Virtual conference from Potugal

[Guest guest]

Copied from HIFA

Dr Vijay Thawani

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22 February, 2008 2:46 PM

From: " Tiago Villanueva, Portugal " <tiago.villanueva@...> Add

sender to Contacts " HIFA2015 " <HIFA2015@...>Dear all,

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, I would please like to call

your attention to the following event, the 1st Virtual World

Congress of General Practice/Family Medicine. The organizing

committee is based in Portugal, and already has more than 850

participants registered from 44 countries from all over the world,

with a naturally strong presence of participants from Brazil and

Lusophone African countries. The deadline forregistration and

submission of abstracts is March 15. The website is

http://congressovirtualmgf.com/

Yours faithfully,

Tiago Villanueva

Tiago Villanueva

Telemovel/Mobile:+351-967-651-997

Skype: tchaguito

http://network.nature.com/profile/U5FF1B5BD

HIFA2015 profile: Tiago Villanueva is a GP registrar/Family Medicine

resident based in Portugal, and a freelance medical writer, with

medical journalism experience at the BMJ offices in London.

tiago.villanueva@...

Message from the Vice-Chairman:

Dear colleagues:

It is with enormous pleasure that I invite you to participate in the

first virtual congress of General and Family Medicine, organized by

the Portuguese Association of GP's Virtual GP/Family Medicine

working Group.

This invitation has a special meaning, since it was carried out on

the first day of Wonca Europe 2007, an event of great importance in

the exchange of experiences between specialists of General

Practice/Family Medicine from around the World.

Coming from a Portuguese doctors' organization (demonstrating its

great vitality), this first virtual congress of the specialty is

destined to all those who want to meet us through the resources that

nowadays allow the globalization of the exchange of ideas and

knowledge.

An event with this design does not substitute the classical physical

presence meetings, but aims to promote a complementary alternative.

Pay attention to our website. Given the initiative's design,

mobilizing a large-scale informatic interface, it will have a

significant turnover and updating.

We look forward to be with you, in April, May and June of 2008 " in a

computer near you " !

Santos

Message from the Chairman:

In a world and society in constant transformation, medicine itself

is also shifting and developing. New health problems and new risks

are emerging continuously. The health system is getting more and

more complex, and there is a growing disquiet concerning quality and

security. Information technologies increase in power and complexity,

and the citizen's expectations are in constant maturation.

In this context, nowadays, it is generally accepted, nationally and

internationally, that the ideal medical practice is people-centred,

health oriented and community extended.

Therefore, in most developed countries, family doctors occupy a

central position in the assurance of global, continued, coordinated

and personalized health care assistance. Their role, along with the

one of the remaining primary care providers, is recognized as being

essential to the optimization of the available resources and to the

accomplishment of quality, equity and efficiency in health systems.

The contemporary family doctor has their own professional identity,

appropriate skills and a quite exact set of qualifications. The core

of General Practice/Family Medicine's aim is providing global,

integrated,continuous and personalized health care to citizens in

their family and social contexts.

The family doctor is quite well placed to provide primary care, to

deal with a great variety of health problems, and to fulfil the

integrator's part, which the growing specialization has made

essential. It is, for sure, the one who better carries out the

concept of health, today understood as a dynamic balance between

intrinsic factors to the human being, of biological, psycho-

affective and of behavioural nature, as well as extrinsic factors

concerning the physical and relational environment surrounding him.

However, in order to be effective and to encounter the people and

society's needs, it will be necessary to establish some priorities

and redirect our efforts in order to:

- Increase accessibility, namely in cases of acute disease

- Centre the attention on prevention and early intervention

- Improve management of chronic disease

- Support multidisciplinary cares' integration and provision

- Select available evidence for effective providing of quality care

- Use technology to support good practices.

Good primary health care is good for the people and good for the

Country. For that, it is necessary to maintain high levels of

quality. In order to maintain high levels of quality in care

providing, a solid politics of Continuous Professional Development

is necessary, which is only achieved with lifelong continuous

learning.

Good training makes professionals more confident and more competent

in their performance. A defective formation leaves people

frustrated, anxious and discouraged.We must make use of the

abilities that the new technologies put ahead of us, and in this way

make easier this required lifelong continuous learning.

This First Virtual Congress of Family Medicine will be nquestionably

an excellent opportunity to learn with each other.

Pisco