Europe 5-Star Doctor 2012: Dr Miguel Román Rodríguez

WONCA Europe is proud to announce Dr Miguel Román, of Spain as the winner of the WONCA Europe Award of Excellence in Health Care: The 5-Star Doctor 2012.

WONCA Europe received five nominations for the 2012  Award: Dr Ilkka Kunnamo, Finland; Dr Egidi Gunther, Germany; Dr Mihaela Carmaciu, UK; Dr Brian Malcolm, UK; and Dr Miguel Román, Spain. All the candidates are congratulated on the high standard of Family Medicine they practice.

Dr Miguel Román Rodríguez

Dr Miguel Román Rodríguez

Dr Miguel Román was nominated by the International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG). He has led the work to develop a virtual community of practice for respiratory care and has been committed to finding ways to extend the knowledge and experience to frontline general practice and primary. He was instrumental in building an effective working relationship between WONCA Europe and the IPCRG, the Special Interest Group (respiratory). He has personally led the team offering respiratory education at the last two WONCA Europe conferences and will do so again in 2012. He has also supported closer working at national level between colleges of general practice and the IPCRG country members.

IPCRG activities

Dr Miguel Román has worked hard to ensure the IPCRG is useful to as many clinicians as possible by championing the need for translation. The IPCRG’s peer-reviewed journal already publishes editorials in Spanish, and will shortly start publishing four articles every edition in Spanish and Portuguese. At the IPCRG Edinburgh conference in April 2012, plans were made to be webcasting a Spanish session for Spanish clinicians who cannot travel to the meeting and interpreting it into English for those in Edinburgh. Due to his inclusive attitude this Spanish session was to be extended to colleagues in Chile and Argentina.

A committed GP

However, Dr Miguel Román is first and foremost a hugely committed GP serving his patient population of Palma de Majorca. He is an outstanding doctor who is an advocate of patient centered medicine. No matter what other business imperatives exist, he always thinks of his patients, and puts them first. He wraps his commitment as president of an international organization around his commitment to his patients. Any one of his patients would testify to his compassionate, warm and intelligent approach to their problems. He has a gift for metaphor and humor to help communicate and achieves that not only with his patients but also his peers in Europe and further afield in Chile, Argentina, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam and Sri Lanka for example.

Dr Miguel Román is responsible for the minor surgery programme in his center, participates in teaching and research and is committed to the Balearic national health system that requires achievement of health indicators, outcomes and limits on  pharmacological expenditure.

Impact on regional and local development of services

Dr Miguel Román works successfully at many geographical levels: his practice; his local community and the emergency room at his local hospital; IBSalut (Balearic Health System) – where he has led the implementation of “Historia de salud” a new information system to improve integrated care for patients with chronic disease. Thanks to his effort and hard work all the health centers in the Balearic Island have their own spirometer.

At the national level in Spain, Dr Miguel Román co-founded the Spanish Society of Family Medicine –semFYC- Respiratory group and was the international representative of GRAP, the primary care respiratory group of Spain that now has 115 members. Globally, he has led the International Primary Care Respiratory Group.

Academic activities

Miguel is on the Editorial Board of the Primary Care Respiratory Journal; his research interests include the early diagnosis and treatment of respiratory diseases and the development of informatics tools to improve chronic patients’ shared management. Currently, he is exploring the usefulness and efficiency of using home polygraphy for the assessment and initial management of sleep apnoea.

The 2012 WONCA Europe 5-Star Doctor Award will be presented at the WONCA Europe Vienna conference in July, 4 – 7.