Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

History

On March 5, 1911, the Medical-Surgical Society of Minas Gerais created the School of Medicine in the city of Belo Horizonte, the fourth to be founded in Brazil. It was housed on a stately house in the center of what is the capital of the state of Minas Gerais. In 1927, the institution integrated the University of Minas Gerais, which was made federal in 1949 with three other tertiary schools then existent in Belo Horizonte: the School of Law, the School of Engineering and the Free School of Dentistry, which included the course on Pharmacy.

The class of 1960 inaugurated the present building. The opening lecture was given by President Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, alumnus, benefactor, and from then on, honorary professor. In the 1960s the Medical Residency was made available for graduate students in various specialties. Graduate courses were implemented in 1968, with the creation of the PhD in Ophthalmology.

The 1970s saw a reform in teaching practices. It marked the start of the development of an audacious curriculum that sought to instruct doctors who would be able to recognize and fulfill the demands of the people and their communities, within the standards of the Brazilian public health system in its regional particularities.

Apart from the basic, compulsory courses, this curriculum should offer other courses and internships designed to cater for the individual vocations of students during their undergraduate studies. Students then started to have greater contact with patients and patient care, especially in the public services, partners with the University in the medical education. These privileged working spaces were available not only in Belo Horizonte but also in the rural areas of the state, with the Rural Internship, a pioneering initiative.

From the beginning, when the object of medical attention was the “indigent” person, the School has contributed for the creation of a new social concept – health as a right for all and the duty of the State. This notion of citizenship and the integration of the faculty in the assistance are the paradigm for the a health care directed to persons as individuals, now available at the university hospitals, at the associate health centers, during internships in towns, in the rural areas and in special projects, such as the neonatal screening for congenital diseases, which make the School of Medicine present in all 853 towns in the state of Minas Gerais.

In the last few years, the School of Medicine also witnessed a considerable increase in faculty tenures and titles, leading to the expansion of numerous research projects and publications, always linked to theoretical and practical instruction to students.

The development of the School of Medicine has been constant. The first class to graduate in 1917 consisted of 17 students of medicine; in 1933 there were 70. In 1965, the number of ingresses was fixed at 160. In 1969, under pressure for a greater number of professionals in the market, the number doubled to 320, divided into two biannual ingresses. In 2007, the year of the graduation of the 123rd class, a total of 14,740 doctors have graduated from this school.

On July 1, 1999, the undergraduate course on Speech-Language Therapy and Audiology was created. The first class entered the university in 2000. Starting in 2010, with the creation of courses on Gerontologic Care and on Radiology and Image Diagnostics Technology, the School will graduate professionals able in the care for the elderly and image technicians, answering an increasing social demand on these areas.

The teaching reform in the School of Medicine in the 1970s revealed the necessity of a greater knowledge on the evolution of healthcare through the ages, and led to the creation of the Center for Memory of the School of Medicine – Cememor, open to public visitation upon scheduling.

Medicine

The main aim of the undergraduate course on Medicine in UFMG is the instruction of general physicians that are competent in the areas of Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics, Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, Public Health, and Mental Health. Knowledgeable about these skills and attitudes, the graduate will be a medical doctor able to give quality assistance, acting for the promotion of health, disease prevention, and in the recuperation and rehabilitation of the sick.

The course is divided in four cycles: Basic, from the first to the fourth semester; Propedeutic, composed by the fifth and sixth semesters; Out-patient Ambulatoria, from the seventh to the ninth; and Internships, composed by the last three semesters.

The courses on the Basic Cycle are offered in the Biological Sciences Institute, in the campus situated in Pampulha. From the fifth to the ninth semesters, the courses on clinics are developed with the direct contact between students and patients, in groups of ten students supervised by one faculty member. From the tenth onwards, the students take part in the urgency and emergency services, as well as in hospital inpatient care, always under faculty supervision.

The sites for the practical studies varies: laboratories for basic science; for clinical analysis; and of education technology simulations; outpatient clinics in municipal health centers – in Belo Horizonte and in other towns in the state –, in the university hospitals Hospital das Clínicas (HC) and the Hospital Universitário Risoleta Tolentino Neves; in inpatient units and emergency services in the HC and in the numerous associated hospitals, such as the emergency center Hospital de Pronto Socorro João XXIII.

The Rural Internship, which happens in the eleventh semester of the course, supplements the students’ practical instruction, and has the students acting for three months in municipal services in numerous small towns in the state’s countryside, in rural and urban areas. More than a compulsory course, the Rural Internship is considered by students and as an incomparable professional and human experience.

Every semester, the School of Medicine receives 160 new students, selected by the UFMG unified entrance examinations, adding to a total of 1920 enrolled students. Faculty includes over 400 professors.

