The first founding meeting of ICEDOC’s committee was held in Vienna on 24–25 September 1996. After years of communication and preparation, colleagues from around the world have shared in planning its outreach.
We are all volunteer consultants. What brings us together is love for all and the will to give advice and push to improve cancer management around the world, in the remaining years of our active practice and even after retirement.
We are all busy. But many of us give a few minutes every week to e-mail consultations and to sharing our views. Sometimes, if possible and never as a condition, we give a few days a year to a volunteer workshop and consultation visit to a country.
We look for cancer management with globally balanced approaches, with special emphasis on early detection, prevention and palliative care. We also stress the need for access to reasonable cancer treatment in underserved regions. Despite all the efforts and organizations, 85% of the world’s cancer patients have no access to any reasonable cancer treatment. It is a real tragedy. ICEDOC is formed to complement, not to compete with, any organization or initiative.
It is not at all contradictory to be a leader or active member of one or more national or international organizations and also a very active volunteer in ICEDOC’s Experts in Cancer Without Borders. Any such involvement helps us give better advice and connect colleagues usefully.
How a consultation visit works
Most visits include an educational workshop and meetings with colleagues, health authorities, public figures and the media, to mobilize efforts towards balanced cancer control and treatment. With local colleagues we visit existing facilities and discuss, in a friendly and informal setting, ways to improve cancer management. We discuss patient cases, exchange views on technical and practical matters, and encourage feasible research with local colleagues and organizations.
Visits are prepared in advance, but the most important part is the follow-up. Everyone who wants to take part is invited to offer comments, advice and help by e-mail. Our visit does not end with goodbye at the airport and a report. The real work starts at that moment and continues for years.
One of our most requested activities is advice by e-mail and connecting colleagues on every continent with experts elsewhere in the world. It has proved a very practical and prompt way to help.
The Win-Win scientific initiative
Proposed in 2007, the initiative has grown into the Global Health Catalyst Win-Win Movement, with Prof. Wilfred Ngwa as director. Read about the Win-Win movement.
ICEDOC has official recognition as a U.S. non-profit organization registered in Texas. Our mission extends mainly to deprived regions of the world. We are convinced that the world is one human family, and that every human life is of infinite worth and deserves the best possible medical care.