Professor Sir Michael Marmot served as President of the World Medical Association 2015-2016

Michael used this opportunity to promote the role of doctors, and other health professionals more broadly, in addressing social determinants of health, building on our report Working for Health Equity: The Role of Health Professionals.

In March 2015, in the build up to his year long presidency, Michael and the IHE team worked with the World Medical Association and the Canadian Medical Association to hold a Global Symposium: The Role of Physicians and National Medical Associations in Addressing the Social Determinants of Health and Increasing Health Equity.

During his presidency Sara Thomas, of the UCL Institute of Health Equity, authored Doctors for Health Equity  for the World Medical Association (WMA). The aim of this report was to contribute to the presidency and to support the WMA’s Declaration of Oslo on the Social Determinants of Health. The report explores evidence and case studies to highlight the ways in which doctors, national medical associations and the WMA can act on the social determinants of health and improve health equity.