Over the last few years, people have been increasingly encouraged to participate in the decision-making process regarding their health.

Family physicians are particularly in a good position to place an emphasis on health rather than on disease, because of the specific features of our trade.

Citizens look up to doctors as a respected and trustworthy source from where they obtain health information. This suggests that the advice provided by the family physician may have a greater impact than advice provided through other means. The effectiveness of the family physician’s role of educator depends, however, of the physician’s ability to communicate and to manage to help the patient help him/herself, as it is ultimately the individual’s responsibility to adopt healthy lifestyles.

Changes in culture and in the practice of medicine have been introducing changes in the doctor-patient relationship.

In this post-modern world, in which all perspectives are potentially refutable, which acknowledges the existence of multiple agendas, and in which there is a varied proliferation of an enormous amount of information of a widely differing quality, family physicians are currently facing up the challenge to understand that the time of the paternalistic approach is gone. Furthermore, we family physicians also need to understand that they need to adopt a new and multifaceted role in problem resolution, of guides in the interpretation of symptoms, of facilitators of information retrieval, and whenever appropriate, facilitators of decision and preference making, during our sessions, which have become a complex span of time.

The generic theme of our second virtual congress of General Practice/Family Medicine - “eHealth – empowering towards operational knowledge” – is an excellent motto for family medicine to engage in a global debate concerning the complex world of family medicine and to learn from each other, thus benefitting the citizen.

A persistent effort for the sake of Continuing Professional Development and the professional excellence of family physicians have always been a core and constant concern of the activity of the Portuguese Association of General Practitioners, as well as a priority and one of its main tasks.

We’re very committed to ensure that this second virtual congress of General Practice/Family Medicine turns out to be a contribution for the professional excellence of family physicians all around the world.