This paper relates an educational experience, whose goal was to offer community-integrated qualification in the field of medical genetics to students of the Barão de Mauá Medical School, Ribeirão Preto, State of São Paulo, Brazil. For this purpose, a medical genetics clinic was established in 2005 at the Associação de Pais e Amigos dos Excepcionais - Apae (Association of Parents and Friends of Handicapped Children) as part of the course of Collective Health and Family and Community Medicine. Since then, the sixth year medical students have evaluated 140 patients, establishing their degree of intellectual disability, the etiology of the mental deficiency, and offered genetic counseling to the families under the guidance of their teachers. The diversification of the learning-teaching scenario brought the students closer to the patients and to the reality of the community. Moreover, the students could assimilate some theoretical bases of medical genetics by experiencing its implications in the clinical practice, turning the learning experience significant. The authors hope that this experience will contribute to qualify doctors better prepared in medical genetics and collective health and ready for working in an integrated and integrative manner with the community.
Education, medical; Genetics, medical; Teaching care integration services