World Medical Association

The World Medical Association is an international and independent confederation of free professional medical associations representing physicians worldwide, founded in Paris in September 1947 by physicians from twenty seven countries. Headquartered in Ferney-Voltaire, France, near Geneva, it comprises well over a hundred national medical association members and thousands of associate members, together representing more than ten million physicians globally, and maintains official relations with the World Health Organization and other United Nations bodies. The association serves as a global governing body for medical ethics and professional standards, best known for influential international guidelines such as the Declaration of Helsinki on clinical research ethics and the Declaration of Geneva, a modern restatement of the physician's oath.