Marshall from EQuiP. A draft paper has been written in February, basing on the ideas in the earlier published document, with an aim to present the idea of CPD to GPs, organise training courses, find more evidence and put emphasis on accreditation procedures. Jan, Paula and Jaroslava volunteered to contribute to further discussions, mainly by e-mail.
   ACTION PLAN: Paula will inform mentioned members of EQuiP concerning the decisions made and also to find out, if the idea actually is relevant from their side.

Paula VainiomA�ki

• length of training
• structure of training (practice/hospital)
• outcome of training
• numbers of trainees

We think it is important to build our judgement on the necessary competencies to become a GP – some of these (many) can only be learnt in GP. Studying the New Definitions we find 2 year the minimum training length in GP-setting.

European recommendations today talk about a minimum of 3 years training – and minimum half the time in GP.

Responsible for keeping this discussion alive in the VT-group till next meeting: Roar.

4. Financing/supporting VT-programmes

Dolores had been responsible for making a survey-draft and a discussion paper – but as Dolores unfortunately was not present in Aarhus – there had been a temporary pause in this process.

It is a very serious problem in many countries: in some countries nearly no supporting funds; in some countries pharmaceutical companies take part; in some countries the trainee has to by his practice-part before being trained.

So we still put these questions: Who is financing VT? How is the supporting structure around VT? Obstacles and possibilities. We wish to discover and describe the differences somewhat more in this field. It might be a topic for a future Council meeting.

Responsible for next steps: Dolores, Bernard and Monica – Bernard and Monica very willing to contribute!

5. Trainee forum

Very much inspiration was obtained from the Junior Doctors' Project in combination with the Wonca Europe Conference in Amsterdam, June 2004. This project has given birth to the Vasco da Gama Movement. We welcome this movement very much – and certainly will offer this new movement a relationship.

Responsible for offering a relationship to the Vasco da Gama Movement: Roar.

6. Trainer selection

EURACT has produced guidelines on trainer selection some years ago. It was discussed if an update was necessary – also if it was necessary to make national adaptations to this European guidelines.

At least in some countries there still is a great need for training and supporting trainers

Closing remark: due to possible national obligations appearing in autumn 2005 Roar might at this time have to ask for replacement as chair of this committee.

Responsible: all have to read and reflect on the Selection of trainers guidelines (www.euract.org).

Roar Maagaard

1. Elections of the new chairman of member services committee

   Luis Filipe Gomes was proposed to take chairing of Member Services Committee after the Lillafured meeting. Arrangements for Kusadasi course to be finished by current chairman EZ.

FG is approved by the Council as the chair of MSC

2. Leonardo-EURACT course Kusadasi, Turkey

Countries that provided names of participants, their CVs and support letters:
- Romania
- Turkey
- Greece
- Serbia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Republic
- Albania

were approved by the Council to be sponsored on the basis decided earlier – e.g. four participants from each country will be paid accommodation fee during the course days, course fee for the course. The course starts on 22nd of May, ends on 25^th, departure on 26^th. Participants themselves will pay travel expenses and additional days of stay in the hotel. Travel expenses of trainers will be paid by organizers – Turkish society of family doctors and EURACT, which allocated 6000 EUR for the activity. Two paying members also will join the training course.

Concerning the Cyprus members the discussion on the difficult situation on GP in the country revealed common understanding that active GPs, if they are supported by the national organization of GPs, will be invited to join he course on the same basis as other countries.

The Council approved support for the applicants of Cyprus if they provide the support letter from the Society of General Practitioners.

It was decided to send the course materials o Turkey by mail for the course participants as well as to the Council members, costs included to he list of expenses. Special certificates for the course will be printed by AW and brought to Kusadasi.

The next Leonardo-EURACT course will take place in Faro (Portugal) on 17-21 May 2006 (place and time to be confirmed). The same amount of 6000 EUR will be allocated for the course for covering travel of teachers and course organizational expenses. Countries that will be invited to join the course are Italy, Portugal, Malta, Ireland, and Spain. Also EURACT is going to secure 12 places for participants who are going to pay themselves the fee of 400 EUR (with the 50 EUR reduction for EURACT actual members), as well as travel and accommodation expenses.

The decision was taken to promote the Portugal course during the WONCA Europe conference in Kos by producing leaflets. The leaflets will be made by AW, the first version discussed in Kusadasi, brought to Kos and distributed there during the workshop and through EURACT booth.

3. Important point suggested by Council members is the faculty of Leonardo-EURACT course development for the future courses. In addition to the Council members who contribute as faculty members in the countries where the course is organized, it is important take actions more specifically and to train more teachers who would be able to replace current teachers of the international course and contribute to the teaching process in future.
4. Future courses may be organized in any country that would feel that this course could be of interest to their GP teachers. The possibility of allocating finances for the future is not clear yet and will depend on the future income.
5. The decision was taken in Aarhus to continue sponsorship for the Bled course (Kranjska Gora) for 5 persons covering the participation fee and accommodation and sponsorship for 5 persons coming for annual meeting of teachers, covering heir participation fee in the meeting of 100 EUR each. Trainers hat are sponsored for the Bled course will not pay conference fee.
6. The idea of assessment methods course, proposed by Jan Heyrman, was discussed during he meeting. General support was agreed on the basis of common requirements for the activities, which have to be met for EURACT patronage. These requirements include involvement of the Council member in the development of programme, course content, supervision of the course and producing the report after the activity.
7. The idea of too small number of committee members was discussed. Members agreed that for the numerous activities that he committee is performing we need more persons who would be ready to join the group, and we would like to ask the Council if there are persons who wish to join. The idea of corresponding members who are ready to contribute between the meetings to the activities of Committees is important and should be considered in future.

ACTION POINTS:

• AW to produce leaflets.
• EZ to continue organizing Kusadasi course.
• Change the address in the website for sponsorship, include Luis Filipe Gomes as contact person;
• To develop the procedure of training more faculty members for the future courses.

Egle Zebiene

Annex 5
Educational Research Strategy

EURACT Council meeting
April 20-23, 2005
LillafA1red, Hungary

Draft 22/4/2005

Euract Educational Research

The aim of the Academy is to foster and maintain high standards of care in European general practice by promoting learning and teaching in general practice/family medicine.

There are many ways to achieve that aim:

1. promoting teaching, learning and research in general practice
2. providing support and information for Academy teachers
3. producing expert reports relevant to the teaching of general practice
4. organising conferences, workshops and seminars
5. ...
6. ...

There is no doubt that Euract has produced numerous important reports on several topics, established databases on Vocational training, and organised workshops. All our statements and reports are based as much as possible on evidence derived from research carried out in the educational settings of general practice.

Our Council meetings are very much organised as working sessions for the different subgroups, trying to produce another report, workshop, or statement.

Several courses are organised under the patronage of Euract. In 2004 the Slovene Family Medicine Society held the first annual meeting of GP/FM teachers more directed at presenting research.

A number of council members have indicated that research should have a place on the agenda too. Some want to present research data on education at Council meetings, others would like to conduct multi-national collabarative educational research projects. The idea of having an open Euract meeting for Euract members has also been expressed.

Reference was made to plans of EGPRN which had set up an Educational Committee, chaired by Frank Dobbs. The Educational Committee was not set up to conduct research on education, but to set up education in research for established GP's but also in the undergraduate and graduate curriculum.

The first question is whether this is an activity within our aim. In our own Euract booklet we state that one of the methods is: promoting teaching, learning and research in general practice. It doesn't say explicitly that we should present research at our meetings, but on the other hand it would be foolish to conduct research and not to share the results.

Several objectives can be named within the framework of Educational research:

1. Stimulate the teaching of research methods in the Basic Medical Education as well as in Vocational Training
2. Promote research on education
3. Organise courses on research methods in educational research
4. Conduct (multi-national) research on education
5. Present results of educational research

1. Stimulate the teaching of research methods in the Basic Medical Education as well as in Vocational Training
   
   We have to include this in the Educational agenda; explore if these programs exist; describe �obest practices�?; develop materials to be used. Furthermore we should explore collaboration with EGPRN on introducing research methods in the curriculum.
   
   Group: research methods should be part of the curriculum; probably they are mentioned in the educational agenda; Euract together with EGPRN can stimulate that; it is not considered to be a task of the Education Research Strategy Taskforce:
   
   Actions:
   - Job to check Educational Agenda.
   - Job to contact EGPRN.
   
   
2. Promote and stimulate research on education in general practice
   
   We should develop a research agenda, meaning we have to explore in which area's research in needed most.
   
   Group: a positive attitude towards educational research is needed and felt. We should find a balance between a structured approach based on an educational research agenda and members own interests. The educational research agenda (a list) should be based on the missing evidence for methods in the Educational Agenda. It was stipulated that gathering and sharing information on a common topic, such as CME, is not to be seen as educational research.
   
   Actions:
   - Iuliana (contactperson), Okay, Dolores, and Francesco start with the �oeducation research�? agenda.
   - Members to send research ideas, or projects to Iuliana.
   
   
3. Organise courses on research methods in educational research
   
   In this area we could well work together with EGPRN which was already providing courses in research methods for GP's. EGPRN certainly wants to collaborate. One possibility could be the participation of Euract members in the EGPRN research methods courses. Or EGPRN and Euract could set up a common course.
   
   Group: Some argue that if EGPRN is already providing a course in research methods there is no need for Euract to organise such a course. Organising a joint course with EGPRN would be good in the view of collaboration between the Networks, would mean another Euract product, and could mean that in the course specific educational research projects and experts could be included.
   
