More than 20 young people from Moldova and Germany, medical students and specialists in respiratory and infectious diseases, will take part in an exchange of experience between health institutions of the two states during a four-year period, IPN reports. The REACH-4 Moldova Project, launched by the State University of Medicine and Pharmaceutics “Nicolae Testemitanu” and the University of Lubeck, Germany, is aimed at facilitating multilateral cooperation.

“At the initial stage, we will identify the needs for developing the curriculum of the University of Medicine in two areas that were set as a priority, namely: infectious diseases and respiratory medicine,” pro-rector Olga Cernetski said in the launch of the project.

She added that depending on the identified needs, REACH-4 Moldova will implement modular education elements, including courses focused on problems and courses on infectious diseases and respiratory medicine referring to epidemiology and public health, prevention and diagnosis, etc.

University lecturer Victor Botnaru underlined that the infectious diseases are a very vast and interesting area following the latest discoveries in this field. Regretfully, fewer students choose to specialize in this area because the patients treated by these specialists are mainly socially deprived and suffer from tuberculosis. Moldova faces an increasing shortage of specialists in respiratory diseases and the internships in which the future doctors will be involved in Germany will help them become keen on doing their job.

Victor Botnaru also said the fact that the training in respiratory diseases in Moldova is focused strictly on one field is a mistake. In the EU for example, doctors can cover a wider range of services owing to the curriculum adjusted to the situation in the healthcare system.