The International Association for Humanitarian Medicine - Brock Chisholm (IAHM) is a nongovernmental organization constituted in 1984 at the World Health Organization (WHO) as the Brock Chisholm Memorial Trust, thanks to the determination of a group of professionals operating in the health field, with a view to sustaining human rights and the principles of humanitarian medicine, perpetuating the ideals of WHO’s founding father, Dr Brock Chisholm. The year 2000 saw the signing in Palermo of the constitutional act of the International Association for Humanitarian Medicine - Brock Chisholm (IAHM).

At this moment in time the Association awaits official recognition by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in accordance with Law N° 49 of 26 February 2002 for the governance of international cooperation projects in developing countries.

The aims pursued by the Association are exclusively humanitarian, scientific and social, with the commitment to provide health to all the peoples, social justice, peace, and human dignity. The Association is non-political, non-sectarian, non-discriminatory and non-profit-making.

IAHM takes its inspiration from the Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO), which declares that the enjoyment of the highest level of health attainable is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political conviction, or social and economic condition and that the health of all the peoples of the world is fundamental for the achievement of peace and security and depends on the maximum co-operation among individuals and countries.

The Association operates in the following sectors:

• Specialized hospital assistance for patients from developing countries;
• Specialized assistance in disasters in developing countries;
• Health education;
• Training of sanitary and parasanitary personnel in developing countries;
• Training of sanitary and parasanitary personnel to be sent to developing countries for emergency health assistance.

The Association’s operating instruments are:

• WORLD OPEN HOSPITAL (WOH) (link in World Open Hospital): the main and innovative objective of IAHM is the creation of a virtual world hospital, the realization of a network of highly specialized sections of hospital wards that would thus constitute the beds of a virtual hospital, and the establishment of link-ups and relationships of collaboration with other organizations of humanitarian assistance operating in the world, particularly in the emerging countries, in order for them to report to the appropriate authorities complex medical and surgical cases of patients requiring specialized care who cannot be treated in their respective countries and are authorized by the authorities and followed in their transfer to hospitals possessing humanitarian health sections.
• contacts with the authorities and the professional organizations in the industrialized countries for the creation in leading hospitals of specialized SECTIONS dedicated to the hospitalization and medical, surgical, and rehabilitative treatment of patients from developing countries.
• the offer to doctors, nurses, and health sector technicians of the opportunity to attend professional TRAINING COURSES in university and hospital facilities in the industrialized countries.
• the setting-up of SPECIALIZED TEAMS which on the request of hospitals or health facilities in the emerging or developing countries are able to transfer in loco in order to provide medical and surgical assistance and to hold technical and professional training courses for the benefit of persons requiring health care.

IAHM has operative seats in: Italy, Rep. of Argentina, Austria, Rep. of Benin, Dem. Rep. of Congo, Czech Republic. , Egypt, Rep. of Ghana, Greece, Rep. de Guatemala, Israel, Lebanon, Dép. de la Martinique and Switzerland