Juana Carretero Gómez, president of the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (SEMI), said in the preface to the Comunicar Salud: “One of the goals of any scientific society is to make medical knowledge more accessible to the public, which It must be a priority.” This sentence perfectly defines the main goal of SEMI’s recently published book, in which professionals describe the 50 most common pathologies in internal medicine so patients can learn to recognize them.
To carry out the project, they considered more than 50 physicians, two of whom belong to the Galician Society of Internal Medicine (Sogami): Drs Cristina Macía and Ismael Said ) doctor. Each is dedicated to writing a chapter of the book, focusing on two different topics: Ismail Saeed’s telemedicine and Dr Masia’s hepatitis.
“The idea was coordinated by some colleagues to act as a link between medicine and patients. We wanted a simple book that would reflect the main conditions that physicians treat”, explains Christina Macia. That’s why, starting with the coordinating group, they started reaching out to all the SEMI professionals who specialize in these diseases and conditions so that they could write down information about them and their symptoms in plain language.
“In the end, we’re so used to explaining these disorders to patients who come into the office that it wasn’t difficult to write the chapters, although it does seem odd to translate this technical language into colloquial language,” he admits. By choosing simple words away from the language of medicine, the aim is to give citizens unimpeded access to information and the ability to recognize certain symptoms so that they have the opportunity to see a doctor as soon as possible if necessary.
“It didn’t cost us a lot of time, because in the end, when every professional is writing about a disease they know about, all the research part is eliminated, and it does consume time,” he explained. The idea is to take our knowledge, so to speak, and translate it into a common language.”
For the project to achieve its goals, it is necessary for people to know about it and know how to get there when they need or are curious. Cristina Macía explains: “The book has no complications and is available as a free download on the SEMI website.” In the end, the sole goal behind each chapter is to help citizens recognize symptoms and illnesses, so reaching people is the most important step one.
Even so, the book seems to conflict with calls by professionals to discourage people from self-diagnosing. As Dr. Macia points out, “We don’t want patients to make a diagnosis, we want them to go to a professional as soon as they notice symptoms that could be serious so they can do their job. The sooner a diagnosis is made and With treatment, the more likely the patient will be cured”, he assures.
In addition, although professionals do not recommend seeking information about symptoms and diseases on sites such as the Internet, people inevitably do. “It’s work that’s recognized by professionals,” he said. Thus, people can be sure that they are accessing real information instead of consulting a blog written by anyone.