The undergraduate course of medicine in the UFMG has been considered the best in the country by the press Editora Abril’s Guide for Students in 2006. It received the maximum grade in the National Exam for the Performance of Students (ENADE) and also in the external evaluation for teaching conditions promoted by the national Ministry of Education.

Speech-Language Therapy and Audiology

The course offered at UFMG proposes a generalist and interdisciplinary formation focused on the scientific and social aspects of Speech-Language Therapy and Audiology. The undergraduate course has the minimum duration of four years and can be concluded in up to 13 semesters. Presently, 50 openings are available each year, divided in biannual ingresses.

The internships start on the fifth semester and include the areas of Speech, Child and Adult Languages, Oral Motion, Child and Adult Audiology, Voice and Public Health. The Speech-Language Therapy and Audiology Outpatient Clinic, where the internships take place in the Hospital das Clínicas facilities, is composed of 11 rooms planned for patient care, which is give free of charge for the population. Six of these rooms have observation panels, where students can observe and learn from their colleagues.

All is supervised by UFMG faculty, which guarantees the students’ safety and the professionalism required to interact with the patients. Faculty includes 42 professors, 19 from the School of Medicine, and 11 speech-language therapists themselves. Apart from the School of Medicine and the Outpatient Clinic, another nine academic units from the University offer Speech-Language Therapy and Audiology courses: the Biological Sciences Institute, the School of Philosophy and Human Sciences, the School of Languages and Arts, the School of Music, the School of Physical Education, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy, the Exact Sciences Institute, the School of Dentistry, the School for Information Sciences, and the Nursing School.

Despite being one of the newest undergraduate courses in UFMG, Speech-Language Therapy and Audiology has stood out for the students’ performance at ENADE. For two consecutive years, 2003 and 2004, our students were ranked first in the Exam’s general classification. In the last edition that evaluated the Speech-Language Therapy and Audiology students, in 2004, the course at UFMG peaked at the maximum grade.

Graduate Courses

The UFMG School of Medicine offers many Graduate Courses stricto sensu and lato sensu with active production and steady expansion, besides Medical Residency in the Hospital das Clínicas.

Stricto sensu

Ever since the creation of the first graduate course in 1968, over a thousand MA theses and about 400 PhD dissertations have been approved at the UFMG School of Medicine. Presently, there are about 420 students enrolled. Graduate courses stricto sensu in the School of Medicine include the following programs, all offered at MA and PhD levels:

Lato sensu

Graduate courses lato sensu include five specializations in the area of Pediatrics; Gastroenterology, Pneumology, Endocrinology, Cardiology, and Adolescent Care. The Department of Preventive and Social Medicine offers many courses on the areas of Public Health, focusing on Health Services Management and Workers’ Health, among others, some of them offered by the Center for the Education in Public Health (Nescon), that also offers specialization courses in the areas of Basic Care and Family Health, and Epidemiology.

Medical Residency

The Medical Residency is a graduate course on the same level as the specialization, developed as a supervised program of in-service instruction, which aims at the development of qualified professionals in specific areas of medicine.

At UFMG it is developed in the Hospital das Clínicas (HC) and in the Hospital Universitário Risoleta Tolentino Neves. The Medical Residency in Family Health is offered in the towns of Belo Horizonte, Tiradentes e Brumadinho. Agreements for extension of the program to other towns are underway.

The Hospital das Clínicas offers 38 programs of Medical Residency, all accredited by the national Ministry of Education. The programs have the minimal duration of two years and maximum of five, depending on the specialty. Another seven Residency programs are available at Hospital Universitário Risoleta Tolentino Neves.

Students are selected by means of an examination promoted by the Medical Residency Coordination (Coreme). Applications can be submitted in October every year, and the exams take place in November and December, on two phases consisted of objective questions on general knowledge of Medicine and the analysis of the students’ curricula.

Extension

The extension programs developed at the UFMG School of Medicine seek to establish educational, cultural, and scientific interactions between University and society. This relation allows the students to elaborate on the praxis of academic knowledge, by means of an interdisciplinary work based on the contact with the Brazilian national and regional realities.

The community, on the other hand, effectively takes part on this process, and can intervene in University actions.

Created in 1976, the UFMG School of Medicine Extension Center offers courses, seminars, conference cycles and other activities for the academic community, for healthcare professionals and for the community at large.

Research and Scientific Production

The research activity in the UFMG School of Medicine goes as far back as the creation of the school, and has become traditional in many areas. In the last few years, the number of lines of research and research groups has increased significantly. An expanding number of undergraduate students are also taking part in research developed as scientific initiation programs.

The School has dozens of laboratories and has important national and international funding partners, including Fapemig, Finep, Capes, CNPq, and the European Union, besides UFMG’s own Office for Research Affairs.

