Global Physicians and Surgeons Congress 2016-11-17 Atlanta, USA

Track 1: Physicians

Physician is a person who is legally qualified to practice medicine.  Doctors are often considered in two main groups: primary care physicians sometimes referred to as generalists and specialists. The term primary care refers to medical fields—usually family medicine, general internal medicine, and general paediatrics that cover the most common health problems.  Concentrate on particular types of illnesses or problems that affect specific tissues or organ systems in the body. These doctors may treat patients with complicated illnesses who are referred to them as specialists.

Track 2: Surgeons

Surgeons are physicians who specialize in the treatment of injury, disease, and deformity through operations. Using a variety of instruments, and with patients under general or local anesthesia, a surgeon corrects physical deformities, repairs bone and tissue after injuries, or performs preventive surgeries on patients with debilitating diseases or disorders. Although a large number perform general surgery, many surgeons choose to specialize in a specific area. One of the most prevalent specialties is orthopedic surgery: the treatment of the skeletal system and associated organs. Others include neurological surgery (treatment of the brain and nervous system), ophthalmology (treatment of the eye), orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology (treatment of the ear, nose, and throat), and plastic or reconstructive surgery. Like primary care and other specialist physicians, surgeons also examine patients, perform and interpret diagnostic tests, and counsel patients on preventive health care.

Track 3: Paediatrics & Child Health

Providing care from birth to early adulthood, pediatricians are concerned with the health of infants, children, and teenagers. They specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of ailments specific to young people and track their patients' growth to adulthood. Like most physicians, pediatricians work with different healthcare workers, such as nurses and other physicians, to assess and treat children with various ailments, such as muscular dystrophy. Most of the work of pediatricians, however, involves treating day-to-day illnesses that are common to children minor injuries, infectious diseases, and immunizations much as a general practitioner treats adults. Some pediatricians specialize in serious medical conditions and pediatric surgery, treating autoimmune disorders or serious chronic ailments.

Track 4: Anaesthesia & Perioperative Medicine

Anesthesiologists focus on the care of surgical patients and pain relief. Like other physicians, they evaluate and treat patients and direct the efforts of those on their staffs. Anesthesiologists confer with other physicians and surgeons about appropriate treatments and procedures before, during, and after operations. These critical specialists are responsible for maintenance of the patient's vital life functions heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure, breathing through continual monitoring and assessment during surgery.

Track 5: Psychiatry & Mental Health

Psychiatrists are the primary caregivers in the area of mental health. They assess and treat mental illnesses through a combination of psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, hospitalization, and medication. Psychotherapy involves regular discussions with patients about their problems; the psychiatrist helps them find solutions through changes in their behavioral patterns, the exploration of their past experiences, and group and family therapy sessions. Psychoanalysis involves long-term psychotherapy and counseling for patients. In many cases, medications are administered to correct chemical imbalances that may be causing emotional problems. Psychiatrists may also administer electroconvulsive therapy to those of their patients who do not respond to, or who cannot take, medications.

Track 6: Neurological Disorders

Neurological disorders are diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system. In other words, the brain, spinal cord, cranial nerves, peripheral nerves, nerve roots, autonomic nervous system, neuromuscular junction, and muscles. These disorders include epilepsy, Alzheimer disease and other dementias, cerebrovascular diseases including stroke, migraine and other headache disorders, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, neuroinfections, brain tumours, traumatic disorders of the nervous system due to head trauma, and neurological disorders as a result of malnutrition. Many bacterial (i.e. Mycobacterial tuberculosis, Neisseria meningitides), viral (i.e. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Enteroviruses, West Nile Virus, Zika), fungal (i.e. Cryptococcus, Aspergillus), and parasitic (i.e. malaria, Chagas) infections can affect the nervous system. Neurological symptoms may occur due to the infection itself, or due to an immune response.

Track 7: Health Sciences Education

Health science refers to a large group of disciplines related to the delivery of health care to humans and animals through the application of science, engineering, mathematics and technology. In other words, it is the field in which knowledge is taken from pure science and other related sources and applied to practical and clinical practices to maintain and improve the health of living beings. The branches of health science are virtually endless, spanning traditional and conventional Western medicine as well as alternative and folk medicine. Broadly defined, it can even include spiritual-based healing processes.

Track 8: Public Health & Family Medicine

Family and public practitioners are often the first point of contact for people seeking health care, acting as the traditional family doctor. They assess and treat a wide range of conditions, ailments, and injuries, from sinus and respiratory infections to broken bones and scrapes. Family and general practitioners typically have a patient base of regular, long-term visitors. Patients with more serious conditions are referred to specialists or other healthcare facilities for more intensive care.

Track 9: Health & Rehabilitation Sciences

Rehabilitation Science is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on human function and disability. Enhancing physical and psychosocial functioning, participation in life situations, and quality of life of people with disabilities and also informing relevant social and health care policy. Rehab centers demonstrate advanced knowledge and productivity in rehabilitation science specific to research, education and service delivery.