   Action:
   - Job to contact EGPRN to discuss a joint course.
   
   
4. Conduct (multi-national) research on education
   
   We could learn from the EGPRN experience of multi-national research. Start small and focused. Show results before inviting other members to research.
   
   Group: General agreement that small and focused projects are best to start with. Invite partners from other countries when feasible. Establish working contracts with institutions, departments and practices instead with Euract council members. Projects could run under Euract patronage when council has decided the project fits within the educational research agenda or Euract's interests.
   
   If Euract is a recognized body it could be an official partner certainly in projects with European money.
   
   Action:
   - To find out if Euract can be recognized as an official body is already a task of Wolfgang.
5. Present results of educational research
   
   General comment: we have to perform research first before we discuss all kind of possibilities for presentations.
   
   - AT EURACT COUNCIL MEETINGS
   We could explore if there are possibilities within our Council meeting programme to set aside time for presentations of Educational research or organise Poster sessions. We have to be very careful not to overload our already very busy agenda.
   
   Group: There should be a time slot for presentation of research results. The group is clear about the fact that it is not a presentation of experiences but of performed scientific research. Some suggest that the meeting with the national colleges could be used to present educational research. A 2 hour time slot should be sufficient for 6-8 presentations.
   
   Action:
   - Work out and present to council for decision.
   
   - AT A NATIONAL LEVEL
   On a national level representatives of Euract and EGPRN could explore the feasibility to organise joint national activities such as meetings and workshops
   
   Group: Regarded as a responsibility of the Council members depending on the national circumstances.
   
   - AT A EUROPEAN LEVEL
   Frank Dobbs feels that Educational research will not easily become a meeting theme for EGPRN, but we certainly could think about a combined EGPRN- Euract meeting.

   One could argue that there are several educational conferences where research can be presented such as AMEE, Ottawa, Wonca. They are certainly big conferences not directed at general practice/family medicine. Furthermore these conferences are often very expensive, whereas the link to Euract is easily lost.
   
   Looking at other possibilities if we really want educational research close to Euract:
   
   - stimulate a yearly research meeting organised by a GP college under the patronage of Euract, like the meeting in Slovenia. The advantage is that it is being organised. On the other hand is it the question if such a meeting is really considered a Euract meeting.
   - go for the EGPRN model and organise at least once a year a Euract research meeting together with a Council meeting. Set a theme and invite GP researchers to come to that meeting. We must realise that we cannot spend half a day on research and expect other researchers to come. If we go that direction two days will be needed for research sessions. The advantage could be that more members become involved and feel a benefit. The consequence would be that it is no longer organising a Euract meeting but a Euract congress/workshop, with a completely different financial set-up. Furthermore it would mean that we will spend less time on our topics.
   
   Group:
   - At Wonca meetings all presentations on educational research in general practice to be grouped together.
   - Establish contact between Euract and AMEE. Get AMEE (again) to observer status?
   - Leave existing research for as they are.
   
   - AT AN INTERNATIONAL LEVEL
   Make results of educational research, which has been published in peer reviewed journals, available through the Euract website
   
   Proposal for next step:
   
   Installation of a Euract Educational Research Committee which has to work out this first proposal, in good collaboration with EGPRN.
   
   Taskgroup Education Research Stategy: Janko; Mario; Smiljica; Dolores; Francesco; Wolfgang; Roar: Okay; Mladenka; Iuliana; Adam; Job
   
   Actions:
   - Job will adjust the document and distribute it.
   - Job will set up a time table for the actions.
   - Job will prepare concrete proposals for next council meeting.
   
   Comments:
   - Make a description of the task of the group, the end results, the duration of the taskgroup, Research methods biomedical research differ from research methods in education research (Bernard)
   - Council presentations or posters only of research by council members or of all Euract members
   - We need to know what is going on in other countries in the field of education research; how to set up an intelligence system.
   - Propose Education Research as a topic for Kranjska Gora in 2006

Job FM Metsemakers

I acknowledge the contributions of Francesco Carelli to this paper.

Meeting of the Council
of the European Academy of Teachers
in General Practice (EURACT)
held in Aarhus, Denmark, September 22-25, 2004

• LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
• PROGRAM OF THE MEETING
• REPORT OF THE MEETING
  • Pre-Council Executive Board meeting
  • Session 1: Introduction to the meeting
  • Session 2: SCOT analysis
  • Session 3: Business meeting
  • Session 4: Task groups
  • Session 5: Business meeting – continued
  • Session 6: Standing committees
  • Session 7: Feedback from the committees
  • Session 8: �o5 minutes 1 slide�? presentations
  • Session 9: Future meetings & evaluation
  • Post-Council Executive Board meeting
  • Summary of EURACT Council and EB decisions
• ANNEX 1: Review of national activities
• ANNEX 2: Hon. Treasurer report
• ANNEX 3: List of new EURACT members
• ANNEX 4: Reports of Standing Committees
  • Continuous Medical Education
  • Specific Training Group
  • Member Services Committee
• ANNEX 5: List of Council members

Members present:

• Dr. Justin Allen, United Kingdom, President
• Dr. Adam Windak, Poland, Honorary Secretary
• Dr. Athanasios Simeonidis, Greece, Honorary Treasurer
• Prof. Jan Heyrman, Belgium, EB member
• Prof. Job F.M. Metsemakers, The Netherlands, EB member
• Dr. Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic, Croatia, EB member
• Prof. Anders Baerheim, Norway
• Dr. Okay Basak, Turkey
• Dr. Francesco Carelli, Italy
• Dr. Luis Filipe Gomes, Portugal
• Dr. Janko Kersnik, Slovenia
• Dr. Margus Lember, Estonia
• Dr. Monica Lindh, Sweden
• Dr. Roar Maagaard, Denmark
• Dr. Vladimir Marek, Czech Republic, observer
• Dr. Fergus D. O'Kelly, Ireland
• Dr. Iuliana Popa, Rumania
• Dr. Ruta Riba, Latvia
• Dr. Bernhard Rindlisbacher, Switzerland
• Dr. Llukan Rrumbullaku, Albania
• Dr. Wolfgand Spiegel, Austria
• Prof. Paula VainiomA�ki, Finland
• Dr. Bernardina Wanrooij,The Netherlands, observer
• Dr. Yonah Yaphe, Israel
• Dr. Egle A1ebiene, Lithuania

Members absent:

• Dr. Ivana Bogrova, Czech Republic
• Dr. Philip Evans, United Kingdom, observer
• Dr. Dolores ForA�s, Spain
• Dr. Bernard Gay, France
• Dr. Samira Herenda, Bosnia & Herzegovina
• Dr. Eva JurgovA!, Slovakia
• Prof. Olga Kuznetsova, Russia
• Dr. JA!nos SzabA3, Hungary
• Dr. Stefan Wilm, Germany

Wednesday 22 September 2004

Pre-Council Executive Board Meeting

Session 1: Introduction to the meeting
Session 2: SCOT analysis

Thursday 23 September 2004

Session 3: Business meeting

Friday 24 September 2004

Session 4: Task groups
Session 5: Business meeting - continued
Session 6: Standing committees

Saturday 25 September 2004

Session 7: Feedback from the committees
Session 8: �o5 minutes 1 slide�? presentations
Session 9: Future meetings & evaluation

Post-Council Executive Board Meeting

Wednesday 22 September 2004

Pre-Council Executive Board Meeting

The Executive Board met before the Council Meeting and discussed the following issues:

• Dr. Yonah Yaphe is going to provide the final version of checklist for teaching practices to Agnes Goethuys. She will organize printing in Belgium and bring them to the Spring Council Meeting 2005.
• The next Council Meeting can be organized in Halkidiki, Greece. This will cost EURACT 6000 euro. Dr. Simeonidis is ready to organize this meeting. The relevant decision must be taken by the Council.
• Dr. Egle Zebiene was the only nominee for the Presidency of EURACT. According to the bylaws she is elected the new President.
• The new Honorary Treasurer should be elected during the current meeting. The Council will be informed about it. Candidates should propose themselves for the post.
• The Web-site group working before the Council Meeting came to the conclusion that no password protected access to our web-site is needed.
• The Task Force on EB/Council relationship is going to present the progress report which will not be discussed during the Council Meeting. All members will be asked to comment by e-mail after the meeting.
• EURACT will recognize the contribution of Igor Svab to its work presenting him with a special gift from the Council. Jan Heyrman and Agnes Goethuys will organize it in Leuven.
• Co-option of Bernardina Wanrooij and Justin Allen will be decided by the Council. The person concerned will leave the room for the discussion on the topic.
• An Education Research Strategy will be proposed for further discussion by Job Metsemakers for the Spring meeting. This issue will be not discussed during the current Council Meeting.
• All Council Committees should elect or appoint their chairmen. The Committees have to discuss their potential contribution to the Kos WONCA Congress. New Council Members should select the committee in which they would like to continue their work in EURACT.
• The "5 minutes 1 slide" session will be chaired by volunteer outside of the EB.
• Paula Vainiomaki informed EB that she received a phone call from Janos Szabo who is proposing to host the Council Meeting in Spring 2005. She asked him for more detailed declaration, which he promised to send by e-mail within the time frame of the ongoing Council Meeting.
• Dr. Justin Allen, Roar Maagaard and Job Metsemakers will attend the three network meetings during the WONCA World Congress in Orlando.
• The issue of Secretariat has to be reviewed and discussed by the Council. It is unclear for how long Agnes Goethuys can continue her function.

