World Medical Association launches search for the world's most caring physicians

A new initiative to celebrate the world's most caring physicians has been launched by the World Medical Association (WMA).

It is asking each of its 84 national medical association members to nominate up to three physicians practicing in their country who best reflect the principles of caring, ethics and science. Nominations will be submitted by the end of the year. A WMA panel representing physicians in each part of the world will then select physicians whose life and work will be profiled in a unique publication.

The initiative is part of the theme chosen by the new WMA president, Dr Yank Coble, an endocrinologist from Florida, USA - a theme based on caring, ethics and science.

Dr Coble said: 'We seek the most caring physicians of the world and we want the world to know who they are. As a group, they will represent the finest traditions of our great profession and show how physicians today are working to the highest professional standards in different cultures and under different pressures. At the heart of this tradition is the physician's caring approach to patients added to impeccable ethics and excellence, grounded in science

'Our caring is evident in our everyday work and in the millions of hours of charity care we provide in the four corners of the globe.

'Our ethics guide not only our practice of medicine, but also the practice of international physician organizations.

'Our medical science is evident in our growing success at treating and curing diseases and conditions once thought fatal.'

The publication will be launched at the WMA's next annual General Assembly in Santiago, Chile, in October 2005. It will then be disseminated around the world to national medical associations, governments, foundations and other interested groups.

Further details about the initiative can be found on www.caringphysicians.info