Quaternary prevention From Wonca world Hong Kong 1995 to Wonca world Prague 2013

History and demonstration of the fundamentals of quaternary prevention in several languages.As stated in Wonca dictionary of family Medicine (Bentzen, 2003), quaternary prevention definition is “Action taken to identify a patient or a population at risk of overmedicalisation, to protect them from invasive medical interventions and provide for them care procedures which are scientifically and medically acceptable.”

Quaternary prevention, first coined at Wonca world Hong Kong 1995 by M. Jamoulle& M.Roland, describes the protection of patients from diagnostic tests, interventions and treatments that offer no benefit for overall morbidity or mortality for the individual, and may cause physical or psychological harm.

The P4 concept pulls together all reflexive moves on the problems resulting from an excess of medical care, such as overscreening, overinvestigation, overprescription, and overtreatment.

Since the first workshop in Wonca Basel 2009, the P4 concept has spread throughout the world, and has provoked an intense exchange of ideas. The speakers gathered here from around the world intend to show how front line family physicians could analyze, understand, appropriate and use the P4 concept to examine, analyze and modify their practice.