Today, the Second Virtual Congress of General Practice and Family Medicine published another newsletter with two interesting articles written by Dr. Luis Pisco, Vice-Chairman of the Second Virtual Congress of GP/FM and President of the Portuguese Association of General Practitioners – APMCG and Dr. Enrique Gavilán Moral, member of the International Advisory Board of the Second Virtual Congress of GP/FM and also of the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine – semFYC.
Dear colleagues,
The Second Virtual Congress of GP/Family Medicine is rolling!
In a World on the verge of a dire financial crisis, this sort of initiative can make the difference. It can only be positive to team up, for three months, with family physicians from all corners of the planet, and share knowledge, experiences, anguishes and emotions.
During the 60th anniversary celebrations of the British National Health Service in July last year, taking place in Wembley stadium, Donald Berwick said: “General Practice is the jewel of the crown of the NHS. Save it. Build it.” I would dare to say that General Practice is the jewel of the crown of any health system.
At a time when more than ever we are in need of effective, equitative and efficient heath care, the more necessary it is for Governments to make enduring investments in proximity and quality healthcare, which only GP/Family Medicine can provide. The greater the crisis and the social and economic depression, the more will citizens need our support.
The motto e-Health – empowering towards operational knowledge meets the requirements of contemporary society. We must take advantage of the potential of Information Technologies to learn, teach, and share at the global scale.
I hope that, like the first one, this Second Virtual Congress proves successful and fulfills the expectations of the participants.
Kind regards, Luís Pisco.
The Human Side of the Virtual Congress
One of the most rewarding aspects of a conference is that it is a place of encounter and exchange of experiences.
I would thus like to highlight some of the most important functions of scientific events.
Firstly, to meet people always ready to show something new and to feel the pleasant thrill of finding partners with whom to share ideas, experiences and forms of professional and personal scopes of work. Second, to go out to confirm that the problems are similar elsewhere, and those solutions can be found in any unexpected detail. Third, to feel that you are not alone in this world.
There are additional ways to enrich the work and develop scientific knowledge. One of them is to provide not only innovative, but sometimes personal experiences. Another is to render resources to other professionals that can be applied in very different situations, and finally to share feelings and intuitions.
So, what does the congress cater for? Well, any little experience, any idea born with a calling to serve and provide new ways to tackle the problems, as well as new solutions to new challenges awaiting us in the future.
The community of Family Physicians knows how to share the best of itself amidst this contemporary global world and in any of the hundreds of scientific events taking place in our specialty in the world.
New technologies allow us to interact in a virtual way from anywhere, with anyone, making the Internet a space without walls or borders to share experiences and knowledge in an almost unlimited way. However, the challenge of e-medicine is to keep alive the excitement of meeting physically, the thrill to receive and to give, the feeling of belonging to a large scientific community. And this is also the great challenge of the Second Virtual Congress of General Practice & Family Medicine. We count on you and you and you and you all, to ensure that this congress will also be a meeting place and a space to share.
Enrique Gavilán Moral
Anne Marie Cunningham 20:45 on 22/02/2009 Permalink |
Hi,
Interesting. Do you have a link to the US report? What is the situation in Portugal with regards to conultations which are not face to face, eg telephone and beyond?
Thanks
Anne Marie
alexandregouveia 20:58 on 22/02/2009 Permalink |
Hi, Anne Marie
Unfortunately I don’t have the US report, and I think it’s not available online.
In Portugal we don’t have solid data regarding the telephone consultations (they were never object of adequate research) but I’m pretty sure they represent around 10% of a daily GP work (email consultations are still residual).
There is a group of colleagues from the Portuguese Association of GPs that are starting a research project on this subject. As soon as the data is available, I will let you know.
Many thanks,
Alex.
Anne Marie Cunningham 21:33 on 22/02/2009 Permalink |
http://www.imarketinsights.com/modules/mastop_publish/?tac=Patients_praise_and_pan_virtual_doctor_visit
Actually this shows that minority were positive (48%) with majority being negative or neutral. The headline admits ‘mixed’ reception.
Also interesting is that those accepting virtual consultations, are more tolerant of this being with a doctor they do not know. In my experience these are generally well, young patients. We have to make sure that we don’t start designing health services around this demographic. Some would say that this has started happening in England.
Thanks
AM