Medical Professionalism: a GP’s Perspective

“A really good liver” I remember when I was a medical student the excitement of going round the wards with a keen doctor who would take us to feel a “really good spleen” or listen to an “interesting cardiac murmur”. Like my fellow students in our new, pristine white coats, I was very excited. However, something in me rebelled and a little voice said, “This isn’t quite right”. It was not that we did not greet the patient, ask permission to examine and do all that medical etiquette and politeness required

Evolution of the hospital and commitments to be assumed

Evolution of medicine and of the hospital. Through the centuries, the European hospital has gone through a real metamorphosis.
Starting from the “Hospitalis Domus”, the house where guests were received during the first centuries of our era, the hospital was primarily the place where Christian charity was exercised through all ages.

The Therapy for Chronic Pain: Painmedicine

I am specialised in anaesthesia and I have other specialisations in pain therapy, acupuncture and palliative medicine. I work with 5 colleagues in a specialised medical surgery. (In Germany the national health system has two branches: hospitals and medical clinics/surgeries). Our clinic for pain therapy and palliative medicine, is the biggest medical surgery for the therapy of chronic pain in Germany.

What is Professionalism to me? How do I practice it?

Right from the beginning of my professional career, it was very clear for me that the patient had to occupy centre stage. As I practised medicine, I understood that this preference had to be translated into practical choices, which were sometimes small but nonetheless fundamental.

From interrelationship to reciprocity: its implications in the medical sphere

We have reflected on the importance of communication and the art of interrelating in Medicine. My task now is to talk about the significance and value of reciprocity.

It is our conviction that knowing how to communicate and to enter into a relationship with another – whether this person is a colleague, a health worker, a patient or his/her relatives – requires a step farther: to arrive at a reciprocal relationship.

International Projects: Achievements, Preliminary Results, New Horizons

The preoperative diagnosis of ovarian masses is essential to provide an appropriate clinical treatment. The introduction of transvaginal ultrasonography has given us the opportunity to obtain preoperative diagnostic parameters which offer extraordinary diagnostic accuracy.

A new cultural model for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. A project in Africa, based on UNAIDS recommendations

The cultural model - HIV/AIDS is an important public health problem in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 63 % of adults and children who are infected by HIV or suffering from AIDS in the world are living. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 2.5 million people are infected by HIV or are suffering from AIDS. The seroprevalence of HIV infection is 4.3 %.

Bukas Palad: Community Healthcare in Manila

Bukas Palad Foundation Inc., is a non-stock, non-profit and non-government organization. It is established in 1983, to respond to social and health problems of poorest people in Philippines.

A Journey in Reciprocity: from the Clinica Sorriso (in Igarassu, Brazil) to the Clinic dor Adopted and Immigrant Children

The Clinica Sorriso (translated as Smile Clinic) was built in 1993 in the town of Igarassu in northeastern Brazil. It is the result of a solidarity based which was promoted in Italy when I returned from my first trip to Brazil. The clinic was opened in order to meet the health needs of the pupils of Santa Maria School, an activity which was started in 1969 in the city of Santa Maria where the school is located.

Cervical Cancer Management: development of a partnership model based on ethnographic approach between countries with different healthcare standards

Cervical carcinoma is the second most common cancer in women worldwide, but especially in developing countries, where it is the most frequent cause of mortality 1.
The causes of cervical cancer can be attributed to poverty, lifestyle, inaccurate or lack of information that the population has regarding risk factors. There is also a lack of functional medical consultation services and limited access to health care centers

Spirituality in health and illness

`a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity` (World Health Organisation, WHO) relative state in which one is able to function well physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually in order to express the full range of one's unique potentialities within the environment in which one is living. (Dorlands Medical Dictionary)

Geriatrics education and health professions today: responding to critical need

The connection between health and old age is complex and often influenced by myths and misconceptions. It is argued that old age is equivalent to a time of illness. Medicine itself has endorsed this idea, to such an extent that gerontology has even been defined as the science that traces the downward trends... LEGGI TUTTO 

Eliminate collateral damage: Bring personalized medicine to mass vaccinations

Eliminate collateral damage

Bring personalized medicine to mass vaccinations

Mandating vaccines for health care workers appears to be a convenient way to limit spread of infection. However, these techniques, especially in flu vaccination, can lead to a false sense of security. They can overshadow and replace other very effective practices to control spread of infection. Mandated vaccines have the potential to cause serious adverse health effects for individuals, and alienate employees from their employment.

Proactive design of a quality control program regarding the patient-therapist-relationship

A proactive design of self-regulatory programs is of strong public interest as it can contribute to legitimising the value of therapeutic services to insurance agencies and public entities.
The European Region of the World Confederation of Physiotherapy presented 2002/3 Core Standards for Physiotherapy Practice (CS) with their Patient Feedback questionnaire (PFQ). Inter alia, these standards were developed as tools to analyze the interaction between physiotherapist and patient.

A simple truth

A teenager’s trust in God’s plan while facing Crohn’s disease
When I was 14, I was a vivacious eighth grader who liked to play tennis and spend time with my friends. Then I began to feel very unlike my usual self. I had severe abdominal pain, was losing weight and experienced a huge decrease in energy. Countless doctor’s appointments and blood tests revealed nothing of relevance!Then one September day in my first year of high school, I was rushed to the ER with unbearable pain in my midsection.