The Course in "MEDICINE AND SURGERY" Class LM / 41, integrated with Biomedical Engineering Class L / 8, aims to train expert medical personnel capable of integrating the medical experience of patient management with technologies deriving from bioengineering innovations. This type of training involves all topics of medicine, with particular attention to the prevention and treatment of diseases, rehabilitation, support for aging and the management of health emergencies, through the development of innovative diagnostic-therapeutic approaches, as well as complex technologies of which the surgeon to be trained must be an expert user.
The course differs from other existing courses of the same class (LM / 41 - Medicine and Surgery) as it aims to enhance the typical skills of the professional figure of the Surgeon with basic and applied skills typical of Biomedical Engineering, in order to allow the future doctor not only to be an expert user of modern technologies applied to the various fields of clinical medicine and translational scientific-technological research, but also to be an active collaborator in the conception and design of new and advanced technologies, together with the colleagues of the different engineering sectors. All this aiming at an "innovative medicine" able of exploiting tools and systems with high technological complexity (genomics, bioinformatics, big data, artificial intelligence, remote technologies).
Organization of teaching activities
The proposed training path is organized to combine the expertise of the traditional doctor with the essential ones of the biomedical engineer, offering an integrated path between the Master's Degree Course in Medicine and Surgery (LM / 41) and the Three-year Degree Course in Biomedical Engineering (L / 8).
The achievement of these objectives is enhanced by the establishment of a training course in which the integration between the two areas is guaranteed for all 6 years; in the first 2 years there are basic topics that are already part of the doctor's training but which are also typical of the preparation of a biomedical engineer (mathematics, chemistry, physics), as well as topics closer to the knowledge of engineering but nowadays also indispensable in medicine, such as bioengineering and information processing systems. This effective contamination continues intensely during the third year, in which bioengineering in its various forms continues to combine subjects that characterize the classic course of Medicine and Surgery. From the fourth year, clinical teachings accompanied / integrated by applications of engineering methodologies are introduced, in order to support the resolution of clinical problems and to manage the patients’ data.
Therefore, the first 3 years are aimed to favour the integration between the medical and bioengineering disciplines, while the last 3 years are mainly focused on the clinical training and professionalizing and enabling training activity, which although present in an integrated manner already from the first year, it is then more focused on clinical practice, with particular attention to the possibility of using the integrated approaches learned during the first three years. The interdisciplinary nature of the course is guaranteed by the constant co-presence of topics referred to the Degree Course in Medicine and Surgery and others related to the Degree Course in Biomedical Engineering, as well as by the presence of integrated med/ ng courses and, finally, by a mixed professionalizing activity, with more dedicated segments to medical or engineering disciplines divided into the various temporal steps of the new course of study. It should also be noted that in specific clinical AFPs the presence of an engineering tutor / teacher is also provided to guide the student in the use of specific technologies / devices.
The practical-evaluative internship necessary for the enabling to the medical profession is planned between the fifth and sixth year, after passing the exams scheduled up to the fourth year.
Logistics is also a guarantee of multidisciplinarity; the Course in "Medicine and Surgery" takes place at the Polytechnic University of Marche but, during the first three years, the first semester is mainly carried out at the Faculty of Engineering while the second, mainly dedicated to clinical training, it is carried out at the Faculty of Medicine. The related professional activities follow the same logic; those carried out at the Faculty of Medicine also make use of the simulation equipment present in the teaching spaces of the “Labskill” located at the Eustachian Center of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery.
The second three-year period, while maintaining the integration objective, takes place for almost all of the course within the Faculty of Medicine; this, in particular, to facilitate hospital attendance, which is included in the training network.
The surgeon trained with this new MEDICINE AND SURGERY course, in addition to possess a multidisciplinary and integrated vision of health and disease problems, will also have additional and innovative skills:
1) Strong knowledge of the most advanced medical technologies followed by the skill to design personalized therapeutic approach through combination with multifaceted technological systems.
2) Acquisition of skills necessary to tackle issues of the medicine of the future, such as artificial intelligence in medical research and in the clinic, precision medicine and regenerative medicine.
3) Use of knowledge learned in the biomedical field to provide a clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic evaluation.
4) Optimization of therapeutic results based on the potential of data analysis and machine learning techniques, use of new materials and advanced therapeutic devices such as surgical robots, endoprostheses, bio-printers and 3D printers.
5) Acquisition of skills aimed to improve the doctor-patient relationship, with an education oriented to the community, to the territory and fundamentally to the prevention of disease and the promotion of health, through the acquisition of greater awareness of the considerable potential offered by technologies and from intelligent systems, to evaluate personalized therapies and their more effective monitoring.
