Luis Capitan, Dean of Medicine at the University of Seville.
Of his last four years, Captain highlights the hard work to create the new university center projectas well as advances in research and updating of regulations along with his entire dean team. “When I took office for the first time, in 2017, the rector commissioned me to make the decision on where we wanted to be. We dedicated an entire year to having an almost permanent Faculty Board, debating and listening to all the interventions to vote on the two location projects. Finally, the Macarena campus came out,” says the dean of Medicine.
Now, the challenge continues with four years to run the project, with a first search for funding, for which the University of Seville has already advanced the possibility of requesting funds from the Andalusian Health Services or even sell some buildings.
What have been the main advances in recent years, apart from infrastructures?
We have come a long way in terms of research. In Seville we have very good researchers but, in terms of faculty, we had done little to stimulate research. So in recent years we have created several awards, recognizing the best publication, the best unfunded idea. We have also created an internationalization and research promotion unit, together with a mentoring service.
The masterpiece of recent years for me has been the simulated hospital on the second floor of the teaching pavilion. It is a facility with 20 stations in which you can simulate consultations, hospitalization rooms… With very few resources we have done a lot.
Another achievement that we have been able to advance in these last four years is the implementation of a Strategic Plan for a new Study Plan. From there, we created a technical group that prepared a study of the general situation of the faculties of Medicine in Spain, a statistical study with surveys of the population of our faculty and, finally, a MIR advisory group. The objective of this last point is to offer a series of strategic lines that would serve to train students before the resident exams.
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“The works are annoying, but all this has a phasing plan planned so that the damage is minimal” |
And as for the new campus?
We start from a situation in which it has taken 20 years to decide where we are going to locate the future campus. Once the location project is approved, we start working in that direction. All the departments have started to work on a Needs Report that was concluded and sent to the General Directorate of Infrastructures.
Finally, this January the rector, together with the director of the university space, the Faculty of Pharmacy and the School of Architecture, have presented the ideas contest, in the case of Medicine this would remain in the current campus with a comprehensive rehabilitation of of the Anatomical Institute and the building of the old Faculty of Medicine and the creation of a new building that would house the research part with a new service area.
Will the works affect teaching in the center?
The infrastructure plan goes in phases to ensure teaching. The works are bothersome, but all this has a phasing plan planned so that the damage is minimal. It is the crucial element that we take into account every time we do a work, that the harm to the students is minimal.
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Luis Capitan took office as Dean of Medicine at the US for the first time in 2017. |
A comparative study of medical schools has been carried out. What results did it show?
The study that was carried out showed that Seville is one of the faculties that most passes the cut-off mark, that is, the students far exceed the average cut-off mark to study Medicine. However, the number of places taken is lower and this is explained by a phenomenon that is almost specific to Seville.
We have an unattractive Family and Community Medicine. Thus, when our students access the MIR and choose Family Medicine, they see that they do not like it and reapply to opt for another specialty. There is a great retraining among students who choose Family and Community Medicine, because this specialty is not very attractive. And it is not up to us to retain these doctors. We must bear in mind that we probably have the best Medicine students in Spain, and this is defended in our cut-off mark, among the highest in Spain.
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“There is a great recycling among students who choose Family and Community Medicine, because this specialty is not very attractive” |
How then can Family Medicine be encouraged among students?
The evidence tells me that our students are the best, with the highest cut-off marks. The problem is that we get few places from other specialties, because many of them consider not choosing a place because they know that in the end they will go to Family Medicine and they don’t want to.
To solve this, Family Medicine must be encouraged, turning it into a more scientific specialty. Let us not forget that doctors are scientists, not bureaucrats or dispensers of documents. We are humanistic scientists that what we must do is a scientific action with our patients and dedicate time to them, and be able to think and investigate about diseases. Our profession is not limited to seeing patients every 10 minutes, we don’t spend 11 years training to be the best and then being a bureaucrat. The profession must be scientifically encouraged, it is not only a matter of money, because I understand that the problem is not economic but rather a problem of professional quality, a scientific problem.
This year the number of students who have applied to the MIR has fallen. For what is this?
More places for residents have been created in recent years and therefore the medical unemployment rate is lower. The residents’ bag is a bag that fills up if there are more places and empties if there are fewer.
It should be noted that an increasing number of doctors is being produced, because in the last four years some 12 private Medicine Faculties have been created. This means that there are more doctors. In Spain, the title of specialist, also that of Family and Community, is mandatory to practice in public health, so no one rejects a position if they have no other option.
What is not needed are more Medicine students, because the ratios that exist are balanced, small adjustments may be needed, but that’s it.
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“There are faculties that have the capacity to train students at a lower cost than creating a new faculty” |
In Andalusia, two public Medicine faculties are going to be added. How does this affect?
Personally, I believe that there are faculties that have the capacity to train students at a lower cost than creating a new faculty. If a reasonable investment were made in other faculties with their professors, it would make more sense.
In Seville, for example, we are the faculty with the highest teaching prestige in all of Spain. Before these new faculties. Where are these teachers going to come from? Is the quality guaranteed? In the case of private companies, the same level of accreditation is not required as in the public one. Right now teachers with an average age of 56 years are being accredited, because the volume of work that must be done makes their accreditation very difficult. To be a professor, for example, the average age is 66 years. And there are cases like the one that recently occurred in which a professor has obtained her accreditation six days before retiring.
Spanish Health suffers from a flight of white coats. How can we encourage doctors who are trained here to stay?
Financing is always the key. The toilets leave because there are better paid job offers. In South Korea they have a very clear vision: all the investment made in R&D&i, and health is within that area, will have an impact on the gross domestic product. And this is a direct rule. Spain is a country of services and one of the services we provide is the health service, so one of the reasons why people come to do tourism here is because they know that we have good health. The better our health is, the better our tourism and our gross domestic product will be. Although we think only of the service sector and not of R&D&i, all the investment made in health will also be an investment in gross domestic product.
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