Despite remarkable international differences, most European health care systems rely
on a primary care, a secondary care and more specialized or tertiary institutions,
which often focus mainly on one organ or system. Nonetheless, the continuous increase
of chronic comorbidities that is secondary to ageing of the general population, imposes
a global treatment approach, which goes far beyond the highly specialized management
of a single acute, or acutely decompensated, index condition. In this evolving epidemiologic
scenario, a general Internist working in academic, highly specialized settings, may
valuably contribute to improve the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a focused,
single specialty approach [
[1]
]. Indeed, since such a specialized approach is deemed unable to address comprehensive
care [
- Tanriover M.D.
- Rigby S.
- van Hulsteijn L.H.
- Ferreira F.
- Oliveira N.
- Schumm-Draeger P.M.
- Weidanz F.
- Kramer M.H.
Working group on professional issues, European federation of internal medicine (EFIM).
What is the role of general internists in the tertiary or academic setting?.
Eur J Intern Med. 2015; 26 (Jan): 9-11
[2]
], many practice guidelines highlight that a multidisciplinary team can improve patient
outcomes in several specialized contexts [
[3]
,
[4]
].Keywords
Abbreviations:
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References
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 05, 2022
Accepted:
May 16,
2022
Received:
May 11,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
