I am a keen social dancer and take several ballroom and salsa dancing classes a week. I’ve often wondered whether dancing has any physical health benefits. I get the feeling that dancing is considered more of a socialising tool and a form of artistic expression, rather than a serious type of physical activity. A lot […]
Category: Tiago Villanueva
Tiago Villanueva: Does it matter where you do your medical training?
The standards of both undergraduate and postgraduate medical training vary widely around the world. This partly explains why the medical profession is so fiercely regulated when a doctor wishes to practise in a country different to where they trained. Whether better training necessarily predicts more professional success and competence is a different matter. I don’t […]
Tiago Villanueva: The aftermath of doctors’ industrial action in Portugal
Senior doctors, junior doctors, pregnant doctors, doctors on holiday, and doctors from all around the country protested against the Portuguese government’s healthcare policies last week. The march took part on the 11 July in front of the Ministry of Health in central Lisbon. Over 90% of Portugal’s doctors took part in the two days of […]
Tiago Villanueva: Portugal’s health system in intensive care
Austerity is already asphyxiating Portugal’s health system, and recent developments may soon put it in the intensive care unit. The current state of affairs is so serious that for the first time ever, Portugal’s two medical unions and the Portuguese Medical Association have joined forces to bring forward the first national industrial action supported by […]
Tiago Villanueva: Mass gathering medicine
I won’t have the privilege of attending the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but I recently had the opportunity to attend a meeting with mass gathering medicine experts chaired by David Heymann at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Around 8 million spectators, 300 000 accredited professionals, and 10 500 professional athletes will be […]
Tiago Villanueva: Cutting edge primary care in Denmark
As a locum GP, I tend to have limited contact with the permanent staff of the practices I work in, and I therefore rely almost entirely on myself to look after my professional development (there is currently no revalidation scheme for doctors in Portugal). Once a year I try to visit and shadow a prominent […]
Tiago Villanueva: Austerity eroding Portuguese healthcare
In 1960, Portugal’s infant mortality rate was 77.5 deaths per 1000 live births, which is comparable to that of many Sub Saharan African countries today. In 2010, Portugal’s infant mortality rate was 2.5 deaths per 1000 live births, one of the lowest in Europe and in the world. […]
Tiago Villanueva: An overview of medical employment in Europe
Does the name Grzegorz Chodkowski ring a bell with you? It didn’t with me until recently. Chodkowski is a Polish doctor who has worked in the UK, and who created an organisation called Medpharm Careers, which claims to be “Europe’s largest international medical jobs fair.” He and his staff came to Lisbon on 31 March, […]
Tiago Villanueva: Taking a renewed look at shoulder injuries
I did something very unusual for a GP last weekend, which was to attend a conference on a highly specific topic, namely shoulder injuries. GP’s in Europe usually have a well defined mainstream circuit of national and international conferences, but this event was completely outside my comfort zone. None of the speakers were primary care […]
Tiago Villanueva: Medical mission in the Philippines
I’ve recently returned from a medical mission in the Philippines. Despite the frequency of natural disasters striking the country (typhoons, earthquakes, floods) and the reputation for being an extremely unsafe country, it has an enormous natural appeal to me due to my Filipino roots. I was very eager to go this year since the demands […]