Session 1: Introduction to the meeting

The President, dr. Justin Allen, welcomed all the Council members, and especially the new members from Czech Republic, Latvia, Switzerland and Slovenia. Then the Council members discussed in pairs their professional experiences during last few months. Afterwards the President announced the changes to the agenda of the ongoing meeting. He informed us that the Honorary Treasurer is stepping down from his post and the new officer to this post has to be elected. He asked everybody to consider his/her readiness to overtake this post.

Session 2: SCOT analysis

The whole Council was divided into 4 groups. Each group had a task to consider strengths, challenges, weaknesses and threats for EURACT. Each group focused on one of the above aspects while having in mind the others, producing three bullet points related to their main topic.

After a small group discussion, the group representatives reported to the plenary. The lists presented by the groups were enlarged by other members of the Council, who added more ideas. Finally four following lists have been produced:

Strengths:

• focus on quality production
• broad range of expertise in the Council
• professional academic approach
• friendly atmosphere

Challenges:

• no clear benefits for members of EURACT
• difficulties sometimes in communication
• difference in participation of Council members and their feeling of responsibilities
• intermittent activities
• lack of political will
• lack of legal status
• lack of long-term strategy (business plan)

Opportunities:

• more emphasis on young doctors
• to promote all values of EURACT
• collaboration with networks, WONCA, UEMO, AMEE
• use of information technology
• increases interest in our products
• PHC still a hot topic in Europe
• etwork research on education

Threats:

• expansion and growth of EURACT Council
• external threats to the status of GP teachers
• too much focus on products instead of networking
• poor link of EURACT to research medical community

Dr. Wolfgang Spiegel, Francesco Carelli and Yonah Yaphe will try to design the draft version of the action plan deriving from the analysis. This will be presented during the "5 minutes 1 slide" session.

Thursday 23 September 2004

Session 3: Business meeting

• At the beginning the notes from Madeira meeting were reviewed. The report was approved.
• The Treasurer presented the financial report. According to this report, EURACT's financial situation is rather good, however there is a need to think about an increase in income to have more chances to develop more activities. The full report is available as Annex 2.
• The President informed us that according to the procedure agreed upon during the last meeting in Madeira only one eligible application for the new presidency arrived in time. Accordingly dr Egle Zebiene will serve as EURACT president from the end of the Spring 2005 EURACT Council Meeting.
• Dr. Okay Basak was proposed as a candidate for the post of Honorary Treasurer. His candidature was supported by Dr. Fergus O'Kelly and Yonah Yaphe. Since no other candidate was proposed, Dr. Basak was elected as a new Honorary Treasurer and he will fill the post from the end of the Spring 2005 EURACT Council Meeting.
• The Council discussed the co-option of Council members in 2005. Two persons: Dr. Bernardina Wanrooij and Dr. Justin Allen, who is going to leave the Council at the end of this year as an UK representative, applied for co-option. The candidates left the room for the time of the discussion. The Council members discussed separately both candidatures. A secret ballot was organized. As a result Dr. Bernardina Wanrooij was not co-opted for a further period. Dr. Justin Allen was approved as a co-opted member for 2005.
• Prof. Job Metsemakers presented the interim report from the work of the Task Force on EB function. He described the process of the work done until now, asking for further comments. The group should be ready to present the results during the next Council meeting.
• The report from Young Doctors Program before and during the WONCA Europe Congress 2004 in Amsterdam was presented by Dr. Athanasios Simeonidis. EURACT played an important role in it providing 6 group leaders for the project. Our involvement was judged very positively both by WONCA Europe and junior doctors taking part in the program. The Greek Association of General Practice – the organizer of WONCA Europe 2005 – is going to continue the initiative.
• A 3-network meeting is going to be organized during the WONCA World meeting in Orlando in October 2004. The Council members present in the Congress are going to contribute.
• The report from the Leonardo-EURACT course for trainers in family medicine, which took place in Zakopane, Poland in May 2004, was presented by Dr. Adam Windak and Dr. Egle Zebiene. The course was very positively perceived by both the faculty and the participants. The course is ready for further implementation. Portugal is ready to host it in 2006 and the host for 2005 is still sought.

Friday 24 September 2004

Session 4: Task groups

The Council split into 3 small groups and discussed separately 3 initiatives:

• further development of Educational Agenda
• expansion and competence review of New Definition
• further development of Young Doctors initiative

At the end of the session the Council gathered back together and short reports from the work of the small groups were presented.

• The group of Educational Agenda stated that the current version is not the final one. The final version should be ready at the end of 2004. There will be a special form designed and distributed with request for comments. It is planned to review the document regularly every 2 or 3 years. Changes on the content and the structure of the document are still expected. There are also new ideas deriving from the work on Educational Agenda. One of them could be on assessment. This and other related topics could be presented as a series of new booklets. The group stated the need for promotion of the Educational Agenda and working plan for its implementation in all European countries. There are plans to organize a conference on the topic in 2007.
• The group working on further development of New Definition and Core Competences noticed that current form of the document is still inconsistent and there are still some errors. The presentation of core competences is still a little bit unclear and needs to be rephrased. This can be done by the preparation of a shorter version.
• The group discussing the Young Doctors Program discussed the further progress and development of the project in the line of WONCA Europe 2005 Congress in Kos and beyond it. As a first step, the Kos Conference organizers will contact the leaders of young doctors organization asking about their needs and expectations. Then we as EURACT will react to it and try to assist the project. This can be expressed in a letter to WONCA from our President.

Session 5: Business meeting - continued

• The new members of the Council presented themselves giving some information about their personal and professional backgrounds. Dr. Bernhard Rindlisbacher, Janko Kersnik, Vladimir Marek and Rita Ruba joined the Council as new representatives of their countries. The President welcomed them on behalf of the Council expressing our hope for further fruitful collaboration.
• The web-site task force group gave the report from the work done during their meeting before the Council Meeting. Needs for changes and updates were discussed on the basis of review of every page. A new front page is needed and many updates must be introduced regularly. A procedure to assure timely changes was discussed. The work will be continued by the group with the support from the whole Council.
• Prof. Jan Heyrman presented the first result of the landscape project as it is ready for publication on the web-site. At this moment the product allows the access to the data from different perspectives (country, type of training etc.). There are plans to update the data annually. Council members will be approached before every meeting to correct the data concerning their country in relation to one field of education. The current version will be published on the web-site before the Spring Council meeting in 2005.
• The Spring meeting 2005 will take place in Hungary on 20-25 April 2005. The exact place will be announced later by the local organizers.
• The letter from International Balint Federation was discussed. The Federation asked for clear support to the idea of inclusion of Balint training in every vocational training in Europe. Different options and perspectives were presented by Council members. Generally the majority of them agreed that Balint training can be of value for vocational training of general practitioners. However according to the majority opinion this is only one of the available methods. It is welcomed and can be of use for different stages of training in family medicine. The categorical statement supporting the obligatory inclusion in VT is at this moment unacceptable from EURACT point of view. The President will write a letter reflecting the above views.
• Prof. Igor Svab left the Council due to his expected election as the future WONCA Europe President. If elected, he will be co-opted as Council Members ex officio. To recognize his contribution to EURACT, a special decorated plate will be produced and presented to him.
• New members from the following countries were approved: Finland – 2, Italy – 7, Latvia – 1, Portugal – 1, Bosnia & Herzegovina – 3, Romania – 1, Sweden – 3, Turkey – 5, UK – 2, Czech Republic – 7, Estonia – 1.

Session 6: Standing committees

Four standing committees worked separately discussing their working agendas. The following committees had their meeting:

• Basic Medical Education
• Vocational Training
• Continuous Professional Development
• Member Service

Saturday 25 September 2004

Session 7: Feedback from the committees

The standing committees gave the reports to the plenary, reflecting their discussion during the small group work.

Basic Medical Education (Anders Baerheim)

Dr. Yonah Yaphe has been re-confirmed as a chair of the committee. The committee plans to conduct several projects and activities. The first one involves early clinical exposure for students starting their medical studies. They plan also to prepare a workshop for the WONCA 2005 Congress in Kos about cross-cultural differences.

Vocational Training (Roar Maagaard)

Dr. Roar Maagaard has been elected new chair of the VT committee. Their first issue discussed was is the trainees assessment of trainees. According to the committee this issue should be reflected better in the Educational Agenda document. Some amendments are needed and the group is going to prepare them. Selection of trainees across the Europe was the second issue discussed by the committee. The group wants to finish the project started some time ago. The third issue was the structure and length of vocational training and differences in this field across Europe. This arises from the Young Doctors' Program. The Fourth issue is financing of vocational training. The group is going to explore it. The Fifth idea is a trainee forum. The group will develop this initiative through the Young Doctors' Program. The full version of the report is available in Annex 4.

Continuous Professional Development (Paula VainiomA�ki)

Prof. Paula Vainiomaki has been re-confirmed as a chair of the CPD committee. The committee discussed possible tools which would facilitate CPD. Another issue discussed by the group was potential accreditation of CPD programs. Involvement of pharmaceutical companies worries the committee. The group is afraid that in many cases their involvement can drive the content of the training. They realized that knowledge about the specificity of CPD is limited. The booklet developed together with EQuiP seems to be too difficult. Perhaps a shorter and clearer description will be needed. The group is going to work on it. The full text of the report is available in Annex 4.

