[Diagnosis and treatment in general internal medicine. Curriculum selection]

In our country general internists are the providers of adult medical care in urban areas. In the past twenty years, with the increasing subspecialization within internal medicine and the development of advances in technology, the role of the general internist seems to be endangered. Recently much attention has been focused on this area and Divisions and Programs of General Internal Medicine have been established in most medical schools in the USA. The University of Buenos Aires instituted a Program of General Internal Medicine in its major teaching hospital in 1987. One of its purposes was to offer an educational experience to residents in the field of internal medicine primary care. This paper summarizes how this program was carried out and the subjects proposed in the area of Diagnosis and Treatment. The Program of General Internal Medicine is performed in the Outpatient Division and it is staffed by 3 faculty members and 4 fellows. Residents in Internal Medicine have a three month, full-time block rotation in the Program. A young, city dwelling, lower middle class population participates in the Program, with almost 10000 visits a year. The Program offers an experience that includes supervised patient care, an average of 100 office visits a month, and seminars and/or workshops covering topics of "Diagnosis and Treatment", "Case Presentations", "Clinical Epidemiology", "Prevention", and "Doctor-Patient Interview". In the area of Diagnosis and Treatment, the criteria used were: 1-frequency of diagnosis as determined by previous investigations, 2-relevant clinical conditions absent from the frequency list as determined by a consensus process by faculty members.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)