CINTESIS – Center for Health Technology and Services Research organized the debate “From General Practice to General and Family Medicine: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”, which took place on November 18 at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP).
The activity was part of the Science and Technology Week 2024, in which CINTESIS participated, together with UnIC – Cardiovascular Research and Development Unit, based at FMUP, in an initiative of the Associate Laboratory RISE.
Altamiro da Costa Pereira, director of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP), recalled the role of the FMUP in the training of general practitioners.
Paulo Santos, CINTESIS@RISE/FMUP researcher, moderated the debate in which Luciana Couto, CINTESIS/FMUP researcher, spoke about the history of the field at the national and international level.
António Luz Pereira, vice-president of the Portuguese Association of General and Family Medicine (APMGF), stressed that “Family Medicine is not simply a specialty, it is also a way of looking at medicine”. “At a time when there is so much talk of Artificial Intelligence, it is essential that we manage to convey empathy, that very special characteristic of General and Family Medicine,” he said.
Deolinda Beça, from the General and Family Medicine Specialty College of the Order of Doctors, stressed that family doctors are “the first contact with people and their connection with health”, reinforcing the need to “foster critical thinking in young people who are still learning to be doctors and to raise awareness of our reality”.
Finally, Luiz Miguel Santiago, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra, highlighted the fact that Porto is “the beacon” of research and teaching centered on General Practice.
The Science and Technology Week 2024 ran from November 18 to 24 and included more than half a thousand free activities across the country, including exhibitions, workshops, lectures and visits to laboratories and museums.