Member Service (Egle Zebiene)

Dr. Egle Zebiene was re-confirmed as a chair of Member Service Committee. Preparation of the next issue of Leonardo-EURACT course was discussed. The course materials were finally discussed and improved. The organizational details of the 2005 and 2006 courses were discussed. The date and venue for 2005 will be Kusadasi, Turkey – May 22-25. The number of countries can be increased even to 8. This would mean more work and problems for the faculty but facilitate easier and wider dissemination of the course. Other condition for participation (4 persons from the country, support of local institution, cost of travel covered by participants). Sponsorship for Bled course was discussed and the group proposed to remain the rules the same. Five participants from low-income countries would be supported by the grant of 500 euro. Also 5 participants of the conference of teachers will get sponsorship to cover the conference fee. The article about the Leonardo-EURACT course and workshop for Kos Conference in 2005 will be prepared. The full version of the report in available in Annex 4.

Session 8: "5 minutes 1 slide" presentations

• Dr. Janko Kersnik advertised the 2^nd meeting of teachers in General Practice which will take place in Kranska Gora, Slovenia on September 23-24, 2005. Different activities like keynote speakers, workshop, oral and poster presentation are planed. Prof. Manfred Maier, Dr. Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic and Dr. Justin Allen are already confirmed to be keynote speakers. The main title of the conference is "Assessment in FM/GP".
• Dr. Monica Lindh presented the experiences from Swedish exam for family doctors. This is a voluntary exam covering several issues like self-assessment, review of professional development, evaluation of the support given to the students, the clinical day contents video records of students consultation, review of records and discussion of projects and written part of the exam. The whole exam takes a lot of time and as such is an educational process as well.
• Dr. Francesco Carelli presented his thoughts on EURACT self-advertising. He showed the presentation used by him in Italy. This is aimed at promotion of the group and its products.
• Dr. Wolfgang Spiegel – teaching about sexual feelings in physician-patient relationships. This presentation described the personal experiences of the presenter in teaching in this field. He proposes to attract attention of WEURACT to that issue. Possible common action could be a workshop in Kos.
• Prof. Anders Baerheim – Are female medical students overlooked or harassed? This issue was explored by the author within a European project, conducted at Bergen University. The initial results are interesting. Many Council members would be interested to join the project.
• Dr. Iuliana Popa – Reflection on country reports. The author reflected on the structure, content and procedure of presentation of the country reports. The essential question is: What is the use of the report? Do we need them? If so, what format is really required? The content of the reports from last two meetings was varied. The conclusion is that the current experience is far from the desired model. She proposes to set up clear rules for country reports.
• Dr. Wolfgang Spiegel – proposed a new way of working in committees. He proposes to organize an open space procedure allowing the members to join other committees temporarily. This would allow better linking of the work of different committees and better opportunities for Council members to contribute to various fields of EURACT work.
• Dr. Wolfgang Spiegel, Dr. Francesco Carelli – This group suggested that EURACT needs better recognition and official status, which would facilitate external contacts. The format of an NGO might suit us best. In that case we could be accredited by the WHO, UN or EU. A second issue is the lack of incentive for membership. This could be increased by regular publication of an Educational Newsletter containing articles on educational research. A third point is that EURACT has great potential to conduct research in the field of medical education.

Session 9: Future meetings & evaluation

• WONCA Europe Congress 2005 in Kos is going to be an important event for EURACT. Our organization is going to provide 3 moderators for morning sessions (Drs. Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic, Roar Maagaard, Job Metsemakers). Another issue is our contribution to the Young Doctors' Program. The details of our involvement will be discussed during the next Council meeting. In addition, EURACT is going to organize several workshops under its umbrella. To ensure the high quality of our products , only workshops produced by the standing committees will be identified in the program as EURACT events.
• The Bled course has been in existence for 13 years. There is a lot of good experience based on the input of course directors. There is space for more persons to contribute. Those who are interested should contact Dr. Janko Kersnik directly.
• At the end of the meeting all Council members expressed their feelings about the meeting. All of them expressed their gratitude to Roar Maagaard for the excellent organization of both the Council Meeting and the Danish conference on assessment.

Post-Council Executive Board meeting

• The format of country reports needs to be discussed during the Winter EB meeting (form, content, distribution etc.).
• The analysis of the SCOT exercise will be the major item for the residential meeting. It will be based on the notes from the Council Meeting.
• Formal registration could be the problem for future work of EURACT. Dr. Justin Allen will try to explore the legal status of EGPRN and EQuiP during the WONCA meeting in Orlando.
• The transition of officers' duties will be done by the President and by the Hon. Treasurer at the end of Spring meeting in 2005. Till that time newly elected officers should actively participate in the work of EB to learn as much as possible about their new functions.
• The President will write a letter to the representatives of the WONCA Junior organization offering them support during the Kos Conference and beyond. Our involvement will be discussed during the residential EB meeting.
• The Leonardo-EURACT course will be held in May 22-25, 2005 in Turkey. Dr. Egle Zebiene will provide information to the countries involved and ask for names of participants by December 15, 2005. In 2005 the course will be still invitational for countries who are expected to develop the course in their own countries. In 2006 the course may be open to individual participants. At the WONCA 2005 Congress we will present a workshop highlighting our experience with the course.
• Dr. Yonah Yaphe and Dr. Athanasios Simeonidis are responsible for further Web-site development. They will prepare the working agenda for introduction of changes. The whole web group will assist them as well as the EB.
• Dr. Justin Allen will present a short interim report on the progress of the work on the New Definition for the residential EB meeting.
• Dr. Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic is going to develop a short discussion paper on the further role of EURACT in the Young Doctors' Program especially focused on the issue of how we can increase participation in educational activities produced by EURACT. This will be discussed further during the next EB meeting.
• Dr. Yonah Yaphe will contact Agnes Goethuys to ensure the printing of the checklist for course organizers.
• Dr. Roar Maagaard will explore the current status of Hippocrates Program. He will contact the program coordinator to get as much relevant information as possible.
• "5 minutes 1 slide" needs more careful supervision. The future presenters have to stick exactly to one slide and 5 minutes + 5 minutes for discussion. This will be chaired by EB member who will be responsible for selection of no more than 6 presentations. The presenter must be clear on the message or the question to be put forward.
• A Public relations strategy for EURACT will be a subject for discussion by the Member Service Committee during the next Council Meeting.
• The next EB meeting will take place on January 14-16, 2005 in Thessaloniki.
• Reimbursement of the travel expenses:

  1. Iuliana Popa	580
  2. Ruta Riba	260
  3. Egle Zebiene	340
  4. Okay Basak	540
  5. Adam Windak	520
  6. Llukan Rrumbullaku	590
  Total	2830

Summary of EURACT Council and EB decisions – Aarhus 2004

• Dr. Yonah Yaphe & Agnes Goethuys are responsible for printing of the checklist for teaching practices.
• No password on EURACT web-site.
• Prof. Jan Heyrman and Agnes Goethuys are responsible for purchase of a special gift for Igor Svab.
• EURACT President Elect Dr. Egle Zebiene will assume the function of EURACT president from the end of the Spring 2005 EURACT Council Meeting.
• The newly elected Honorary Treasurer Dr. Okay Basak will assume the post from the end of the Spring 2005 EURACT Council Meeting.
• The council co-option of Dr. Bernardina Wanrooij has been terminated.
• Following his term as president, Dr. Justin Allen will be a co-opted member of Council for one additional year.
• The EURACT Council spring meeting in 2005 will take place in Hungary on 20-25 April 2005.
• The President will answer the International Balint Society rejecting their request for a statement on compulsory Balint training.
• Thirty-two new EURACT members from 11 countries have been approved by the Council.
• The Following chairs of the standing committees have been elected: BME – Dr. Yonah Yaphe, VT – Dr. Roar Maagaard, CPD – Prof. Paula Vainiomaki, Member Service – Dr. Egle Zebiene.
• The next Leonardo EURACT course will take place in Kusadasi, Turkey on May 22-25, 2005. Dr. Egle Zebiene will organize the enrollment of participants.
• Only workshops produced by the standing committees will be marked in the program of WONCA conferences as EURACT events.
• Dr. Yonah Yaphe and Dr. Athanasios Simeonidis will manage further Web-site development.
• The next EB meeting will take place on January 14-16, 2005 in Thessaloniki.

Annex 1
Review of national educational activities
after EURACT Council meeting
n Madeira, 2004

EURACT Council meeting
September 22-25, 2004
Aarhus, Denmark

COMPILATION REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES
AARHUS MEETING, September 22-25, 2004

Annex 2
Hon. Treasurer Report

EURACT Council meeting
September 22-25, 2004
Aarhus, Denmark

Since a quite big number of council members have recently joined Euract council and they are not so familiar with the various functions, there was a lack of responses to treasurer's mailing. It is expected that by the coming spring meeting all council members will function more effectively as local treasurers.

Concerning income it must be noticed that there was a pleasant surprise from UK; Leicester meeting produced a surplus for Euract, of almost 12000 euros.

Expenditure was kept in a reasonable level although there was a certain amount of money invested on activities like website and course sponsoring.

The general view of Euract financial situation is good, healthy and stable. A part of 25% of income comes from Wonca Europe but a part of 75% is based on membership fees. From the other hand, managing to keep expenditure under control having established a certain way of functioning, a healthy and stable situation was achieved.

It is important Euract to find new ways of development; new sources of income and new activities.

Concerning new economical sources should be considered like:

• Increasing number of members by offering more attractive products, by aiming to specific target groups.
• Being an educational organization, by seeking European projects on training and teaching; 'selling expertise' to projects on training health personnel, or staff of health funds etc.
• Organizing and developing 'schools' providing accreditation.

