The medical field is updating and changing continuously, so permanent seeking of knowledge is essential for the medical staff: doctors as well as nurses.

In this context, two years ago, we started designing a teaching and training program for Romanian physicians working in the field of infectious diseases, microbiology, epidemiology, molecular diagnosis, with the aim of training a total of 225 physicians, from different areas of Romania, such as: Bucharest, Covasna, Brașov, Mureș, Alba, Constanța, Dâmbovița, Iași, Bacău, Vaslui, Cluj, Gorj, Dolj, Timiș and Arad, and 715 nurses from the same geographical area.

After the review process was completed, in December 2017 the project proposal for the Operational Programme Human Capital (POCU) SMIS code 108129 received the final approval for funding, and in March 2019 we initiated the continuing medical education (CME) lectures series for physicians, in total 27 in two years.

The full course includes 5 four-day lectures in major topics and one five-day clinical preceptorship in the genetic and molecular diagnosis laboratory of the National Institute for Infectious Diseases "Prof. Dr. Matei Balș”, genetic and molecular laboratory, a state-of-the-art lab equipped with the latest technologies in the field of infectious diseases diagnosis.

The five major lectures cover the following interdisciplinary topics: 1) Pre- and post- exposure prophylaxis for infectious diseases agents; 2) Emergencies in infectious diseases; 3) Biorisk management in rare diseases (Ebola); 4) Standard for monitoring treatment with DAAs in patients with chronic hepatitis C and liver cirrhosis; 5) Rapid molecular diagnosis of transmissible infections.

The project implementation also features continuing education courses for nurses, national conferences, and participation to scientific events and courses, among other important activities.

We are quite confident that continuous and sustained medical training will ensure an increase in the level of knowledge of the medical team and an improvement in the quality of the medical care provided.