The final exam of the MEDICINE AND SURGERY Course, which has an enabling character in accordance with Ministerial Decree 58/2018 and subsequent amendments, consists in the dissertation of an original thesis, under the guidance and responsibility of one or more teachers of the two Faculties (supervisors) and will deal with a topic / project developed following the acquired multidisciplinary approach. The final exam is awarded 7 credits.
The following are an integral part of the training course provided with different didactic methods (for a total of 360 credits):
a) the professionalizing / enabling internship (60 credits), carried out in the didactic / scientific structures of the UNIVPM and in the structures that are part of the training network of the course (Azienda OU Ospedali Riuniti di Ancona and other hospitals and health agencies of the Marche Region, INRCA , general practitioners affiliated with the University in collaboration with the provincial orders of MCeO, public and private companies in the biomedical sector);
b) the elective didactic activities (9 credits), (monographic courses, forums) which, freely chosen by the student, allow the study of supplementary topics to the teachings included in the study plan (both medical and scientific engineering) and the acquisition of knowledge and skills useful for post-graduate training (specialization schools, research doctorates and masters) and for entering the world of work.
c) Knowledge of a foreign language (2 credits)
The course also provides the possibility for students to acquire 30 additional credits from the biomedical engineering area offered as optional courses
The didactic activities can be integrated with stage and internships abroad and voluntary attendance both in clinical and research fields, for the study of particular personal interests.
In addition to the teaching activity, the training course also provides a tutorial support for the student and / or small groups of students; this to promote communication skills, critical reading and reflection, discussion and public speaking, teamwork and facilitate innovation.
In line with the innovative organization that characterizes the nascent course, teaching is also provided by placing the student at the center of the learning project with teachers no longer enclosed in the role of speakers but designer teachers who propose interactive methods such as Research and / or Problem Based Learning, the tutorial system, clinical trigger, decision making and the wide use of seminars and conferences. The teaching method is interactive and multidisciplinary, with the daily integration of basic sciences / clinical disciplines / bioengineering disciplines and clinical involvement of the students, who are oriented towards a correct approach with the patient. The problems of basic, engineering and clinical sciences are organized, even if in different proportions, with a unitary and highly integrated vision.
The course is divided into thematic learning areas:
1) Preclinical area
- fundamental sciences applied to medical studies (Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Statistics)
- general disciplines for the training of doctors;
- structure, function and metabolism of the molecules of biological interest;
- integrated biological functions of human organs, systems and apparatuses;
- general pathology and physiopathology;
- microbiology and parasitology;
- human morphology;
- pharmacology, pharmacogenomics
2) Clinical area
- clinic of medical-surgical specialties;
- pediatric disciplines;
- medical-surgical emergencies;
- medicine and public health and work environments and medico-legal sciences;
- obstetric-gynaecological disciplines, reproductive medicine and medical sexology;
- community medicine;
- medical-surgical clinic of the musculoskeletal system;
- general medical-surgical clinic;
- anatomical-pathological disciplines and clinical anatomical correlations;
- laboratory medicine and integrated diagnostics;
- neurological disciplines;
- medical-surgical clinic of the sense organs;
- radiological and radiotherapy disciplines;
- psychiatric clinic and behavioural disciplines;
- interdisciplinary clinical training and evidence-based medicine;
- medicine of motor activities and well-being;
- humanities, health policies and health management;
- pharmacology, toxicology and principles of medical therapy;
- molecular oncology and personalized therapy
3) Area of bioengineering
- biomechanics;
- industrial, electronic and computer bioengineering;
- information processing systems;
- electronics and electrical engineering;
- mechanics applied to machines;
- telecommunications;
- analysis of signals and bio-images
The specific training objectives of the 3 areas are determined following the ministerial indications (class decrees) and based on the following criteria:
a) Preclinical area:
- relevance of each objective in the framework of human biology;
- propaedeuticity of each objective with respect to specific current or foreseeable clinical issues with particular attention to the component concerning the scientific methodology.
b) Clinical area:
- epidemiological prevalence
- the urgency of intervention
- the possibility of intervention
- of the gravity and didactic exemplarity
Each clinical course will have specific training objectives, and their achievement will be guaranteed by attendance in the relative hospital departments / affiliated health facilities; this frequency will also ensure the development of a correct relationship with the patient.
c) Area of bioengineering:
- ability to make an informed choice of devices for the acquisition of biomedical data and signals and to be able to independently process the obtained data;
- knowledge and use of computer, electronic, robotic, tissue engineering, computational biology and artificial intelligence technologies;
- knowledge and understanding of mathematical and statistical methods and of essential physical and chemical phenomena, with particular attention to engineering applications in the medical / biological sector;
- ability to analytically describe, simulate and analyze systems and signals of medical-biological interest;
- basic knowledge of biomaterials, devices and instrumentation for diagnosis, therapy and rehabilitation;
- knowledge of the organization of health structures and of the problems connected with the management of health information systems.