Annex 3
List of new EURACT Members

EURACT Council meeting
September 22-25, 2004
Aarhus, Denmark

Applications council meeting Aarhus, September, 22-25, 2004

Czech Republic

1. Dr. Vladimir Marek
2. Dr. B. Seifert
3. Dr. P. Zeman
4. Dr. J. Lankova
5. Dr. C. Mucha
6. Dr. J. Vojtskova
7. Dr. V. Sevcikova

Estonia

1. Dr. Anneli RA�tsep

Finland

1. Dr. Katariina Korkeila
2. Dr. Jaana Franck

Italy

1. Dr. Pucci (paid to Leuven)
2. Dr. A. Giacosa (e- mail)
3. Dr. M. Manganelli (e- mail)
4. Dr. Paolo Colorio (e- mail)
5. Dr. Massimo Bisconsin (paid to Leuven)
6. Dr. B. Gorini (e-mail)
7. Dr. F. Zizzo

Latvia

1. Dr. Sarmite Veide

Portugal

1. Dr. Ana Sardinha

Romania

1. Dr. Madalina Manea

Serbia & Montenegro

1. Dr. Dragica Nicolic (e-mail)
2. Mr sci Dr Smiljka Radic (e-mail)
3. Dr Vesna Janjusevic (e-mail)

Sweden

1. Ylva Johansson
2. Anders HAYkansson
3. Annika Eklund-GrA�nberg

Turkey

1. Dr. Demet BEK
2. Dr. Bekta�o Murat YALA�IN
3. Dr. M. Kemal ALA?MOA�LU
4. Dr. Selda TEKA?NER
5. Dr. Vildan MEVSA?M

U.K.

1. Dr. Prasanta Bhowmik
2. Dr Huw Morgan

Annex 4
Reports of Standing Committees

EURACT Council meeting
September 22-25, 2004
Aarhus, Denmark

Report of CME Committee

CME COMMITTEE MEETING 24 September 2004

Present: Jan Heyrman, Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic, Iuliana Popa, Bernardine Wanrooij, Ruta Riba, Paula VainiomA�ki (chair and reporter).
(Text originating from Madeira report in italics)

According to a decision of Madeira council meeting, the chair for the committee was to be elected by committee members (in the first committee session of a council period). Paula VainiomA�ki was proposed. She accepted the task and was elected to chair. The chair, assisted by Jan Heyrman, shortly explained main points of the committee work for the new member Ruta Riba.

According to the Madeira report, sent to CME group members 24^th May 2004 and available in the Madeira meeting report send by Adam Windak to all, the following issues had been decided. CME/CPD means any and all the ways by which physicians learn and change their practice. The overall aim of CME/CPD –group is to provide optimal care for patients. More defined objective lines could be 1) providing practical tools, instruments, methods and ways to individual teachers to help GPs to learn and change their practices to provide optimal care and 2) to have influence on strategy makers in order to make accreditation to promote active methods of learning.

The group was now supposed to discuss more in a practical way, to check how the tasks for individual members of the group had been fulfilled and plan further measurements to achieve the tasks. In Madeira it had been agreed the first line of activities in the following way: 1) Tools for teachers: Tools, methods and instruments for teachers should be identified and assessed by the group. The distribution of suitable methods among GP teachers should be guaranteed. Focus should be on practical and easy methods. After a long discussion it came out that the group is willing to publish an easy, simple and elementary book for the use of practicing GPs, including GP teachers, to start to develop their own professional development plan. It was suggested that academic level GP teachers need information of this issue as well, because CPD is a new issue. The content of the booklet was defined in principle and a timetable was scheduled. First Jan will send to all members the file he has done concerning CPD. Paula will write down the content as it was discussed in the meeting. After this Jan will place as much of the text he has already ready under the titles given in this meeting. After this the members are willing to write their own parts as discussed:

Introduction – Mladenka, Learning – Juliana, Learning opportunities – Mladenka, Learning plan – Paula, Portfolio – Paula, Prioritisation – left open, Glossary. Before next meeting we should be ready.

The second line of activities for the first objective was the following one as agreed in Madeira: 2. Promoting the implementation of tools (to give the message and have CPD on the agenda): local workshops, statement from the group concerning suitable methods, local groups to give the message to local authorities. Articles and translations of the basic documents in local languages. Follow-up locally. The group used main time for theoretical discussions, and implementation will be discussed later, but giving the message was supposed to happen using website.

Concerning connection and influence on strategy makers, the second line of main objectives, it came out that all measurements set last time were not done. 2) Strategy makers: 1) Landscape of CME organisations as AMEE, UEMS, EACCME, ASPHER, WFME, etc. 2) Mladenka and Eva will clarify these before September (Paula promised to take the UEMS-EAACME part), 3) Mladenka prepares a draft plan with the idea that EURACT would establish an advisory body for CME/CPD standards at the European level (before next meeting), 4) Specific project plan, application in December. 5) Establishing a larger body with local representatives and experts. Jan has participated in another project collecting information of accreditation bodies. Much information was available. Paula has printed out information concerning EACCME and UEMS, and sent the available web-addresses to the members. Bernardine had visited the web-sites. UEMO has to be contacted as an important stakeholder. It seemed to be too late to prepare an application before December as was planned.

Paula VainiomA�ki

Report of Specific Training Committee

Minutes from Aarhus, 24^th of September 2004.

Present: Margus Lember, Monica Lindh, Fergus O'Kelly, Llukan Rrumbullaku, Bernhard Rindlisbacher, Roar Maagaard (chair).
Absent: Dolores Fores, Bernard Gay, Olga Kuznetsova, Janos Szabo.

Organisation of committee. As decided in Madeira a formal election of chair for the committee should take place. This election was done – and Roar was elected (for the Council period 2004-06).

The new representative from Switzerland, Bernhard Rindlisbacher joined our committee – a warm welcome to Bernhard!

We decided to concentrate on the 5 items we already decided in the Madeira meeting:

1. Trainee Assessment

Margus' paper from the Madeira meeting had been a very useful starting paper about assessment- including a note on the Council-survey conducted at the Vilnius meeting.

This survey was presented at the meeting the Danish Collegues – and the meeting with the Danes were fully dedicated to assessment. We all felt we had learnt a lot from the presentations and the workshops in relation to assessment.

In the committee we therefore concentrated on the assessment recommendations in the �oEducational agenda�? derived form the New Definitions.

We felt there was need for some changes in some of the recommended assessment methods – and we felt it would be useful with a general introductory chapter regarding different methods in (teaching/learning) and assessment (somewhat like the overview Knut Aspegren gave at the assessment meeting in Aarhus).

Our suggestions will be forwarded to Jan Heyrman – responsible for the Educational agenda.

Responsible for re-reading the Educational Agenda and think of changes: all!

Responsible for collecting our suggestions in this area and feed-backing to Jan: Monica.

2. Selection of trainees/recruitment of trainees

In April/May a questionnaire was to all council members. 23 answers were received.

We decided to try to have answers from the missing ones.

We already now see very great variations in selection methods: from nearly no-one to more elaborate systems – and in some places non-GP-specialist are even doing the selection.

Further plan:

Margus is going to make a literature review about the subject (first paper found: Wolfgangs).

Fergus and Llukan are going to ask for answers from missing countries – and afterwards they produce an overview.

We are planning to run at workshop with this topic in WONCA Europe Conference in Kos Island, Sept. 2005 (showing diversities/demonstrating some examples/making recommendations?)

Responsible for writing abstract before 15^th February 2005: Roar.

Our vision is to be able to obtain consensus regarding recommendations regarding this selection of trainees.

3. Structure and length of VT-programmes across Europe

Jan Heyrman showed us the well-known Excelfile on the internet – but still not quite ready – it will soon be available at www.euract.org.

It had been a big item at the Junior Doctors' Workshop in Amsterdam in June: how can it be that there exists that big differences in the length and the structure of the different VT-programmes in Europe – the endpoint of training should be the same (i.e. the New Definitions)???

We feel it should be possible for us to come with some recommendations regarding length and structure of the VT-programmes – our ambition is still to be able to do this!

Responsible for keeping this discussion alive in the VT-group till next meeting: Roar.

4. Financing/supporting VT-programmes

Dolores had been responsible for making a survey-draft and a discussion paper – but as Dolores unfortunately was not present we discussed how to carry on.

It was felt as a very serious problem in many countries: in some countries nearly no supporting funds; in some countries pharmaceutical companies take part; in some countries the trainee has to by his practice-part before being trained.

So we still put these questions: Who is financing VT? How is the supporting structure around VT? Obstacles and possibilities. We wish to discover and describe the differences somewhat more in this field.

It might be a topic for the Council meeting in Sweden/Finland in 2006.

Responsible for next steps: Dolores, Bernard and Monica – Bernard and Monica very willing to contribute!

5. Trainee forum?

We as teachers have our forum in EURACT. Is there also a need for a European forum for trainees in GP?

Very much inspiration was obtained from the Junior Doctors' Project in combination with the Wonca Europe Conference in Amsterdam, June 2004. There are now EURACT initiatives underway in relation to the Junior Doctors – so we didn't feel we should take an initiative – but we feel ourselves as the natural sparring-partners for Junior Doctors in Vocational Training.

Responsible for messages to the group if a process is starting before next meeting in April 2005: Roar.

