Gustavo Gusso's "Textbook of Family and Community Health"

The “Textbook of Family and Community Health” in Portuguese was written by Eminent Brazilian family doctor Gustavo Gusso and José Lopes as well as a host of other contributors. The publisher sends this information.

Brazilian specialists have just been nominated to the Jabuti Award (one of the the main awards of the Brazilian publishing market) due to the launch of the book “Textbook of Family and Community Health” (Artmed, 2012). The book was written by Gustavo Gusso (president of the Brazilian Family and Community Health Society), José Mauro Ceratti Lopes (president of the Family and Community Health Society from Rio Grande do Sul State) with the collaboration of over 380 doctors from all regions in Brazil and some other countries around the world.

The book is divided in two volumes with over two thousand pages each. The first part is all about the principles of this medical specialty, the studies related to it, researches and management in Family and Community Health. The second part of the Textbook is about practical issues that Family and Community doctors face every day. According to Dr Gustavo Gusso, this book is unique about the theme. It highlights the situation of the Family and Community Health and the strategies to improve the performance of the Family and Community doctors in Brazil. “We hope the doctors use this book as a theoretical and practical tool at the practice of Family and Community Health”, explains Dr Gusso.

Dr Carlos Grossmann, preceptor of the Internal Medicine Residency in Family and Community Medicine Program at Conceição Hospital Group and Post-graduated in Internal Medicine at Providence Hospital, Washington (DC), indicates the book as a reference: “All the Brazilian titles about Family and Community Health were not so complete about theory and practice of Family and Community Health. This Textbook is, as I see it, an important advance in the Brazilian medical bibliography”.

Beyond all the topics listed on the book, it’s important to highlight a few of them, such as:
- The main symptoms and problems of the population
- Quaternary prevention
- How to prescribe or "unprescribe" medicines
- How to deal with the patients
- Family and Community Health at specific scenarios (such as slums and countryside); just to list some examples.

The Textbook of Family and Community Health also counts on some articles from doctors of other countries, such as: Barbara Starfield (in memorian), Marc Jamoule, Juan Gérvas, Iona Heath and Trisha Greenhalgh that wrote some chapters especially to the book.