KNUPP AUGUSTO, Dr Daniel
President - Brazilian Society FM
What work do you do now?
I have been practicing as a GP / family doctor for nearly two decades since I finished residency training. During this period most of my time has been devoted to caring for patients, in the day-to-day business of a primary care service in the city of Belo Horizonte, in the southeastern region of Brazil. This is my hometown and also where I graduated and did my residency training in family and community medicine.
At the moment, I divide my time between clinical practice and activities in the Brazilian Society of Family Medicine and Community Medicine, of which I am the current president. For me, this activity is a great honour and responsibility, because the country needs a lot of family doctors to consolidate its primary care services and its health system. We are still very few, considering the size of our population. It is certainly an activity that demands great dedication, so I just have to give up some other things I would like to do.
Other interesting things you have done?
For many years I have also supervised doctors in residency training in the health centre and I acted as chair of the residency program in family and community medicine of the Belo Horizonte’s city hospital. Teaching is really one of the areas that attracts me, so I hope that soon I will be able to get back to this activity.
In addition, I completed a master's degree in epidemiology, studying the evaluation of primary health care from the perspective of the user. As soon as I can dedicate more time, I intend to start a doctorate. I am particularly interested in the subject of overdiagnosis and the intersection between sociology and epidemiology. That means, how medical practice changes according to its social construct and how the overdiagnosis phenomenon is linked to it.
As well, classification and terminology are other interests, particularly the ICPC. At the moment, I am working with the consortium which is developing the ICPC-3.
What is it like to be a family doctor in Brazil?
I believe that the family doctor, not only in Brazil, is always a restless person, who seeks for his patients, and for society as a whole, something that goes well beyond the diagnosis and treatment of the health conditions of the people who seek him.
This role is even more common in Brazil, because we have a challenge that is linked to the great size of our country, the great inequality in our society and the sociocultural factors of our history that has made social inequality perpetuate for centuries.
Your interests at work and privately
(most privately, in this case, as I’ve already mentioned above some interests at work)
When not at work, I like to spend time with my family. Especially with my wife and my daughter. And the time with my family is not just for leisure - to participate in my daughter's school activities is, for example, something that I consider very important. Whenever I can (and nowadays, much less than a few years ago) I also like to go cycling and mountaineering. The bicycle has been part of my life since childhood. Nowadays, even when there is no time to ride the bike as a sport, I try to commute to work on the bike sometimes. In days gone by, nature photography was also a hobby but one that almost became a profession.