DEZ ANOS DE EXPERIÊNCIA COM UM CURSO DE IMUNOLOGIA CLÍNICA NA GRADUAÇÃO EM MEDICINA

The authors describe their experience in teaching Clinical Immunology for medical students in the School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto during the past ten years. They critically analyse the place of Clinical Immunology as a medical speciality, its relationship to other courses of the medical curriculum, the activities and evaluation criteria of the course and, finally, the opinions of the students about the course, collected during the past four years. They conclude that the organization of a group of clinical immunologists in an University Hospital has several advantages for research, teaching and medical care of patients with immunological diseases. One of the most important consequences is the introduction of the systematic study of these diseases for the medical students during a course of Clinical Immunology. The course should be focused on the principles of diagnosis and treatment of immunological diseases, based mainly on practical activities and reavaluated continuosly by students and teachers, and modified when appropriate.