Among the areas that concentrate lines of research developed at the UFMG School of Medicine, we can find Infectious and Parasite Diseases; Medical and Compared Pathology; Epidemiology, Health Service Management and Worker’s Health, Internal Medicine, Gynecology, Fetal Medicine and Obstetrics; Experimental Surgery, Surgery of the Digestive System, and Neurosurgery; Ophthalmology; Neurosciences; Child and Adolescent Health; and Microbiology of the Digestive System.

Faculty and departments

The UFMG School of Medicine is composed of eleven departments and has 411 faculty members. The faculty has 243 (59%) PhD-level professors, 85 (21%) on MA level, and 83 (20%) specialists. In 2006, 51 (12.4%) of these specialists were pursuing better qualifications.

The UFMG School of Medicine faculty take part on intense and complex university activities in teaching, research, extension, and administration. The majority (232 or 56% in 2006) are on an exclusive work regimen for the university and are not to be employed elsewhere. A significant number of professors are employed in the partial regimen, and thus keep their activities in the health systems.

In the past years, there was an intense expansion in the number of books, chapters and articles published in scientific journals, rising from 0.5 per faculty member in 1990 to 1.9 in 2006. The number of projects trebled in the last 16 years, reaching a total of 973 in 2006.

The participation of faculty in events totaled 1,899, and the number of advisees (both in the undergraduate and graduate levels, including medical residency) was 1,692 in 2006, thus reflecting the intense activity of faculty in the areas of teaching, research, and extension.

Life on Campus

With over 15 thousand people on circulation every day, the UFMG Health campus is always on the move. Besides classes and the research and assistance work, a number of activities involve not only students, faculty and employees, but are also open to the community.

Cultural Activities

The academic community at the School of Medicine has always taken part on a variety of cultural initiatives. Among them were writers such as Guimarães Rosa and Pedro Nava. Presently, the Health & Culture program, a partnership with the Nursing School and the Hospital das Clínicas, promotes theatrical, musical, and dance events, as well as movies and exhibitions.

Center for Psycho-pedagogic Support for Students at the School of Medicine - Napem

Created in 2004, the Center for Psycho-pedagogic Support for Students at the School of Medicine (Napem) welcomes medical students that have some kind of emotional problem interfering with their academic life. The Center is a team of qualified professionals who are available every day upon appointment. The Napem also takes part on cultural activities, debates and research on emotional issues that effect the students’ as well as the professionals’ lives. Once a month, a free movie session is open to the public. The screening is followed by commentaries and a debate. Napem is organized in a partnership with the students’ organization Diretório Acadêmico Alfredo Balena (DAAB).

Students’ Organizations

In the School of Medicine we can find active the Diretório Acadêmico Alfredo Balena (DAAB), which represents the medical students, and the DAFono, the entity for the students of Speech- Language Therapy and Audiology.

Medical Sport Union

The Medical Sport Union was created in 1996 to promote the integration of medical students in sports activities. The Union organizes the UFMG School of Medicine participation in the Minas Gerais Intermed, which gathers students from all medical courses statewide in sport matches. The UFMG was the winner for the 14th consecutive year in 2009.

Academic Seminars

Forming doctors who are able to communicate with patients, their peers, and the community is the main objective of the Academic Seminars. In order to prepare for the presentations, the students have to exert their creativity, their research abilities and their public speaking techniques. In organizing the events, they have to work in teams and solve problems, skills that are ever more frequently expected from professionals. The Surgery Academic Seminar was the first to take place in the UFMG, in 1990. Today, there are ten seminars in different areas, and they have established themselves as events that mobilize the students at UFMG and other schools, thus making possible an academic exchange.

Show Medicine

A theatrical comedy, characterized by social criticism and irony, on various themes that include, of course, the medical practice. The Show Medicine is annually organized by the Theatrical Group of Adroit Academics (Grutaa), which includes around 80 amateur artists, all students of the UFMG School of Medicine. They are responsible for the text, costumes, make-up, lighting, and all that is part of the theatrical pieces. Show Medicine was created in 1954 and its activities were only interrupted during the years of the Brazilian Military Dictatorship because of censorship. The Show Medicine has become a tradition, with a record audience in the space Teatro Sesiminas for eleven consecutive years.

Alumni Association

Idealized by Professor Baeta Viana, the Association was founded in 1953 in order to maintain a permanent link between alumni and the School of Medicine. In 1985 the Alumni Room was created and became a dedicated space in the School of Medicine building where monthly meetings are held. Additionally, every year solemn ceremonies take place so as to celebrate 25 and 50 years of graduation, where alumni receive a commemorative diploma.

Program Friends of the Medicine School

The institution makes its responsibility to keep in touch with alumni and retired faculty and employees. The Program Friends of the Medicine School invites them to receive the School Newsletter and to take part in the scientific, cultural and social activities.

