Welcome to the website of the
Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research

WHO Collaborating Centre in Education and Research in Human Reproduction

The Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research

The Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research (GFMER) is a non-profit organisation established in 2002. It is supported by the Department of Health of the Canton of Geneva, the Department of Social Affairs of the City of Geneva, the Faculty of Medicine, Geneva University, and the Geneva Medical Association, and works in close collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO). GFMER is a WHO Collaborating Centre in Education and Research in Human Reproduction.

Concept

The importance of continued medical education based on solid scientific evidence is now well recognised yet not widely implemented, and thus reducing the possible impact on health services in developing countries. The immediate consequences are stagnation of the quality of service delivery and ill health of the population. This applies particularly to developing countries and countries in economic transition.
Some ways to develop a better health system are to promote research relevant to problems in the field, to strengthen the human and material resources for this research and to create a mechanism, which would assist countries to address their own research needs.
Development of appropriate technologies and training of personnel in various fields of medicine, public health, and research are essential components of such a mechanism.

Objectives

The overall objectives of the Foundation are to furnish health education and research programmes that can be applied by developing countries, and countries in economic transition, and to establish collaboration between entities from the public and private sectors.

Highlights

State-of-the-art Website

GFMER provides a comprehensive website giving access not only to the activities of the foundation, but offers also a collection of relevant and up-to-date information (i.e. free access medical journals, publications, medical links) and online-tools.

Research Training Course in:

• Sexual and Reproductive Health

The Foundation and WHO, in collaboration with other institutions, are jointly organising the yearly Postgraduate Training Course (PGC) in Research in Geneva. This Course consists of a two weeks module in research methodology followed by two weeks' training in sexual and reproductive health and uses the training-of -trainers approach (see Training in Sexual and Reproductive Health Research - Geneva 2009 - Application form).

Postgraduate Training Network for Research in Reproductive Health

Following the initiation of the Postgraduate Training Network for Research in Reproductive Health in September 2003, the PGC in Reproductive Health was disseminated to collaborating centres, taking advantage of the pool of participants trained at the PGC in Geneva to act as local teachers and using the course materials electronically available on the GFMER website.  The course was successfully held in Indonesia in 2003, in China and Romania in 2004, in Argentina in 2004 and 2005, in Cameroon in 2004 and 2007, and in Afghanistan in 2008.

'Reproductive Health' - the official journal of GFMER

As a peer reviewed, online, open-access journal, 'Reproductive Health' offers a platform for scientists to publish results of good quality research in human reproduction. The journal is supported by an international editorial board experienced in reproductive health and peer review thus ensuring the quality of the journal.  Published articles are freely and universally accessible online and are indexed in PubMed.  Information about submitting a manuscript can be found at 'instructions for authors'.

Informatics at GFMER

In addition to the state-of-the-art website at GFMER, an 'online learning system', including teleconferencing, in parallel to the regular web pages  has been made available. This tool will assist in the management of course resources (discussion forum, web resources, PDF/PowerPoint files etc.) that accompany the other web pages of the Foundation.

Further, GFMER is developing online -tools for data collection and analysis for multicentric studies.

Site contents

• *About the Foundation*
  • Information about the mission, objectives, and structure of the Foundation.
• *Search*
  • Site and Web search.
• *Education*
  • The postgraduate and continuing education programmes of the Foundation.
• *Partners*
  • International collaborations, Foundation's partners.
• *Publications*
  • Publications, presentations, books, and atlases.
• *Databases, links*
  • Collection of links to free medical journals, medical schools, dictionaries, search engines, medical images, guidelines and free full text articles.
• *Navigation*
  • Sitemap, list of files in alphabetical order, useful downloads.

Address

Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research
Villa Grand-Montfleury
Chemin du Grand-Montfleury 48
1290 Versoix - Switzerland

Text prepared by Regina Kulier

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Edited by Aldo Campana,