Roar Maagaard

Report of Member Service Committee

Present: Athanasios Simeonidis, Justin Allen, Janko Kersnik, Luis Filipe Gomez, Adam Windak;
Chair: Egle Zebiene

1. Egle Zebiene was confirmed as a chair of a Committee.
2. EURACT-Leonardo training the trainers course was confirmed to take place in Turkey, May 22-25, 2005 (approved by Council), and in Portugal, April-May 2006 (exact dates to be confirmed later). As decided earlier, EURACT will provide 6000 EUR for each course for covering organizational expenses. Travel expenses have to be paid by participants themselves.
3. Countries that are invited to participate in the course 2005 in Turkey: Turkey, Greece, Albania, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Czech Republic, Cyprus. As the number of participating countries is bigger than before, Okay Basak should confirm that accommodation expenses and meals can be covered by finances available. Number of participants: 32+ 5 faculty members. After confirmation of expenses E.Z. to write letters to country representatives about selection and participation rules for the course. Countries and procedure was confirmed by Council.
4. For the EURACT-Leonardo course 2006 following countries will be invited: Portugal Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Malta. Also some participants who want to participate in the course from other countries, may take part in the course, if their institution pays for it. Participation fee will be calculated later. Possibility to organize EURACT-Leonardo course in 2007 in Bled (Krainska Gora) will be considered during the next meeting.
5. Sponsorship. It was decided by the Committee and confirmed by EURACT Council that sponsorship for the Bled course for 5 participants will be continued in 2005, covering participation fee and accommodation. Also idea for promoting International Teacher's Conference 2005 was supported by Council. As this is a new activity, and in 2004 the Conference was not attended very actively, decision was taken to provide sponsorship for 5 members, covering for them participation fee of 100 EUR. Sponsorship for the year 2006 to be re-considered during the Autumn 2005 meeting of EURACT Council. Participants who earlier were sponsored for Bled or CNGE courses may apply for Teachers' conference.
6. Updates of EURACT website should be made after Aarhus meeting 2004, information about sponsorship updated.
7. JA and AW are responsible for writing the article about EURACT-Leonardo course in order to promote this activity.
8. Workshop based on materials of �oRolling course�? to be held during the WONCA Europe Conference in Kos. One module from course programme was decided to run during the workshop. EZ to contact course faculty to decide which module will be demonstrated. Workshop will be developed during the EB meeting in January 2005, after that abstract will be sent to Conference organizers.
9. Future actions:
   - AW and JA to write the article
   - E.Z to update the website information
   - OB to inform EZ about the financial situation of the Leonardo-EURACT 2005 course.
   - E.Z to contact countries participants of the course 2005, provide information about the selection and requirements of the course.
   - Course faculty to decide about the workshop in Kos.
   - EZ to write the abstract for Kos cnference.

Egle Zebiene

Annex 5
List of EURACT Council Members

EURACT Council meeting
September 22-25, 2004
Aarhus, Denmark

Meeting of the Council
of the European Academy of Teachers
in General Practice (EURACT)
held in Madeira, Portugal, April 21-24, 2004

• LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
• PROGRAM OF THE MEETING
• REPORT OF THE MEETING
  • Pre-Council Executive Board meeting
  • Session 1: Country reports
  • Session 2: Establishing committees
  • Session 3: Committee work
  • Session 4: Educational Agenda
  • Session 5: "5 minutes 1 slide" presentations
  • Session 6: Business meeting
  • Session 7: Business meeting - continued
  • Session 8: Educational Agenda - continued
  • Session 9: Future plans and meetings
    
  • Post-Council Executive Board meeting
  • Summary of EURACT Council decisions
• ANNEX 1: Review of national activities
• ANNEX 2: Hon. Treasurer report
• ANNEX 3: List of new EURACT members
• ANNEX 4: Reports of Standing Committees
  • Basic Medical Education
  • Continuous Medical Education
    
  • Specific Training Group
  • Member Services Committee

Members present:

• Dr. Justin Allen, United Kingdom, President
• Dr. Adam Windak, Poland, Honorary Secretary
• Dr. Athanasios Simeonidis, Greece, Honorary Treasurer
• Prof. Jan Heyrman, Belgium, EB member
• Prof. Job F.M. Metsemakers, The Netherlands, EB member
• Dr. Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic, Croatia, EB member
• Dr. Francesco Carelli, Italy
• Dr. Dolores ForA�s, Spain
• Dr. Bernard Gay, France
• Dr. Luis Filipe Gomes, Portugal
• Dr. Samira Herenda, Bosnia & Herzegovina
• Prof. Benedikt Horn, Switzerland
• Dr. Eva JurgovA!, Slovakia
• Prof. Olga Kuznetsova, Russia
• Dr. Monica Lindh, Sweden
• Dr. Roar Maagaard, Denmark
• Dr. Fergus D. O'Kelly, Ireland
• Dr. Iuliana Popa, Rumania
• Dr. Llukan Rrumbullaku, Albania
• Dr. Wolfgand Spiegel, Austria
• Prof. Igor A�vab, Slovenia
• Dr. JA!nos SzabA3, Hungary
• Prof. Paula VainiomA�ki, Finland
• Dr. Bernardina Wanrooij,The Netherlands, observer
• Dr. Stefan Wilm, Germany
• Dr. Yonah Yaphe, Israel
• Dr. Egle A1ebiene, Lithuania
  

Members absent:

• Prof. Anders Baerheim, Norway
• Dr. Okay Basak, Turkey
• Dr. Ivana Bogrova, Czech Republic
• Dr. Philip Evans, United Kingdom, observer
• Dr. Margus Lember, Estonia

Wednesday 21 April 2004

Pre-Council Executive Board Meeting

Session 1: Country Reports

Thursday 22 April 2004

Session 2: Establishing committees
Session 3: Committee work
Session 4: Educational Agenda
Session 5: �o5 minutes 1 slide�? presentations

Friday 23 April 2004

Session 6: Business meeting

Saturday 24 April 2004

Session 7: Business meeting – continued
Session 8: Educational Agenda – continued
Session 9: Future plans & meetings

Post-Council Executive Board Meeting

Wednesday 21 April 2004

Pre-Council Executive Board Meeting

The Executive Board met before the Council Meeting and discussed the following issues:

• The fee for Organizations in Collaboration and the policy for this status were discussed. Two proposals will be presented to the Council for discussion.
• The proposal for a Teachers' Conference will be presented to the Council. This conference could be organized annually in conjunction with the Bled course. This year a pilot conference will be organized.
• WONCA Europe has approved the second key informant project. Prof. Heyrman will introduce it to the Council.
• Prof. Svab and Agnes Goethuys will review the members' booklet to be ready for WONCA in Amsterdam. Agnes Goethuys will organize printing.
• The Web-site update is still a problem. The Web group will be obliged to present a short report to the Council. Dr. Allen (or Prof. Vainiomaki), Dr. Yaphe, Dr. Simeonidis and Dr. Carelli will arrive one day before the A�rhus council meeting and will re-arrange the web-site.
• The Leonardo–EURACT course is ready and will take place for then first time this year in Poland. EURACT can invest income from the Leicester meeting for subsequent courses. The Member Services Committee will explore ways to implement future courses.
• New committees will be created during the first session of this Council Meeting and will work for the next three years. The Council members will have an opportunity to move to a new committee.
• Prof. Svab will chair the �o5 minutes 1 slide�? session. Dr. Simeonidis will chair the session on developing hot topics.
• The EB proposes a joint election of the President for the next two years – Dr. Justin Allen for one year and Dr. Egle Zebiene for the next two years.
• Three new EB members will be elected during the ongoing Council Meeting. Dr. Adam Windak will lead the election procedure during the Council Meeting.

Session 1: Country reports

The Council Members discussed their reports in pairs while waiting for the arrival of a few Council members delayed in transit. After the paired discussions, Council Members reported to the plenary about the situation in their partner's country. In the meantime those who were delayed joined the meeting and shortly reported on the situation in their countries. The full texts of their reports are available as Annex 1. Five new members introduced themselves to Council:

Prof. Olga Kuznetsova from St Petersburg is the first Council Member from Russia. She works as the head of the Department of Family Medicine at the Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education.

Dr. Monica Lindh is the new Swedish representative. Her special fields of interest are patient-centered medicine and the lifelong learning concept. She has experience from work in South Africa. She is now the director for postgraduate training in a small city in Sweden.

Dr. Wolfgang Spiegel is the new Austrian representative. He runs a private practice in Vienna. He is involved both in research and education in the field of family medicine.

Dr. Samira Herenda is the new Council Member from Bosnia & Herzegovina. She is the assistant professor at the Department of Family Medicine at Tuzla University. Her special fields of interest are communication and continuous professional development.

Prof. Benedikt Horn is the new Swiss representative.

After the presentation of new members Prof. Heyrman informed the Council about the key informant project funded by the European Society. The overall aim of this project is to inventory the situation in education of family medicine in Europe. This time EURACT is focusing on CPD. In the future other areas will be selected.

At the end of the session the President described the program of the Council Meeting. He stressed the opportunity to change membership of the working committees and asked all the Council Members to consider their involvement in the future work of EURACT. He also informed Council about the election of the President and three new EB members, to be organized before the end of the meeting.

