/library/oar/handle/123456789/37094 Mon, 22 Dec 2025 03:35:36 GMT 2025-12-22T03:35:36Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/21521 Title: Improving chronic illness care : the chronic care model Authors: Saliba, Mario Abstract: More than 100,000 Maltese, almost 25 per cent of the population (N50 Census, 2005) live with a chronic condition and many have multiple conditions (H.l.5. Malta, 2003). Chronic illness has been defined as a long- term or permanent illness that often results in some type of disability and which may require a person to seek help with various activities Wagner (1998). Very broadly this includes any condition that requires ongoing activities in response to patients and their personal needs and in response of their health care givers as well as in response of the medical care system. 50 this includes the more traditional conditions such as physical chronic illness like diabetes, hypertenson and heart disease but it also includes chronic mental disorders, like major depression, it includes behavioural disorders like attention deficit disorders in children, some applying this to things like addiction, or harmful behaviours like cigarette smoking. Research abroad (Wagner et al. , 2004) shows that not only a large percent of the population have a chronic condition but these people tend to have more than one chronic condition sometimes two, three, four or even more. It is these persons with multiple chronic conditions that consume that most amount of the health care budget money which includes both community care and hospital care. 50 this substanial group of the total population is very important both from the economical aspect and from the clinical aspect. To properly meet the health care needs of these persons we cannot speak any longer about disease management but about patient-centred care. Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/21521 2010-12-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/21518 Title: Epigenetics and its medical repercussions Authors: Grech, Alfred; Baldacchino, Sandra; Tufignio, Marcel Abstract: Inhentable traits are not only encoded in the sequence of DNA, but also determined by factors 'on top' of the DNA, the epigenetic information ('epi' is classical Greeh for 'on top') 1. Epigenetics is the study of those mechanisms that control gene expression which are independent of the DNA sequence itself. Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/21518 2010-12-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/21517 Title: The curriculum for specialist training in family medicine : quo vadis? Authors: Sammut, Daniel; Falzon Camilleri, Alessandra Abstract: In Malta, Specialist Training in Family Medicine was launched on the 9th July 2007 with the first 11 trainees. It was the first training programme to be launched locally from amongst other medical specialties. The Specialist Training Programme in Family Medicine document that was approved by the Specialist accreditation Committee (SAC) on 9th November 2006 contains many elements of a curriculum (and a sound foundation for it) but lacks details about certain aspects, e.g. content and its organization; teaching resources and strategies. Regrettably, a curriculum was not available to guide this training programme at its outset. To redress this situation, the MCFD set up a Curriculum Board in May 2008. The Curriculum Board was requested to carry out a Needs Assessment and design a Curriculum that would provide a detailed framework for the Specialist 1Taining Programme in Family Medicine. The Curriculum was to guide the first cohort of trainees, who would sit for their summative examination at the end ofthe3 year programme inJuly 2010. Projected time frames for finalising the curriculum targeted May 2010 as its completion date. At the same time, the MCFD also set up an Assessment Board to develop a Summative Assessment for this cohort of trainees. The Curriculum Board was made up of the two authors as members. Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/21517 2010-12-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/21516 Title: Spirituality in general practice Authors: Bugeja, Anton Abstract: In a pluraIist and secular society, as well as in a medical world which is becoming increasingly evidence-based, making a case for consideration of spirituaIity in general practice may seem futile and irrelevant. Notwithstanding such an apparent paradoxical proposal, developments occurring in other specialties 1 as well as in general practice abroad reveal that it is high time that this theme is addressed academically and impIications appIied in local practice. Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/21516 2010-12-01T00:00:00Z