Letter for young buds

Dr Mohammed Idris Shariff

My journey of Family Medicine began almost 10yrs ago but little did I ever think we could see this day of growth and promising future back then. Today, I choose to share with you a few key insights into The Spice Route Movement, India. A brief history, its purpose, its mission/vision and the future as envisioned by us and all the aspiring Young Family Physicians of our region. Little is known about this movement so far owing to its limited avenues of activity and exposure which would mainly happen at regional and national conferences. This article provides a great platform to make this go public and reach out to all of you.

I begin with exactly where I began my journey into the Fantastic World of Family Medicine, Read on..

With a dream in my eyes of making it to become the friendly neighborhood family doctor, I wasn’t aware of Family Medicine as a branch when I graduated from Med School back in 2009. I had few GP's practicing around me some with an MD in General Medicine and most post MBBS but a practicing experience to kill for.

In the freshly graduated mind of mine I thought maybe I should do Internal Medicine before I think of practicing, as like most med schools then and some even now, mine too had never heard of Family Medicine as a specialty. Fate, eventually led me to a stint at NationWide Primary Healthcare Services Pvt Ltd, an ambitious project by a few UK trained Indian GPs and I found myself working for and learning Family Medicine with them. This was the place which eventually led me to the discovery of The Spice Route Movement & then the AFPI. I was introduced to The Spice Route Movement far away from the South Asian Homeland at the RCGP Annual Conference 2012 in Glasgow. Dr Sonia Cherry one of the founders of The Spice Route Movement was my first point of contact who helped me connect back.

The idea of Spice Route Movement came from the many well established Young Doctors Movements across the rest of the WONCA World. Dr Ramnik Parekh, Dr Raman Kumar and Dr Sonia Cherry were the people responsible for its initiation and incorporation back in 2010. The Spice Route was officially inaugurated at the WONCA South Asia / General Practitioners Association of Nepal (GPAN) conference, in Kathmandu, in December 2010. Dr Ramnik Parekh made a presentation at the conference outlining the details of the group. Dr Sonia Chery, of the UK, described the need for such a movement and Dr Raman Kumar gave a sketch of contemporary scenario of training of GPs in India. The session was chaired by WONCA President, Prof Richard Roberts.

It took a while till the next WONCA SAR Conference in Chennai till I could meet Ms Bhavana Matta the chair of Spice Route and Dr Raman Kumar made the initial introductions with the idea of what a Young Doctors Movement(YDM) from WONCA Region looks like in other WONCA regions. Then on we would have pre-conference dinner meets and discuss ideas to establish and nurture our own South Asian YDM, the now officially christened “The Spice Route Movement” relating back to the rich historical connect with the South Asian Neighborhood of countries. The work began by creating official roles and nominating representatives from across these member countries. Networking with the parent bodies we began by highlighting our focus areas, our roles and responsibilities and preliminary work of writing a constitution for this fledgling organization.

The initial interactions at public forums like state, national and regional conferences were aimed at creating an awareness about this forum, presenting our small but steady steps forward as we grew from within the leadership circle to outside the leadership circle. We focused on providing platforms for our young colleagues to connect, share, learn, speak about their challenges, their experiences, their identity as a Family Physician. We had great opportunities to share experiences with many overseas FM trainees who came in, time and again with the help of exchange programs(FM 360) often times during our own AFPI National Conferences. These helped forge stronger networks and alliances with them and our counterpart YDMs across Europe & South East Asia.

The activities of the movement grew from one conference to another as I assumed the National Chair leadership in 2017, we moved from talking and introducing about Spice Route India to actually sharing our activities namely the Balint 2.0, One Word for Family Medicine, ASPIRE, FMChangemakers, SoMe in Medical Practice, Global online MOOCs to name a few. Around the same time dedicated funds and scholarships were made available through the Jyoti- Ramnik Parekh Scholarship which enabled few young doctors to visit regional conferences (WONCA-SAR) in Bangladesh & Sri Lanka and also have presentations at these by them. The focus in our FMPC had now shifted to moving towards showcasing how young doctors across the country had by now moved into leadership roles and were making a mark on their own in their own unique way. The 3rd FMPC in Kerala showcased 4 stalwarts who had embarked on previously uncharted territory and made a name for themselves, inspiring many delegates to believe in themselves and utilize their position to make their own path into the world of many possibilities that Family Medicine provides a platform for.

In the recently concluded 4th FMPC in Bangalore a crucial decision to transition a new leadership and expand the Spice Route India activities to each state was taken and enacted upon by calling for self nominations and selections by the National Executive based on merit, past participation in AFPI/WONCA activities and contribution to Family Medicine.

We often get asked How as a young doctor will I be benefited from Spice Route? The short and crisp answer to that would probably be that Spice Route is a globally recognized platform which provides you a number of opportunities and possibilities. How you will benefit will depend on how you intend to use it & what you are looking for, the possibilities and potentials are vast enough to accommodate newer innovations and ideas. We intend to make Spice Route a go-to platform for every young family doctor for all the support and mentorship that he may need during training, after training or during the first 5yrs of his independent practice. Today as we transition and support the new leadership of Dr Serin, Dr Jyotika and Dr Kailas we will be looking forward to making the vision broader and encompass all that is needed for a holistic development of our young Family Medicine Doctors across the country.

Our key focus areas for the near future will be :-

1. Establishing state representatives & Institution representatives Strengthening & building the above network to effectively communicate and co-ordinate up and down the ladder and make sure every message, opportunity and activity reaches the grass root level and every concern at the grass root reaches the larger community for support and shared learning
2. Starting inter-state, inter-city exchange programs - we will try to bring in these with academic/NBE support so that these can be given academic leaves and bring in a form of log book driven learning experience which will add academic/practical value
3. Encouraging and supporting Primary Care Practice based research and publications from Young Doctors - we have secured mentorship, speedy acceptance and discounted publication rights for all Spice Route Submissions to JFMPC - help and support at least one submission every half year for the 1st year and at least one every quarter the upcoming year.
4. Encourage more and more applications for attending WONCA SAR , WONCA World events with help of bursaries from Jyoti-Ramnik Parekh scholarship, RCGP South Asia Bursary and any other bursary that maybe announced specifically for the WONCA event. Recently Dr Serin has been awarded a bursary for his submission to the upcoming WONCA WORLD 2020 Conference in Abu Dhabi
5. Bring about special interest groups and working parties to work alongside the AFPI, WONCA working parties in spheres of technology & innovation, clinical ethics and legal frameworks, quality and accreditation etc
6. Building and fostering relationships with medicos across the country via the Medical Students Association of India (MSAI), to help create awareness about Family Medicine in med schools and collaborating with them on mutually beneficial projects.
7. Creating a global and local presence both on social media and offline engagement wherever the right opportunity arises for the benefit and growth of Family Medicine.

I hope and pray we are able to achieve most of what the new team has set out to achieve, and I am positive that we will receive support and encouragement from the fraternity along with an equally zealous participation from our young colleagues in all our activities. I wish the organizers of the AFPICON Kerala the best of luck and many thanks for an opportunity to write for the souvenir.

Best Regards & Much Love,

Author

Dr Mohammed Idris Shariff
MBBS, Masters Family Medicine (CMC, Vellore),
Pain & Palliative Medicine Certification (IAPC- St John's Medical College & Hospital),
Certificate in Medicine & Law (Institute of Medicine & Law, Mumbai)
Chief Technology Advisor & Executive Life Member – Academy of Family Physicians of India
Past Chair - The Spice Route Movement, India
Joint Secretary – AFPI Karnataka State Chapter
Affiliate Member – Royal College of General Practitioners, London-UK