10th Saxony Summer School General Practice 2025 – "The diversity of general practice"

This year we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Saxony Summer School of General Practice, which took place on September 25 and 26 in Dresden. The motto of the program was "The diversity of general practice". A total of 18 students of human medicine took part.

After a brief introduction of the participants and a welcome by Prof. Antje Bergmann (Head of the School of Medicine), Dr. Bernhard Lüders (Specialist in Paediatrics) pointed out specific features in the treatment of children and adolescents, provided numerous practical tips for visual paediatric diagnoses and discussed medical and social challenges. The important interdisciplinary cooperation between general practitioners and pediatricians was discussed extensively as well.

This was followed by interactive workshops on psychosomatic primary care. Role-playing in various small groups made it possible to practice doctor-patient conversations with subsequent reflection and to shed light on the doctor-patient relationship and psychological phenomena of medical communication (e.g. transference and counter-transference). Among other things, the clinical pictures of functional body disorders, depression and anxiety and panic disorders were discussed.

Finally, the teaching and research physician, Christoph Lohmann (FA for general medicine), focused on the fundamental aspects and diversity of complementary medicine and its roots with regard to the evidence available to us. During an evening exchange with members of the Dresden General Practice Team and the Dresden Competence Center for Continuing Education in General Practice, topics relating to continuing medical education were discussed.

The second day of the Summer School in General Practice began with a lecture and small group work on inefficiencies and gaps in the German healthcare system. The focus here was on general medical research under the guidance of Dr. Karen Voigt (Head of Research). Afterwards, the participants practised clinical examination techniques in workshops and dealt with common causes of consultation, such as leg swelling or dizziness. There was also the opportunity to refresh knowledge about dermatological visual diagnoses and their treatment. At the end of the event, there was an opportunity to ask numerous questions about getting licensed as a GP, setting up a practice, career prospects, work-life balance and opportunities for personal development in general practice. Three general practitioners, Prof. Antje Bergmann, Dr. Yvonne Schulz and Maximilian Viehhäuser, answered the students' questions with numerous insights and practical experiences. Kathleen Gommel(Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Sachsen), Martin Kandzia(Netzwerk Ärzte für Sachsen, SLÄK) and Antje Lecht(Geschäftsstelle Weiterbildungsverbünde, SLÄK) also took part in the open discussion, in particular to highlight special funding and support opportunities.

The 10th Saxony Summer School 2025 was a complete success. We would like to thank our sponsors for the consistently positive feedback and are already looking forward to next year!

Author
Valentin Bergmann
Doctor in further training
School of Medicine at the Medical Faculty of TU Dresden

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