Track 10: Surgery

Surgery is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of injury, deformity, and disease by the use of instruments. General surgery is a surgical specialty that focuses on abdominal contents including oesophagus, stomach, small bowel, colon, liver, pancreas, gallbladder and bile ducts, and often the thyroid gland. They also deal with diseases involving the skin, breast, soft tissue, trauma, peripheral vascular surgery and hernias. General surgery is a discipline that requires knowledge of and familiarity with a broad spectrum of diseases that may require surgical treatment. In most areas, the surgeon will be expected to be competent in diagnosing and treating the full spectrum of disease. Operations are being carried out increasingly by minimally invasive techniques that offer patients less pain, better outcomes and shorter postoperative recovery. Virtually every abdominal operation can and has been done by this route. Examples of this are operations for morbid obesity, hernia repair and removal of malignant tumours of the bowel.

Track 11: Integrative Biomedical Sciences

Biomedical scientists focus on how cells, organs and systems function in the human body; an exciting and dynamic area that is highly relevant to the understanding and treatment of human diseases. Biomedical scientists work in healthcare to diagnose disease and evaluate the effectiveness of treatment through the analysis of fluids and tissue samples from patients. They provide the 'engine room' of modern medicine with 70% of diagnoses based on the pathology results provided by laboratory services.

Track 12: Allergy and Clinical Immunology

A misguided reaction to foreign substances by the immune system, the body system of defense against foreign invaders, particularly pathogens (the agents of infection). The allergic reaction is misguided in that these foreign substances are usually harmless. The substances that trigger allergy are called allergen. Examples include pollens, dust mite, molds, danders, and certain foods. People prone to allergies are said to be allergic or atopic. Although allergies can develop at any age, the risk of developing allergies is genetic. It is related to ones family history of allergy. If neither parent is allergic, the chance for allergies is about 15%. If one parent is allergic, the risk increases to 30% and if both are allergic, the risk is greater than 60%

Clinical immunology is the study of diseases caused by disorders of the immune system (failure, aberrant action, and malignant growth of the cellular elements of the system). It also involves diseases of other systems, where immune reactions play a part in the pathology and clinical features. The diseases caused by disorders of the immune system fall into two broad categories: Immunodeficiency, in which parts of the immune system fail to provide an adequate response (examples include chronic granulomatous disease and primary immune diseases); Autoimmunity, in which the immune system attacks its own host's body (examples include systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto's disease and myasthenia gravis).

Track 13: Hereditary Diseases

A genetic disorder is a genetic problem caused by one or more abnormalities in the genome, especially a condition that is present from birth (congenital). Most genetic disorders are quite rare and affect one person in every several thousands or millions. Genetic disorders may be hereditary, passed down from the parents' genes. In other genetic disorders, defects may be caused by new mutations or changes to the DNA. In such cases, the defect will only be passed down if it occurs in the germ line. The same disease, such as some forms of cancer, may be caused by an inherited genetic condition in some people, by new mutations in other people, and mainly by environmental causes in other people. Whether, when and to what extent a person with the genetic defect or abnormality will actually suffer from the disease is almost always affected by the environmental factors and events in the person's development.

Track 14: Diagnosis and Imaging Techniques

Medical imaging and diagnosis encompasses different imaging modalities and processes to image the human body for diagnostic and treatment purposes and therefore plays an important role in initiatives to improve public health for all population groups. Furthermore, medical imaging is frequently justified in the follow-up of a disease already diagnosed and/or treated. Medical imaging especially X-ray based examinations and ultrasonography, is crucial in a variety of medical setting and at all major levels of health care. In public health and preventive medicine as well as in both curative and palliative care, effective decisions depend on correct diagnoses. Though medical/clinical judgment may be sufficient prior to treatment of many conditions, the use of diagnostic imaging services is paramount in confirming, correctly assessing and documenting courses of many diseases as well as in assessing responses to treatment. With improved health care policy and increasing availability of medical equipment, the number of global imaging-based procedures is increasing considerably. Effective, safe, and high quality imaging is important for much medical decision-making and can reduce unnecessary procedures. For example, some surgical interventions can be avoided altogether if simple diagnostic imaging services such as ultrasound.

Track 15: Infectious Diseases

Infectious diseases are disorders caused by organisms — such as bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites. Many organisms live in and on our bodies. They're normally harmless or even helpful, but under certain conditions, some organisms may cause disease. Some infectious diseases can be passed from person to person. Infections are caused by infectious agents including viruses, viroids, prions, bacteria, nematodes such as parasitic roundworms and pinworms, arthropods such as ticks, mites, fleas, and lice, fungi such as ringworm, and other macroparasites such as tapeworms and other helminths. Hosts can fight infections using their immune system. Mammalian hosts react to infections with an innate response, often involving inflammation, followed by an adaptive response. Specific medications used to treat infections include antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, antiprotozoals, and antihelminthics. Infectious diseases resulted in 9.2 million deaths in 2013 (about 17% of all deaths). The branch of medicine that focuses on infections is referred to as infectious disease.

Track 16: Oncology

Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an oncologist. Each of the cells of the body have a tightly regulated system that controls their growth, maturity, reproduction and eventual death. Cancer begins when cells in a part of the body start to grow out of control. There are many kinds of cancer, but they all start because of out-of-control growth of abnormal cells. Medical professionals who practice oncology are called Cancer specialists or oncologists. These oncologists have several specific roles. They help in diagnosis of the cancer, help in staging the cancer and grading the aggressive nature of the cancer.