Structure

The School of Medicine is located in the UFMG Health campus, on an area of 104,000 m2 in the hospital district in central Belo Horizonte. The School building alone occupies a total of 24,000 m2. Located in it and in the other buildings are dozens of laboratories dedicated to teaching and research and to the extension services, as well as support services such as the library, food hall, bookshop, pharmacy, and banks.

University Hospitals

The Federal University of Minas Gerais keeps two hospitals for the practical instruction of students in the health areas: the Hospital das Clínicas, situated in the Health campus, in the central area of Belo Horizonte, and the Hospital Universitário Risoleta Tolentino Neves, in the northern district Venda Nova. The two hospitals have complementary roles, divided between specialized assistance and emergency services.

The Hospital das Clínicas Compound

Opened in 1928, the Hospital das Clínicas (HC) is a compound which includes the main building – Hospital São Vicente de Paulo – and seven annex buildings designed for outpatient services: Ambulatório Bias Fortes, Anexo Oswaldo Costa, Ambulatório São Vicente, Hospital Borges da Costa, Hospital São Geraldo, the Orestes Diniz Center for Training and Reference in Infectious and Parasite Diseases, and the new Jenny Faria Center for the Care of Elderly and Women, as well as the Interns’ Hall of Residence Anexo Maria Guimarães.

A special unit inside UFMG, the university public hospital houses activities in teaching, research and assistance. It is a reference for the municipal and state health systems in the care of patients with infirmities of medium and high complexity. It monthly provides 25,000 walk-in consultations, with a mean of 1,600 inpatients, 2,000 surgical procedures and 280 births of medium and high complexity.

The HC has gained worldwide renown because of the research done by faculty and students. There are over 450 faculty members, including those from the Schools of Medicine, Nursing and others. The number of students from the School of Medicine with academic activities in the HC account for almost a thousand, and another 670 from other courses are also active in the compound.

Hospital Universitário Risoleta Tolentino Neves

The Hospital Universitário Risoleta Tolentino Neves (HRTN) is managed by the UFMG since June 2006. It is situated in Venda Nova, a northern district of Belo Horizonte,and in the opposite direction of the city’s hospital district. With a mean of 12,000 monthly consultations, it pays significant contribution to the regionalization of healthcare in Belo Horizonte.

Compared to the Hospital das Clínicas, which focuses on medical specialties, the main goal of this new University Hospital is the assistance to trauma and non-trauma emergencies. This unit stands out for the services in Orthopedics, General Surgery, and Internal Medicine, as well as in the areas of Pediatrics, Plastic Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Neurology, Anesthesia, and in the Maternity.

The Hospital has a built area of 22,000 m2. It operates with 272 beds and six surgical rooms, where 400 surgical procedures take place very month. The HRTN has over 150 students from the medicine and Speech-Language Therapy and Audiology courses, as well as ten interns from Medical Residency.

J. Baeta Vianna Library

Located on a building with a total area of 3152 m², distributed onto four floors, the Peripheral Library in the Health campus receives over 100,000 monthly consults. Linked to the UFMG Library System, constituted of 28 units, it is a modern center for information services, with internet access and book check-out, in a total of over 53,000 volumes.

The Library also offers research facilities, normalization and interlibrary loans, as well as training for users, with courses on bibliographical research and on the writing of research papers. The website gives access to over 90 databases with abstracts and articles in various fields, and also to the Capes Portal electronic periodicals, which makes available full-text electronic copies of articles published in approximately 11,000 national and international journals.

Part of the Brazilian Network on Health Sciences Information and the Latin-American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME), the Library is responsible for collecting, keeping, and processing the scientific documentation produced in the state of Minas Gerais, and to feed into the database of the Latin-American Health Sciences-Public Health Literature (LILACS-SP)

Technology

Incorporating technology to teaching, research, extension and administration is an important concern for the UFMG School of Medicine. The Health Technology Center (Cetes) coordinates all activities in this area.

One of its initiatives is the Simulation Laboratory, where, every semester, over 500 students use computers, mannequins, anatomic models, and equipment for the reproduction of procedures such as gynecology exams, cardio-pulmonary resuscitation practices, tracheal intubation, and the administering of medication.

Among the advantages of simulation are the possibility of a more ethic and safe learning, with no risk to the patient, and also the unhindered repetition of procedures to help clarify students’ doubts. The idea is to add tools to the traditional methods of teaching, never losing sight of the irreplaceable gains of interpersonal contact, impossible to simulate.

In the Center for Tele-health (Nutel), information and communication technologies are used as tools for the qualification of health professionals and for the discussion of clinical cases in videoconferences and long distance consultations. It produces courses and teaching materials for distance learning, with resources such as 3D models and video. This pioneering experience, initiated in 2003 in a partnership with the Belo Horizonte Municipal Authorities, contributes to the implementation of the National Tele-health Program, administered by the Ministry of Health, also in partnership with the State of Minas Gerais Health Authority. Nutel also has many international partners, including the European Union.