Applications are now open for the 8th edition of the Integrated Masters in Medicine at the University of Algarve

Ricardo Albuquerque, who joined MIM after finishing his degree in Radiology in 2008, starting straight away, considers PBL to be his favorite learning method. “This model has largely surpassed my expectations, however, it does not seem to me to be anything less laborious than the so-called 'classic' method, so well rooted in Portugal”.

Another very important factor for Ricardo Albuquerque is the background of each student: “every day we learn from the professional experiences of our colleagues (nursing, research, health technologies, engineering, etc.), which greatly enriches the our ultimate knowledge acquisition experience”.

"Treating the part and not the whole was not entirely satisfying." Therefore, Joana Veloso Gomes, a 4th grade student, who was already practicing her profession, decided that it was not enough to be a psychologist, she wanted to be a doctor. “The interest and curiosity for Medicine grew throughout my professional career, I would like to be a psychologist but I felt limited in terms of the possibility of responding to the needs of patients”, she explains.

Joana also chooses PBL as the strength of this course. “We learned to study independently, 'guided' by our 'commander' – the tutor – and to work as a team, with our colleagues.” Another important component focuses on the discussion of clinical cases, once a week, which “addresses the various areas of knowledge, such as physiology, clinic, pharmacology, anatomy, and allows us to base our study on a real case, favoring our motivation to find answers to the problems that were raised in our group's discussion”.

Joana also highlights the contact with patients as early as the 1st year, as they accompany users in consultations at health centers, as a facilitator of the practical application of the knowledge they acquire during training.

On balance, MIM students defend that, more than a personal challenge, this course should be understood as a social challenge.

For his part, the rector António Branco, in a recent interview with Sul Informação and to Rádio Universitária do Algarve, was also very satisfied with the quality of this innovative Integrated Masters in Medicine, which the University of Algarve began to teach in 2009. «There are graduates who are already in the Algarve practicing. What doctors I've been talking to tell me is that they don't notice, from the point of view of what is essential, any difference between our medical graduates and those trained in the traditional way. On the contrary, I have heard doctors say that there is an advantage that they notice: it seems that our graduates pay more attention to the patient, which was one of the goals of this type of training. That goal seems to be being achieved».

António Branco added that “the course was recently evaluated by an independent commission, chaired by a Portuguese researcher, Professor António Coutinho, where all the others were foreigners, who paid a compliment that even surprised me. What they left in the report, which was then sent to the agency that believes the courses, is that the course already has exceptional qualities and that there is potential to emerge there that could make it a very recognized course internationally and at the level of the best that is done in the world. This has not yet been achieved, but there is a path that is being taken if we manage to continue to maintain the level of quality and funding».

In addition to the quality of the course, over the next year of 2016 the classes will move to the new medicine building, on the Campus de Gambelas, in Faro.