Thursday 22 April 2004

Session 2: Establishing committees

As a new Council was elected, new working committees have to be created. According to the previous arrangements the following committees were established:

Name of the Committee	Members
Basic Medical Education Committee	Y. Yaphe, F. Carelli, S. Wilm, B. Horn, J. Metsemakers, W. Spiegel
Specific Training Group	R. Maagaard, O. Kuznetsova, J. Szabo, M. Lember, B. Gay, L. Rrumbullaku, D. Fores, F. O'Kelly, M. Lindh
Member Services Committee	E. Zebiene, A. Windak, A. Simeonidis, J. Allen, I. Svab, F. Gomes
Continuous Medical Education Committee	P. VainiomA�ki, J. Heyrman, B.Wanrooij, M. Vrcic-Keglevic, S. Herenda, E. Jurgova, I. Popa

Absent members are expected to join one of the committees during the next Council Meeting in A�rhus.

Session 3: Committee work

The whole session was devoted to the work of 4 standing committees. At the end leaders of the committees presented following, short reports to the plenary.

BME – lead by Yonah Yaphe
The group produced the checklist for doctors accepting BME students in their practices. The document is going to be attached to the course materials for Leonardo EURACT course in Zakopane. After the course it will be reviewed and hopefully published. Another issue raised was cross-cultural teaching of family medicine. The group is looking forward to the Bled course, where they will collect a lot of useful material for further work. The group considered also other issues like assessment methods. The full text of the report is available in Annex 4.

VT – lead by Roar Maagaard
There were several issues discussed during the meeting. The idea to create a forum for the exchange of trainees in Europe is going to be explored in future. The second item was the discussion on differences in financing of VT across the Europe. The VT group completed the work on the questionnaire on selection of trainees in various countries. This questionnaire will be distributed by e-mail. Another issue discussed was the assessment of training schemes in Europe. The question is whether it is possible to get the same quality product after 2 and 5 years of training. The group will discuss it further. The full report is available in Annex 4.

CME/CPD – lead by Paula VainiomA�ki
The document on CPD was published together with EQuiP. The group is seeking an effective strategy for its implementation. The group discussed possible ways to assist family medicine teachers involved in CPD. They considered production of a booklet on this subject. The group is thinking also about the landscape document on accreditation of CPD activities, which exist all over Europe. The full text of the report is available in Annex 4

Member Services – lead by Egle Zebiene
The group discussed the sponsorship procedure for training courses, organized under the patronage of EURACT. There is no application for sponsorship course of CNGE. There are many applications for Bled course. It was decided to stop the bursary program for the CNGE course and to keep the current form for the Bled course. The group discussed in detail the Leonardo–EURACT course in Zakopane. This course is ready and will be piloted in May 2004. After the pilot the final version of the course materials will be produced and published by the Leonardo da Vinci project, run by the College of Family Physicians in Poland. These materials will be available for the dissemination process, which was also discussed. It was decided that the course should be repeated at least twice - in 2005 and 2006. The applicants will get 6000 euro per course from the EURACT budget if they collect participants from at least 4 countries. They will also get a complete package of educational materials from the Leonardo da Vinci project. The full text of the report is available in Annex 4.

Session 4: Educational Agenda

Prof. Jan Heyrman described the work done until now on the document. He stressed that the document has to be ready before the WONCA Conference in Amsterdam. Leaders of the chapters should prepare the final version of their chapters by May 15, 2004. Several Council Members, especially those who were not involved in the previous work, gave comments on the current version of the document. Afterwards the Council split to three groups working on specific chapter.

Session 5: �o5 minutes 1 slide�? presentations

• Towards mutual collaboration between the Greek and Turkish Associations of Family Medicine. Dr. A. Simeonidis introduced this idea as an early example of regional collaboration in Europe. Several forms of collaboration were considered. One possibility is the common organization of a future Leonardo EURACT course.
• From core competence to curriculum. Dr J. Allen reported on difficulties met by GP teachers in the UK when they start to construct curriculum out of the core competences. He is interested in experience of other countries in this field. He also expects the need for further review of the core competencies in future.
• The Bosnia and Herzegovina experience in teaching family medicine. Dr. S. Herenda described her experience and involvement in building the discipline in her country. She stressed positive role of Canadian support and personal involvement of Prof. Muharem Zildic.
• Increase of membership as a challenge for EURACT. Dr. F. Carelli described his efforts to increase visibility of EURACT in Italy and Europe. He stressed the need for such an action in different countries and areas, resulting also in more EURACT-marked publications.
• The American Future of Family Medicine Project. Dr. Y. Yaphe introduced the project of the American Academy of Family Physicians on the future of family medicine. There is a document published in Annals of Family Medicine in April 2004 which is similar to our Definition and Educational Agenda. This document may be of interest for our future work.
• New approach to vocational training in Russia. Prof. O. Kuznetsova introduced the concept of decentralization of training in Russian Federation. This is rather new approach in this country. She believes that it can facilitate the access to the courses for many GPs.
• EURACT project on Higher Professional Education concept. Prof. J. Heyrman reminded us of the project on HPE and the plan arising from the Utrecht Conference. We planned to create special task force within EURACT, which has not occurred. Dr. Arthur Hibble – a British EURACT member – developed a special questionnaire to clarify the situation in this field. Council Members have been asked to complete it.

Friday 23 April 2004

Session 6: Business meeting

• The report of the Leicester meeting was discussed. The issue of the members' booklet was raised. Some members, especially new ones, do not know this document. Agnes will distribute it on request.
• The President reminded the Council that there is an open offer for organization of the Leonardo–EURACT course in 2005 while 2006 is already booked by Portugal. It was agreed that in order to receive EURACT and Leonardo da Vinci project support, groups of four teachers from at least four countries should participate in the course.
• The President presented his report summarizing his activities during the period since the last Council Meeting. He introduced the idea of a European conference of teachers to be organized by EURACT. The pilot conference will be organized this year in conjunction with the Bled course and the idea will be evaluated afterwards. The President discussed the report from the WONCA Europe Executive, which was distributed before the Council meeting. There is an increasing space for network involvement. EURACT will be expected to contribute more to the WONCA meeting in Kos Island in 2005. Some Council members noticed that the report and the decisions of EB about conferences do not change the existing situation. However we, as a teaching body, have to be more aware of our responsibility for educational content of the European conferences. It was agreed that the President is going to declare our readiness to contribute more in the letter to be sent to WONCA Europe EB.
• EURACT is going to be involved in Young Doctors Program, which is going to take place before the WONCA Europe meeting in Amsterdam. Six Council members are directly involved in this project. Most of them are happy with the project's development. They suggest that this kind of project should be organized before each European conference. Final evaluation will be possible after the end of the project.
• There is some confusion about publicizing EURACT workshops for WONCA in Amsterdam. It was decided that all abstracts accepted for the Amsterdam conference submitted on behalf of EURACT should be sent to Agnes. She will prepare a leaflet with titles and slots in the program.
• The three-network collaboration was discussed. Work on specific subjects and ideas is the best way to collaborate. Good examples are collaboration on the CPD document and on the New Definition. The Council supports this option.
• The Honorary Treasurer presented his report. Our financial situation is good especially due to significant income from the Leicester meeting. This gives us more flexibility in planning our future activities. The full report is available in Annex 2.
• Adoption of the policy for composition of the EB was proposed. The President proposed that we invite the chairs of the working committees to all EB meetings, including the residential meeting, usually held in winter. The Council accepted this proposal.
• The selection of the committee chairs was discussed. Several options were proposed. Nomination of the chair by the committee was approved. New chairs of the committees will be appointed during the next Council Meeting in A�rhus.
• The Co-option policy was discussed. Several options were discussed. No final decision was made. It was decided that further discussion on the topic will take place in Denmark. Dr. B. Wanrooij keeps her status as an observer till the end of 2004.
• The President informed Council that he is ready to stand for election for presidential office, but he can keep the post only till the end of spring Council Meeting 2005. He also presented the EB recommendation that dr. Egle Zebiene to take over the post for the remaining period of two years. The Council elected dr. J. Allen as EURACT President until the spring meeting in 2005. Due to lack of time further decisions were not made and the discussion was adjourned and postponed until the following day.

Saturday 24 April 2004

Session 7: Business meeting – continued

• The session started with a review of the decisions taken during the last session. The President explained once again the reasons for his decision to stand only for the first year of the coming term of the presidency. He explained that he has done so for health reasons and because of an increased workload. He described the origin of the current working style of the Council and EB. He reminded Council that three places in the EB are available for election now. The Honorary Secretary gave the summary of the decisions taken by the EB in order to secure a successful presidency for the upcoming term. An important and emotional discussion followed. This discussion touched on several aspects of the working style of the Council. Two specific proposals were formulated: 1) the EB proposal to vote for E. Zebiene and other candidates, 2) to postpone the decision till next year. The first proposal got 11 votes and the second one 14 votes. The election of the new President for the years 2005-2006 was postponed till the next Council meeting. It was agreed that candidates for President in 2005-2006 should be presented to the secretariat of EURACT at least 1 month before the A�rhus meeting. The candidacy should be supported by at least two other Council members. A CV and short vision of his/her duties within the organization should accompany the application.
• The next item was the election of the EB members. The candidates were proposed as follows:
  1. Prof. Paula VainiomA�ki
  2. Prof. Jan Heyrman
  3. Dr. Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic
  4. Dr. Iuliana Popa
  5. Prof. Job Metsemakers
  6. Dr. Francesco Carelli
  
  The Honorary Secretary conducted the election procedure. He was assisted by dr. B. Wanrooij and A. Goethuys. The following candidates were elected as new Executive Board members:
  1. Prof. Jan Heyrman
  2. Prof. Job Metsemakers
  3. Dr. Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic
• After the election the functions of EB were discussed. The Council members presented several options and views. Finally an ad hoc committee lead by Prof. J. Metsemakers, with participation of Prof. P. VainiomA�ki, Iuliana Popa and F. Carelli, was appointed to formulate a discussion paper on the future work of EB.
• 111 new members were approved by the Council:
  

  Belgium 4	Lithuania 1
  Bosnia and Herzegovina 12	Malta 2
  Cyprus 6	Netherlands 13
  France 1	Norway 6
  Germany 5	Poland 2
  Greece 20	Portugal 10
  Island 4	Romania 1
  Ireland 12	Switzerland 1
  Italy 5	Slovenia 1
  Latvia 3	UK 2 + 1 organisation in collaboration.

