Abstract

BARNADAS-MOLINS, A.  and  BANOS, J.E.. Cross-sectional approach in medical education: the example of Oncology. Educ. méd. [online]. 2010, vol.13, n.2, pp.74-78. ISSN 1575-1813.

The development of Medicine throughout the 19th century led to the appearance of medical and surgical specialties, which thus gave rise to a new health care scenario in which the traditional services of medicine and surgery became fragmented. These changes also came about within the field of the teaching of medicine and gave rise to a number of conflicts over the definition of competencies that still exist today. Medical pathology should act as a point of contact and backbone for the other medical specialities, but up until a relatively short time ago too much effort was being made to define the limits of each discipline, something that has not encouraged very fluent communication among the different specialists. Health care for cancer patients requires the commitment and collaboration of the different professionals who are involved in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease, and this in turn calls for fluent dialogue among all of them. The chance to be able to carry out multidisciplinary training for under-graduates that covers aspects related with the integration of the different specialists in order to benefit patients will make it easier to optimise health care resources. The teaching of Oncology at undergraduate level has been shared with other specialties, but up until now it has been paid too little attention. Oncology is a clear example of how teamwork makes it possible to improve the efficiency of health care processes and the way they are implemented. It is to be expected that in the future students will meet less resistance to establishing points of contact and synergy, and that this will result in their acquiring a broader and more positive vision, which they will be able to apply to help their patients.

Keywords : European Higher Education Area; Medical oncology; Teaching medicine; Teaching oncology.

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