During two years since 2008, family doctors, cardiologists and rheumatologists have attended courses centering on about 100 national clinical protocols on diagnosis and treatment. Approximately 45 medical guidelines have been discussed and implemented this year, Info-Prim Neo reports. The clinical protocols are documents that guide decisions and criteria regarding diagnosis, management and treatment in specific areas of healthcare. They enable the doctors to quickly, correctly and efficiently select the method of treatment, easing decision making in complicated clinical cases. They also help purchase drugs and set out accepted clinical practice standards. “The protocols facilitate the doctors' work and the relations between different medical institutions,” said Doctor of Medicine Aurel Grosu, who heads the Cardiac Emergency Department of the Cardiology Institute in Chisinau. Over 300 specialists, especially family doctors, came to a training seminar in Chisinau to familiarize themselves with national protocols in such areas as cardiology, nephrology, urology, necrology, infectious diseases, etc. “We received these national protocols in our district and studied them, but not as thoroughly as at the seminar,” said family doctor Valeriu Zagornean from Telenesti district. “The protocols help us easier discuss with the patient and correctly diagnose the diseases on the basis of European standards,” he said. “These protocols are useful, but we do not have money to appropriately implement them in the healthcare sector. We do not have modern methods to use the protocols for endocrinology for example,” said doctor Nutu Migali, university lecturer and endocrinologist at the Saint Trinity Hospital in Chisinau. Similar courses will be given in the near future in Cahul, Balti and Ungheni towns.