There are 616 EURACT members in total.

Session 8: Educational Agenda – continued

The Council divided into three groups and worked further on the items of the educational agenda.

Session 9: Future plans and meetings

Places, dates and programs for next Council meetings were presented and discussed. The schedule is as follows:

Time schedule for future Council meetings

At the end of the session, Dr. Yonah Yaphe reflected on different aspects of the current council meeting. The excellent organization and quite effective work of the council were stressed. All Council Members expressed in turn their feelings about the meeting. They underlined extremely good organization and the efforts made by the host of the meeting, Dr. Luis Filipe Gomes.

The President closed the meeting with four reminders to the Council members:

• Please read Council documents provided.
• Please respond to Council e-mails.
• Remember to provide nominations for the post of President.
• Think about the challenge to organize the Leonardo–EURACT course.

Post-Council Executive Board meeting

• Educational Agenda – The deadline for chapter leaders to submit the final version of their chapters is May 15. Prof. Jan Heyrman and Dr. Justin Allen will write the final version of the introduction. The Glossary: Jan will write this with the help of Mladenka by the end of May. The finished document should be ready for Amsterdam. Prof. J. Heyrman will take 200 copies to Amsterdam. The document can still be modified before printing. Feedback during and after Amsterdam will be obtained. The final version will be approved in A�rhus. The implementation strategy should be developed there as well.
• The continuation of the Leonardo–EURACT course needs a more active approach. The options for 2005 are Bled or Turkey. The decision should be taken in A�rhus.
• The application of the Czech-Slovak meeting for financial support to cover the council meeting expenses was discussed. Several options were discussed. It was agreed that fees of EURACT members should not be spent on organization of Council meetings. It was stressed that one of primarily duties of every Council member is to organize a Council meeting at least once and to gather necessary financial sources for it. The EB is aware of increasing difficulties in this field and that is why an option of common organization of the meetings by two countries was accepted. Finally it was decided that no money from the EURACT budget will be available for Council Meeting organization.
• Further representation of EURACT in the EB of WONCA Europe was discussed. It was decided that Dr. Justin Allen will remain as a temporary EURACT representative to the European Society. He is going to discuss it with Philip Evans and Igor Svab.
• Evaluation of the Young Doctors Project was discussed. Dr. A. Simeonidis agreed to report to the Council about this initiative. He will prepare a short written report for A�rhus meeting.
• The co-option policy will be included in the discussion paper to be prepared by the task force working on the EB responsibilities.
• The EB recommends publication of the checklist for teaching practices accepting the BME students as a EURACT booklet. Council members will be asked to comment on it. If no major comments are received, 2000 copies will be printed for the A�rhus meeting.
• The idea of the questionnaires review committee has been abandoned. The questionnaires developed by the committees do not need further approval. Any other questionnaire needs to be submitted to the EB for approval before distribution.
• Council Members will be asked to publicize the teachers' conference following the Bled course. Agnes will send a reminder about it.
• Dr. J. Allen will prepare a discussion paper about further use of the New Definition. The document will be ready for discussion during the residential meeting of the EB in 2005.
• Prof. Jan Heyrman will develop the discussion paper about HPE for the residential EB meeting in 2005.
• The Web group consisting of Prof. P. VainiomA�ki, Dr. A. Simeonidis, Dr. R. Maagaard, Dr. F. Carelli and Dr. Y. Yaphe will meet prior to the A�rhus meeting. Dr. Roar Maagaard will secure facilities (computer, Internet link) for the meeting of the group.
• The business meeting of the next Council Meeting in A�rhus will start on Wednesday afternoon.
• The liaison persons for the meeting are:
  Dr. A. Simeonidis – A�rhus, Autumn 2004
  Prof. J. Heyrman – Czech Republic, Spring 2005
  Dr. M. Vrcic-Keglevic – Austria, Autumn 2005
• Reimbursement of the travel expenses:
  

  1. Eva Jurgova	796	x 90%	= 715
  2. Iuliana Popa	600		= 540
  3. Llukan Rrumbullaku	553		= 500
  Total	1949	x 90%	= 1755

Summary of EURACT Council and EB decisions – Madeira 2004

• The members' booklet must be ready for WONCA in Amsterdam.
• The pilot EURACT Conference for Teachers in 2004 will be held in Bled.
• The meeting of the web-site group will take place prior to the Council Meeting in A�rhus.
• 6000 euro is available for Leonardo–EURACT course organizers in 2005 and 2006 each, if they collect teachers at least from 4 countries.
• The members' booklet is available through Agnes.
• The President is going to send a letter to EB of WONCA Europe about EURACT involvement in future conferences.
• Abstracts of EURACT contributions for WONCA Congress in Amsterdam should be sent to Agnes.
• The committees will elect their chairs in A�rhus.
• Dr. B. Wanrooij stays on as an observer till the end of 2004.
• Dr. Justin Allen is elected as EURACT President till the end of spring Council Meeting in 2005. Election of the President for the remaining part of the term is postponed till the A�rhus meeting.
• Prof. Jan Heyrman, Prof. Job Metsemakers and Dr. Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic were elected as new EB members for period of 2004–2006.
• A task force led by Prof. J. Metsemakers was formed to develop the discussion paper on the functions of the EB.
• 200 copies of the Educational Agenda will be printed for Amsterdam conference.
• No financial support can be guaranteed for future Council Meeting organizers.
• Dr. J. Allen is temporary EURACT representative in WONCA Europe.
• The written report on Young Doctors Project will be available for A�rhus.
• ·The request for comments on checklist for teaching practices will be distributed before the A�rhus meeting.
• No further approvals for questionnaires developed by the committees.
• Discussion papers on several topics will be developed in near future.
• Liaison persons for next three Council meetings have been appointed.

after EURACT Council meeting
in Leicester, 2003

EURACT Council meeting
April 21-24, 2004
Madeira, Portugal

COMPILATION REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES
FUNCHAL MEETING, April 21-25, 2004

ALBANIA AUSTRIA BELGIUM BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA CROATIA CZECH REPUBLIC DENMARK ESTONIA FINLAND FRANCE GERMANY GREECE HUNGARY IRELAND ISRAEL

ITALY LITHUANIA NETHERLANDS NORWAY POLAND PORTUGAL ROMANIA RUSSIA SLOVAKIA SLOVENIA SPAIN SWEDEN SWITZERLAND TURKEY UNITED KINGDOM

EURACT Council meeting
April 21-24, 2004
Madeira, Portugal

In general, financial situation of Euract seems healthy and according to the strategy that Council has decided : caring for effective collection of money while investing money to educational activities.

Concerning the income, it is important to be underlined that the membership fees is a stable source while the annual grant from Wonca Europe as well as the funding of Euract projects point out the role of the umbrella organization and how active network Euract is.

Commending on the expenditure table, it is remarkable to show the priorities of Euract : 1) reimbursement of travel expenses of council members who are not supported elsewhere, in order to participate to meetings, 2) cover a lot of administrative overheads that come of numerous activities (printing, copying, mailing, etc), 3) sponsoring of courses, and 4) developing a website aiming to more effective and direct communication with members and dissemination of documents, information, experience to all visitors interested in training and learning in GP.

CROATIA

News from the country

All emphasis of the county (politicians and people) is putting on entering EU. As a transitional, country is still facing economic troubles which has a big influence on a health care system, including GP/FM, even more after last year elections. The attempt to introduce a comprehensive payment for GPs (capitation, preventive programmes and fee-for services) has been rejected and capitation remains the only option. Scientific Conference, has been organised by The Croatian Association of GP/FP has finished with great success. More than 800 GPs have participated, with around 200 scientific papers. A big group of Croatian GPs participated at WONCA Conference, Amsterdam.

Basic Medical Education

Many changes are going on within the medical schools. The two mains are: a) changing a curriculum toward PBL, rather horizontal and vertical integrations; b) organising the courses of medical education for teachers (basic educational theory and methodology). Department of FM is playing a great role in this process.

Vocational Training

Big changes have happened in this area. After, almost ten-years of break, 180 trainees have started VT. A training programme is organised in two ways, full time, "normal", for young GPs and in-service training for experienced GPs. A textbook for VT is in progress and new assessment procedures for specialistic exam as well. It is a big task for the whole profession, especially for my Department, responsible for the implementation. We are reforming our postgraduate course, part of VT, with an attempt to get accreditation as European course within ASPHER.

CME

It is going on as usually, many courses and teaching sessions were held, because it is obligatory for relicensing procedures and it is hard to change from CME to CPD.

What have I done for EURACT

The "Yong doctor Project" was a great success of EURACT and mine too. The Croatians members are informed about EURACT activities, provided by materials, and whole profession is informed as a report in Croatian Journal of Family Physicians and during annual conference. Dubrovnik Course �Training of Teachers in GP/FM� was held from 3 May to 8 May 2004 (32 participants).