“Promote health to protect against disease” is the motto of the 2nd Congress of Preventive Medicine, supported by CINTESIS, that will take place until June 1, at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP), with the involvement of 100 registered participants.
For three days, the reseachers will discuss different topics related to prevention, such as cardiovascular prevention, obesity, child health, “healthy city”, error, stress and burnout, health in the elderly, environment, and health and oral health.
The opening ceremony was the moment when several speakers took the floor: Paulo Santos, president of this edition and researcher of CINTESIS; Miguel Guimarães, President of the Order of Doctors (Portuguese Medical Association); Romeu Mendes, on behalf of the Regional Health Administration of the North (ARS North) and the Ministry of Health; Alberto Hespanhol, Professor of the Department of Community Medicine, Health Information and Decision (MEDCIDS); José Pedro Nunes, representing FMUP; and Raquel Castelo Branco, representing the Porto City Council.
According to Paulo Santos, Preventive Medicine is comprehensive enough to encompass the entire community, including all health professionals and other field workers who have a lot to do with health promotion and are often away from this discussion.
Thus, this year, the organization has chosen to bring guests from various areas, such as professionals from local authorities, environmental engineering, architecture and even a chef, in order to “integrate all these knowledge into what can be the definition of a type of health that it’s not just medical.”
The President of the 2nd Congress of Preventive Medicine also emphasizes the importance of health literacy and education as a way to prevent risk factors that cause illness, since they “help people to be empowered to take decisions and change their life styles”.
At the opening ceremony, the President of the Order of Doctors acknowledged the role of prevention as essential to health, though often overlooked, revealing that “the burden of prevention in the state budget for health is well below 1%.”
Miguel Guimarães stressed the need to invest more in prevention and engaged in reaching people at schools, health units, General and Family Medicine, Hospitals and other areas of social intervention.
After the first edition dedicated to prevention as a key factor for health sustainability, this year’s motto of effective health promotion as a way to protect against disease is stressing the need for prevention strategies in synergy with the whole community, so that it is possible to enjoy a comprehensive type of health that reaches everybody.
The Congress was preceded by two courses (“Conducting Health Education in Health Care” and “Multimorbidity and Polymedication in the Elderly”) and it will be finish on June 1 with the award of the best poster and the best free oral communication .