70th Ordinary Medical Faculty Day: Cooperation instead of competition

70th Ordinary Medical Faculty Day: Cooperation instead of competition

The medical faculty conference has repositioned itself. Together with the Association of University Clinics in Germany, he represents the interests of university medicine. In doing so, he is now increasingly relying on cooperation with non-university partners. This word can well characterize the 70th Ordinary Medical Faculty Day. There are several reasons for this: On the one hand, this year's meeting of the deans of the medical faculties in Germany took place in Leipzig, the city in which the peaceful revolution and political change of 1989 began 20 years ago.
The scientific future lies in cooperation: The University Medical Center sees itself as competent partner of the non-university research institutions. Photo: mauritus images
Second there is change of leadership at the top of the Medical Faculty Conference (MFT). The general meeting said goodbye to the long-standing President, Prof. Dr. med. Gebhard von Jagow, and elected the previous Vice President of the MFT, Prof. Dr. med. Dieter Bitter-Suermann from the Hannover Medical School as his successor. Thirdly, the MFT itself has undergone major restructuring. In the course of the professionalization, which was largely driven by Jagow, in 2008 he merged with the Association of University Clinics in Germany (VUD) to form the umbrella association for German University Medicine. Plea for "internal unity and external cohesion" The earlier competition with the VUD was counterproductive for our common goals, explained Bitter-Suermann in Leipzig. German university medicine has been exposed to tighter financial caps and increased competition for years. This places new demands on decision-making processes, management organization and executives. We have to speak with one voice again and we need internal unity and external cohesion, stressed the new MFT President. The medical faculties are not only looking to join forces within university medicine, but also with competing non-university research institutions. The cooperation with them was one of the main topics of the 70th Ordinary Medical Faculty Day.
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One reason for the desired stronger cooperation is the current health research initiative of the Helmholtz Association (HGF).As part of prospective national cohort, around 200,000 healthy citizens are to be surveyed over period of ten to 20 years from 2012 and the development and progression of chronic diseases will be followed. In this way, clinical pictures should be recognized earlier and treated more effectively. The Medical Faculty Conference welcomes this aim of the study in principle. At the same time, university medicine sees itself as suitable partner for this project: internationally competitive cutting-edge research is being carried out at its facilities despite decreasing resources. And only with it translation from basic research to the patient is possible, according to resolution passed by the 70th Ordinary Faculty Conference. The Medical Faculty Day appealed to politicians to advertise projects on widespread diseases more and more publicly. The non-university institutions and university medicine would have to cooperate in the field of cutting-edge research under the moderation of the Science Council. The aim of all should be an inseparable connection between medical research and medical training at universities. The Faculty Day criticized the fact that the centers of the Helmholtz Association in their efforts to research high-prevalence diseases do not have to compete for public funding like the universities, but are institutionally funded by the federal government. This creates distortion of competition in medical research, complained the Faculty Conference. It cannot be that in future only teaching and patient care will be in the foreground in university medicine. Therefore, the resources for the universities should be increased. The medical faculties received support from the Science Council. The universities must not be reduced to young suppliers, emphasized Thomas May, Secretary General of the Science Council, in Leipzig. A more intensive cooperation between university and non-university research is one of the most important goals of the Excellence Initiative. With the third funding line in particular, the future concepts, the aim was to strengthen the universities as an institution. With the new concepts, the relationship between university and non-university research is fundamentally revised, May explained. They are an approach with which the lamented institutional separation in the German science system can be overcome. For their part, the Helmholtz centers have also shown themselves willing to cooperate. The aim of the Helmholtz Association is to come to long-term associations with university and non-university partners, supported by suitable project measures, emphasized the President of the Helmholtz Association, Prof. Dr. Jrgen Mlynek. He named the planned Helmholtz cohort and projects in the field of neurodegenerative diseases as examples of cooperation. Bologna Process: “Risk to the high level of education” Another focus of this year's Medical Faculty Day was the structuring of teaching and medical training. He clearly voted against the introduction of the tiered Bachelor and Master system in medicine. I shy away from the Bologna Process like the devil shuns holy water, said Prof. Dr. med. Josef Pfeilschifter, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Frankfurt / M. and member of the MFT board. Within the European Union, minimum of six years of basic medical training with 5,500 hours of instruction is required by law. A bachelor's degree as professional qualification is therefore not even possible in medicine, stated Pfeilschifter. In addition, with the implementation of the medical license to practice medicine in 2002, all necessary reforms were introduced with regard to flexibility and crediting of study sections. The existing Directive 2005/36 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council guaranteed unrestricted mobility within Europe. A further reduction in the already very low drop-out rate is also not to be expected through the introduction of graded courses in medicine and dentistry. With lateral entry opportunities, the human medicine degree in Germany even has the best shrinkage balance of all subjects. Current university policy is sick, the dean said to the applause of many of his colleagues. We have to brand the Bologna Process for what it is: irresponsible nonsense. Pfeilschifter received approval from the German Medical Association: The Bologna Process is like Trojan horse in the university landscape, said Prof. Dr. med. Jan Schulze, President of the State Medical Association of Saxony. A fractionation of the study is an absolute mistake for medicine. Concerns about attracting young scientists were also expressed by Prof. Dr. med. Joachim Thiery, Dean of the Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig: If we want to get students excited about research, we have to give them freedom and not wall them up with Bologna. The opinion that Bologna is positive development, however, was represented by the chairman of the university committee of the conference of ministers of education, Dr. Joachim Welz. There would also be clear political resolution for the implementation of the process by 2010, he reminded. Unity of research, clinic and teaching emphasized In further resolution, the Medical Faculty Conference therefore appealed to politicians to ensure that that medical research, teaching and training would not be jeopardized by unsuitable training models.He calls for moratorium of at least five years: the results of the Bologna reform in the other university disciplines and the costs of changeover would have to be carefully examined before any structural changes to medical and dental training are made. The MFT also has little to gain from teaching professor. He thus shares the view of the German University Association (DHV), whose President was invited as guest to the 70th Ordinary Medical Faculty Day. Only teaching that is constantly being renewed from research is university teaching, emphasized the DHV President, Prof. Dr. Bernhard Kempen. Research and teaching should in principle remain on an equal footing. Both organizations support the goal of giving teaching reputation that is equal to that of research. However, they see an undesirable development in the fact that some professorships are teaching twelve to sixteen instead of the eight to nine hours per week that were customary up to now. A research-free teaching quickly developed into sterile teaching, warned Kempen. Future elites will have nothing from professors who can only talk about how others research. Dr. med. Eva Richter-Kuhlmann
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