A corpus of Middle English medical prologues in the Sloane Collection of The British Libray: an introduction to the genre in prose

[ES] Esta tesis trata sobre los prólogos a textos ingleses de carácter médico escritos o copiados en forma de prosa durante el siglo XV. En este trabajo se han contemplado dos objetivos generales: por un lado, la creación de un corpus con todos los prólogos inéditos que cumplen con estos criterios y que se encuentran en la colección de Sloana en la British Library de Londres, según Voigts & Kurtz: Scientific an Medical Writtings in Old and Middle English: An Electronic Reference (2000); y por otro, la presentación de estod prólogos como conjunto, incluyendo: los datos recopilados sobre la codicología de los manuscritos, afiliación de los textos, sus fuentes y el dialecto utilizado. Asimismo, como parte de esta presentación, se aporta un análisis original de la estructura, forma y contenido de los materiales seleccionados para el estudio. El propósito de esta tesis es llenar un hueco en la literatura académica acerca de los prólogos a textos médicos escritos en inglés medieval tardío, tal y como lo señala Voigts (1982:54)

Forecasting the need for medical specialists in Spain: application of a system dynamics model

[EN] Background: Spain has gone from a surplus to a shortage of medical doctors in very few years. Medium and long-term planning for health professionals has become a high priority for health authorities. Methods: We created a supply and demand/need simulation model for 43 medical specialties using system dynamics. The model includes demographic, education and labour market variables. Several scenarios were defined. Variables controllable by health planners can be set as parameters to simulate different scenarios. The model calculates the supply and the deficit or surplus. Experts set the ratio of specialists needed per 1000 inhabitants with a Delphi method. Results: In the scenario of the baseline model with moderate population growth, the deficit of medical specialists will grow from 2% at present (2800 specialists) to 14.3% in 2025 (almost 21 000). The specialties with the greatest medium-term shortages are Anesthesiology, Orthopedic and Traumatic Surgery, Pediatric Surgery, Plastic Aesthetic and Reparatory Surgery, Family and Community Medicine, Pediatrics, Radiology, and Urology. Conclusions: The model suggests the need to increase the number of students admitted to medical school. Training itineraries should be redesigned to facilitate mobility among specialties. In the meantime, the need to make more flexible the supply in the short term is being filled by the immigration of physicians from new members of the European Union and from Latin America.