[Family and community medicine: The most chosen specialty in the MIR]. / Medicina familiar y comunitaria: la especialidad más elegida en el MIR.

Family and Community Medicine is the most offered and chosen specialty in the MIR (Spanish medical residency examination), however, every year its attractiveness is questioned due to not all offered positions being filled and a certain number of resident doctors deciding not to continue in this specialty once started. In this context, some of the proposals to address the problem focus on increasing the supply when the facts show that the challenge lies in addressing the demand by making the specialty and its professional scope more attractive. The problem and its determinants are analyzed in this context by focusing on four elements that may be influencing it: the vocational aspects of medical graduates who pursue specialization, the characteristics of the specialty program and the teaching units where training is carried out, the presence of family medicine in the university as a key element for knowledge and affinity to this specialty from undergraduate studies, and finally, the situation of primary care as the space where training is materialized and the priority setting for the professional practice of future specialists.

[The new program of the Family and Community Medicine specialty: An opportunity not to be missed]. / El nuevo programa de la especialidad de medicina familiar y comunitaria: una oportunidad que no se debe perder.

The training program for the Family and Community Medicine specialty (MFyC), which has been in effect since 2005, is currently undergoing a review and update process. This article proposes contributions to deepen the specific contents of the specialty in order to guide towards a more significant competency development. To carry out values-oriented training, it is suggested to deploy the values function and promote the creation of care spaces where the daily experience of those values is possible. It is proposed to establish a scale of values where the two essential values of the family physician are, in this order, a commitment to the individual person, and a commitment to the group of people under their care. Additionally, it is proposed to reorganize the competency map around five competency integrators or meta-competencies: patient-centered clinical method, population-based clinical governance, primary care oriented to the community, health promotion or community health based on assets, and research in the family and community field.

Multicomponent, high-intensity, and patient-centered care intervention for complex patients in transitional care: SPICA program.

Multimorbidity is increasingly present in our environment. Besides, this is accompanied by a deterioration of social and environmental conditions and affects the self-care ability and access to health resources, worsening health outcomes and determining a greater complexity of care. Different multidisciplinary and multicomponent programs have been proposed for the care of complex patients around hospital discharge, and patient-centered coordination models may lead to better results than the traditional ones for this type of patient. However, programs with these characteristics have not been systematically implemented in our country, despite the positive results obtained. Hospital Universitario de Canarias cares for patients from the northern area of Tenerife and La Palma, Spain. In this hospital, a multicomponent and high-intensity care program is carried out by a multidisciplinary team (made up of family doctors and nurses together with social workers) with complex patients in the transition of care (SPICA program). The aim of this program is to guarantee social and family reintegration and improve the continuity of primary healthcare for discharged patients, following the patient-centered clinical method. Implementing multidisciplinary and high-intensity programs would improve clinical outcomes and would be cost-effective. This kind of program is directly related to the current clinical governance directions. In addition, as the SPICA program is integrated into a Family and Community Care Teaching Unit for the training of both specialist doctors and specialist nurses, it becomes a place where the specific methodology of those specialties can be carried out in transitional care. During these 22 years of implementation, its continuous quality management system has allowed it to generate an important learning curve and incorporate constant improvements in its work processes and procedures. Currently, research projects are planned to reevaluate the effectiveness of individualized care plans and the cost-effectiveness of the program.

Interventions to reduce hospital readmissions in the elderly: in-hospital or home care. A systematic review.

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Unplanned hospital readmissions of elderly people represent an increasing burden on health care systems. This burden could theoretically be reduced by adequate preventive interventions, although there is uncertainty about the effectiveness of different types of interventions. The objective of this systematic review was to identify interventions that effectively reduce the risk of hospital readmissions in patients of 75 years and older, and to assess the role of home follow-up. METHODS: We searched studies in MEDLINE, CINAHL, CENTRAL and seven other electronic databases up to October 2007, and we updated the MEDLINE search in October 2009. Clinical trials (randomized or controlled) evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention aimed at reducing readmissions in elderly patients were selected. Quality was assessed using the SIGN tool and the information extracted is presented in text and tables. RESULTS: Thirty-two clinical trials were included and they were divided into two groups: in-hospital interventions (17 studies) and interventions with home follow-up (15 studies). A positive effect of the intervention evaluated on the readmission outcome was found in three studies from the first group and in seven from the second group. CONCLUSIONS: Most of the interventions evaluated did not have any effect on the readmission of elderly patients. However, those interventions that included home care components seem to be more likely to reduce readmissions in the elderly.