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Honourable Minister for Health
Honourable Dean of the Guild of Physicians
Honourable President of the European Federation of Internal Medicine
Honourable President of the Portuguese Society of Internal Medicine
Honourable Delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am particularly pleased to greet the delegates to this joint Conference of the Portuguese Society and European Federation of Internal Medicine.

The fact that this international Conference is being held in Portugal is, apart from the recognition of the value of the Portuguese internists within a European framework, a relevant contribution for the strengthening and the spreading of knowledge among professional health workers. International cooperation between physicians must be increasingly encouraged, since disease does not recognize the existence of national borders. In the global information society in which we live, knowledge of medicine also tends to achieve a planetary dimension.

Honourable Delegates,

Medical science has enabled the increase in the longevity of the people and, more than just generating a better hope for life, has allowed people a longer life with greater quality.

Internal Medicine is the medical speciality dedicated to the overall prevention, diagnosis and treatment of adult diseases. Internists, due to the scope of their training, are especially qualified to keep a complete track of the sick.

The sick legitimately demand answers to their queries. An internist is expected to provide an opinion on almost everything. The efforts expended by internists in their continuous and permanent training, considering the ever faster progress of medical science, deserves our respect and our recognition.

Internal Medicine has generated great professors of Medicine. Much of the best that exists in Portuguese and European medical science was, and is, the result of work by internists. The European School of Internal Medicine has held courses in Portugal, which well testifies the value attributed to our Country in the areas of performance and medical training.

The holistic view of the treatment of a sick person, including the complaints of the sufferer, is the therapeutic model of the internist. This approach of Internal Medicine contributes towards more effective care and better cost control. The issue of cost management, which assumes extraordinarily relevance in the current health systems, scientifically designed to serve the people, will be one of the main themes under discussion in this Conference.

The broad perspective of health problems which is covered by internists provides them, otherwise, with a prime position to establish continuity between primary and hospital treatment, creating a wider health conserving environment than just that of fighting disease.

Honourable Delegates,

The social role of physicians does not end with the clinical work in hospital wards or consulting rooms. Physicians must not forget their role as instructors of other physicians and as examples of healthy behaviour that people must follow.


The spirit of dedication and of public service that has characterized Portuguese physicians must necessarily be preserved and matured. It is necessary to develop the pre-graduate medical training in order to answer the natural and desirable scientific curiosity of young medical candidates, whilst providing them with a sense of service and humanism of which internists must be the prime example.

Internists, such as family doctors, are typically comprehensive physicians. An internist is characterized by a strong capacity of intellectual resistance, never giving up until the discovery of the diagnosis and the cause of the infirmity. And he must equally be physically resistant, frequently bearing out many sleepless hours and, in the following morning continuing his labours with the same professional attitude as in the previous day. Always near to whoever is in need of him.

Apart from its specific training demands, the medical profession has its own special risks. The risk of erring, increasingly physical risks, tiredness and sadness. But I am certain that the medical profession also provides, probably more than any other, great moments of satisfaction and happiness. The physicians that chose to work in Portugal deserve a merited public recognition. And it is also this recognition that I wanted to impart with my presence here, wishing that the work of this joint conference is a source of professional and personal enrichment for you all, and of benefit to the communities that, throughout Europe, are in need of your care.