Endocarditis with negative blood cultures and immunological alterations: a grand challenge

Introduction: Rheumatic diseases are one of the most common pathologies in General Practice. Despite this, and the poor undergraduate education in this area, General Practice residency does not include obligatory training in Rheumatology. When done in a voluntary basis, those rheumatology rotations are generally poorly structured and hardly adapted to General Practice reality and needs. This Model aims to present a proposal to structure the family physician internship in Rheumatology. Aims: To optimize Rheumatology internship of family physician residents through re-inforced motivation, efficiency and focus on the real needs of General Practitioners. Another important aim is to improve articulation between different levels of health care and contribute to the dissemination of good practices on rheumatic diseases. Methodology: Both the Family Health Unity and the Rheumatology Department endow the resident with an “ambassador” statute in which he/she not only receives further education, but also promotes and facilitates the communication between those two structures. The Rheumatology Department provides incoming residents with a written description of the plan to be developed during the internship, focusing on the real educational needs of family physicians. Along this internship, the residents will be invited by other doctors of their Family Health Unit to assist in the management of medical cases related to rheumatic diseases. The resident’s mentor in the Rheumatology Department will provide the opportunities to have the cases appropriately discussed and guided. Discussion: We truly believe that this model offers an opportunity to optimize the efficiency of the family physician residency in rheumatology departments, enhancing the trainee’s education, facilitating the resolution of common clinical cases, improving the cooperation between primary and secondary care and disseminating the adoption of good clinical practices.