The Finnish Medical Convention

In 2023 the theme in focus at the Finnish Medical Convention is Strength from struggle. Through this lens we will look at life in a time of war and after the health and social services reform. We will examine various challenges at both the individual and the collective level in a landscape characterized by a post-pandemic treatment deficit and scant financing of education and other resources. We will cast our eye at various phenomena such as increasing mental health disorders, war time trauma, first response medical care and more administrative issues.

As the new wellbeing services counties begin their work in 2023 many doctors have a new employer, but what else has changed? Where do we see success and which issues still need to be addressed? These and other questions will be discussed in e.g. the Spotlight debate with wellbeing services counties’ leaders.

We will seek to identify answers to how physicians can maintain their wellbeing and working capacity as well as discuss the best ways to engage with social media both ethically and safely. We will talk about the optimal ways of encountering threatening patients and whether we can keep our minds sharp and hearts warm when unexpected situations arise and we have to deal with a shortage in personnel. And how can we best overcome an adverse event or error?

We will also examine tools for supporting and empowering patients at risk of sliding towards disability pension and identify ways of supporting young adult patients with cancer. We will learn about how to identify a child who has experienced violence. The courses offered at the Finnish Medial Convention will provide perspectives and answers to these and many other questions.

We are also pleased to offer courses for honing clinical skills. One key consideration in the treatment of illness and disease is what should be treated in primary health care and what requires a referral to specialized medical care. Tools to assist in decisionmaking are studied in the light of different example cases.

We have again scheduled in some ten small group courses which were not organized during the COVID-19 years. In 2023 the course on orthopedic clinical examination methods is organized for the last time at Töölö hospital. New courses include e.g. wound care, in which we look at check lists to pinpoint the causes and origins of wounds as well as the range of treatment options using a multidisciplinary approach.

The online courses cover topics such as tuberculosis in Finland, who are the patients and what is the treatment. We will chart the best narrow-spectrum antibiotics for outpatient care and the appropriate lengths of antibiotic therapy. On Friday we turn our eyes to the recognition and means of slowing down the progression of chronic kidney disease. For those working in the private sector we offer a customized online course on private practice after the revisions to social and health care legislation.

Welcome to learn and participate!