Internal Medicine and Ambulatory Care, Prevention and Cardiovascular Recovery

The medical polyclinic education was created in the Institute of Medicine in Timișoara in the academic year 1966/1967, on the initiative of Prof. Luca Stanciu, initially taking place in three medical offices and a lecture room in Polyclinic no.3. The teaching process was focused on the training of general practitioners and their training for the pre-hospital medical emergency profile. Since 1974 the new location of the discipline became the ASCAR Clinic, and in 1992 the discipline took over the material base of the “Boicil” Centre and transformed it, on the initiative of Prof. Ioan Branea, PhD, into the Preventive and Recovery Cardiology Clinic, which later became part of the structure of the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Timișoara. The scientific research areas focused on priority topics in the field of cardiology: non-invasive cardiovascular explorations, cardiomyopathies, individualization of physical treatment in the recovery program of cardiovascular diseases. The scientific research work has been translated into treatises, monographs, published studies and three international awards.
Since 2000, Prof. Silvia Mancaș has adopted a flexible, modular structure of the discipline with the aim of concentrating the notions necessary to prepare the future graduate for ambulatory medical practice. The teaching activity was diversified with courses, internships for the students of year VI General Medicine in Romanian and English and of years II and III General Nursing. Postgraduate education for residents in internal medicine, continuing medical education courses and doctoral education were also introduced. Scientific research has gained depth in highly topical areas of modern cardiology: the study of cardiovascular risk, the study of endothelial dysfunction, ergospirometry in the study of exercise adaptation of patients with coronary revascularization procedures and cardiovascular surgery.
Since 2018, Prof. Simona Dragan has been in charge of the discipline. The discipline is currently constituted by a team of teachers with multiple specialties, combining practical activity and scientific research at European standards. The teaching is dynamic, student-centered and addresses through case presentations and attitudinal protocols the most common clinical situations in outpatient internal medicine. Emergency medical internships are conducted on resuscitation manikins and complex clinical situation simulators in the Skills Centre. For internal medicine residents, lectures and interactive workshops are organized. The research, extended also in the field of integrative medicine, includes interesting and current topics: the effects of herbal extracts on endothelial function, the benefits of functional foods and nutritional supplements in heart failure and metabolic syndrome and is carried out in an interdisciplinary team with the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Banat University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine. Members of the discipline organize the activities of the master programs cardiopulmonary prevention and community nutrition.