the virtual GP

Tagged: Portugal RSS

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  alexandregouveia 03:10 on 03/02/2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Family Medicine (12), Portugal, Virtual Congress   

  4th Newsletter – Second Virtual Congress GP/FM 

  

  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

   

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  alexandregouveia 01:02 on 08/01/2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Family Medicine Residency (2), NHS (5), Portugal   

  Family Medicine Residency Program in Portugal 

  

  Tiago Villanueva wrote in Medical Education (a forum created by Deirde Bonnycastle) about the Family Medicine curriculum in Portugal, explaining how a medical student becomes a family doctor.

  I’m already preparing myself for the Final Examination in July… almost there!

  
  

  Family Medicine Residency Program in Portugal
  

  

  Portugal is a Southwestern European country which has been a member of the European Union since 1986, and a founding member of the Euro Zone since 1999. In 2008, Portugal was ranked the 33rd most developed country in the World according to Human Development Index. There are seven medical schools in Portugal (two in the capital city, Lisbon, two in Porto, one in Coimbra, Braga and Covilhã). Studying Medicine in Portugal takes six years, and afterwards, the newly qualified doctors must take a 100 questions MCQ national examination (whose questions are based on the American textbook ”Harrisson’s Principles of Internal Medicine”), which ranks candidates all over the country. Then, newly qualified doctors choose the specialty and training institution based on the order of choice provided by that ranking, that is, the highest ranked candidate in the country chooses the specialty and training institution of his/her choice, while the lowest ranked candidate has to contend with the leftovers. After graduation and before residency, young doctors must undergo a one-year internship called the common year, in which they rotate through Internal Medicine, Family Medicine and Public Health, Paediatrics, Obstetrics, and General Surgery.

  Even though Family Medicine is not considered a specialty in all European Countries, in Portugal it is considered a medical specialty on par with all the other medical and surgical specialties. There is a three year Residency Program in place, which varies slightly according to the region of the country (North, Centre or South Family Medicine Residency Program Coordination Centre). Residents are assessed on a yearly basis (or after each rotation in the Centre region) according to the following methods:

  Performance Assessment: this is subjective, and carried out by the tutor of the resident in the end of a specific rotation. This could be the resident’s tutor at the practice, or a tutor at the hospital, in the case of hospital rotations. It covers criteria such as

  Knowledge Assessment: this is an oral examination at the end of each year, and covers all the rotations done by the trainee in that year. The jury of the exam consists of two family physicians, and one of them is the tutor of the resident at the practice. Questions are more or less open or closed, for example “What are the referral criteria for Community Acquired Pneumonia”, or “A patient collapses in front of you at the practice. What do you do?”

  Rotation Report: residents must submit an extensive report describing all the activities carried out in each rotation. They are compiled in one single document each year, read by the jury carrying out the yearly examination and criticized. This is more of an actual preparation for the submission of the final CV in the Final Examination (see below).

  Video Recordings of the resident’s consultations: this is not done in every Coordination Centre, for example, in the Centre.

  Final Examination: this is done in the end of the Residency Program, is spread out across several days, and includes a CV discussion, which is submitted previously, a knowledge and practical assessment, the latter implying a real patient encounter, and revolved around history taking skills, physical examination skills, and the ability to integrate information in order to devise a management plan for the patient.

  Tiago Villanueva, M.D.
  GP/Family Medicine trainee, Lisbon, Portugal
  http://www.virtualcongressgpfm.com/

  Video Hosting is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Video Hosting 10:12 on 17/10/2009 Permalink | Reply

    Very well written post however, I would recommend that you turn the No Follow off in your comment section.

    Keep up the good work.