Encouraging French FMF content

Dr Roger Ladouceur’s editorial in the February issue of Canadian Family Physician¹ regarding the lack of French educational content at Family Medicine Forum (FMF) has brought to light a challenge the FMF Committee has been facing for some time, namely the low number of French abstract submissions received each year. This has especially been the case over the past 2 years when FMF was held virtually.

The FMF organizing team and the FMF Committee continue to encourage Francophone members to submit abstracts for consideration each year. Abstract submissions are accepted in either French or English. French submissions are reviewed and scored by Francophone reviewers. Most years, owing to the limited number of French submissions received, the committee will opt to include most, if not all, French submissions to ensure our Francophone participants have access to educational content in their language.

This year we have met with some of our Francophone partners, Chapters, and educators to develop some strategies to better engage our Francophone members in the abstract submission process and FMF itself. We are also developing additional strategies to remove barriers that may dissuade Anglophone attendees from participating in future French presentations, such as expanding theuse of translation services during live events. We will be offering simultaneous translation from French to English during our upcoming 2022 virtual FMF event.

We are pleased to announce that FMF is returning to its original live format in 2022 in addition to offering a virtual FMF. We have a number of French sessions planned already and hope that we will continue to see a strong Francophone presence in future years as we strive to make FMF a rich and rewarding experience for all our members.

I encourage everyone with an interest in and passion for presenting to their peers to submit their session proposals for consideration. As always, I look forward to seeing everyone at FMF this year, both in person in Toronto, Ont, and during our virtual event.

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