gms | German Medical Science

48. Kongress für Allgemeinmedizin und Familienmedizin

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Allgemeinmedizin und Familienmedizin (DEGAM)

18. - 20.09.2014, Hamburg

Welcome

Dear colleagues and congress participants,

we are delighted to host this year's congress of the scientific society of primary care and family medicine in Hamburg. The main theme this year is "primary care medicine: specialized on the whole human being".

This year's motto addresses the core of our field and the internationally growing awareness of the concept: Generality – a medical approach based on the concrete patient and his/her problems. General practitioners don't work primarily concentrated on organs or methods, but see themselves as specialists for the human being as a whole. With regard to the increasing differentiation and specialization of diagnostics and therapies, it has become quite a task for general practitioners, involved in the comprehensive, long-term care of patients (e.g. chronically ill or multi-morbid patients), to apply these diagnostic/therapeutic measures and/or coordinate their implementation through other disciplines. The general practitioner's main task will remain primary healthcare. This means that general practitioners are a patient's first point of contact, and that they clear up most (ca. 90%) of the reasons for consultation on this level. Furthermore, there is the advantage of being able to simultaneously clear up several reasons for consultation during one patient-physician contact.

The contributions to the 48th congress for primary care and family medicine in Hamburg cover the working general practitioner, as well as primary care medicine in its entirety. Special emphasis is being laid on healthcare research and the manifold clinical challenges of primary health care. The congress also serves as an inter-collegial, inter-professional platform of professional exchange.

Please feel welcome to pleasant, stimulating, and experience-rich days in Germany's most charming metropolis.

Prof. Dr. med. Ferdinand M. Gerlach
DEGAM President

Prof. Dr. med. Martin Scherer
DEGAM Vice-President and Congress President
 

Scientific Program