INTERNATO E PÓS- GRADUAÇÃO
Algarve Médico, 2021; 17 (5): 6 – 9
POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION
Learning to see the world through a physician’s eyes Ana Gerschenfeld1 1
Health & Science Writer of the Champalimaud Foundation
ana.gerschenfeld@research.fchampalimaud.org
The first edition of a course called Fundamentals of Medicine
However, the Fundamentals of Medicine course at the
started in October 2020. Jointly conceived by the University
Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, which stemmed from
of the Algarve School of Medicine and the Champalimaud
a proposal by João Silveira Botelho, Vice-President of the
Foundation, its aim is to encourage scientists from
Champalimaud Foundation, is the first pedagogical initiative
Champalimaud Research to think as physicians. The experiment,
in which PBL targets, rather than medical students, scientists
which is still ongoing, aims to make scientists better understand
without medical training, aiming to make them experience
how clinicians think and work, to enable them to build bridges,
medical practice. “To the best of our knowledge, there currently
between scientific knowledge and medical practice, that can
exists no other similar experience, either at the national or at the
benefit patients.
international level,” notes Isabel Palmeirim, director of the UAlg
Monday, 9 a.m.. A small group of basic science researchers from the Champalimaud Foundation and other people working at
Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (FMCB-UAlg) and of the Fundamentals of Medicine course.
the Foundation who are interested in bridging the gap between
The aim of Fundamentals of Medicine, a graduate course born
science and medicine is scheduled for a “medical class” via Zoom
through a protocol co-signed by the Algarve Biomedical Center
(due to pandemic restrictions) with Pedro Marvão, their tutor in a
(ABC) – a consortium of which UAlg is an integral part – and the
new course called Fundamentals of Medicine. In one week, they
Champalimaud Foundation, is not to make physicians out of
will have to “solve”, together, a clinical case. They will do this,
scientists. It is to allow scientists, who are used to a much more
week after week, with a series of other cases.
controlled and structured work environment, to understand the
This type of medical learning, based on real clinical cases and termed problem-based learning or PBL, was invented in Canada in the 1960’s and later developed in the Netherlands during
complexity of the real-world problems that physicians have to deal with, which require making decisions about patients in real time, in the bustle of a hospital or clinic.
the 1970’s. During the following decades, it was integrated
Why is that important? There is a growing consensus that it is
in the medical courses of a number of universities in Anglo-
necessary to facilitate the transposition – or “translation”, as
Saxon countries. Since 2009, it has been applied at the UAlg’s
experts call it – of scientific results into clinical applications,
Medical School. “PBL offers certain advantages: better training
and that requires establishing a profound dialogue between
in problem-solving, enhanced skills for searching information,
scientists and physicians. But for this dialogue to be truly
higher retentive levels of acquired knowledge, and, from a
meaningful, it is essential for scientists to understand that the
more subjective perspective, a more stimulating and interesting
situations physicians experience in their daily work have little to
learning process”, says Pedro Marvão, who has taught
do with the atmosphere and daily life in a lab.
Physiology at the UAlg Faculty of Medicine, the University of Manchester and the Nova Medical School.
In the Life Sciences, researchers work in extremely controlled conditions. They want to unravel the universal biological mechanisms that govern the workings of living organisms and
Originally Published in Champalimaud´s Foundation website https://www.champalimaud.org , on september 16th, 2021
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