Sophie GILLAIN
Awakening students' minds to holistic care and multidisciplinary work : two elements that are the foundation of daily clinical activity.
Sophie GILLAIN, Associate Professor in Geriatrics. Picture: ©CHU Liège.
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"Liégeoise de naissance et de cœur", Sophie Gillain studied medicine at the University of Liège and continued her training with a master's degree in Geriatrics including three years of training in internal medicine (including an assistant in oncology, emergency and pneumology) and three years of training in geriatrics (combined with additional training in neurology). From 2009 to 2014, she mainly worked in the clinical activities of the Geriatrics Department. From 2014 to 2018, she benefited from a doctoral position funded by the Fund for Scientific Research – FNRS while being hosted by the Cyclotron Research Centre and the Laboratory of Human Motion Analysis of ULiège. She completed a PhD thesis in clinical sciences on the contribution of instrumental gait analysis (using an accelerometer method and an optoelectronic method as well as data mining resources) and brain imaging to detect elderly people at risk of falling. " Then I had to choose between continuing my research work and resuming clinical service and teaching. Aware of the future clinical challenges and in order to ensure the development of the discipline and its teaching, I had the pleasure and honour to succeed Professor Jean Petermans. "
Theoretical and practical teaching based on the medical specificities of the elderly person
" In my opinion, it is important that the teaching provided should make it possible, on the one hand, to transmit the concepts and specificities of the discipline, in order to distinguish it from other medical, surgical and technical skills taught in medicine, and, on the other hand, to awaken students' minds to holistic care and multidisciplinary work, these two elements being the basis of daily clinical activity. "
" Geriatrics is, like others, a discipline chosen out of conviction. While not all will become geriatricians, it is important that tomorrow's caregivers have been educated about the specificities of the elderly they will have to care for. More practically, I would like the oral course to be an opportunity to present and discuss all the theoretical material and learning objectives. The written course will be dedicated to a more in-depth study of the subject, presenting updated resources, literature and consensus. "
