Course type: Online; Self-Paced
Duration: Available for 2 months
Modules: 5
Time required: Up to 1 hour per module
Target Audience: Primary care and GP doctors
Specialty: Family Medicine
Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Language: English, Spanish and Portuguese
Certificate: Yes
About the Primary Care Consultation
An essential element of any health care system is primary health care. Primary care consultations involve regular meetings and check-ups with a primary care physician using a comprehensive, longitudinal approach to the patient.
The primary care physician, as the name implies, is the patient’s first contact and provides general health advice and promotes specialized care in case of more serious illnesses and injuries. The scope of practice is broad and can act on a wide range of issues, including chronic or acute conditions, but also preventive care.
The Primary Care Consultation course includes cases in several areas, namely, endocrinology, nephrology, respiratory, allergology, and cardiology.
Target Audience
Recommended for Internal Medicine doctors
Course Overview
- 5 Modules
The course consists of 5 modules with virtual patient cases, with increasing level of complexity. - Online, Self-paced
You have up to 2 months to complete the 5 modules at your own pace. - Certificate of Completion
After completing the course, you will be given a Certificate of Completion.
What you will learn:
Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to:
- Recognize early symptoms of serious illnesses
- Distinguish between self-limiting illnesses and problems that require further medical intervention
- Perform effective history taking, physical examination, and diagnosis based on current clinical evidence
- Communicate with a variety of patients identifying diagnoses and counselling to prevent illness
- Order tests and prescribes appropriate medical therapy
Authors
Body Interact has developed this course based on the most recent guidelines, using advanced medical simulation technology with virtual patients.

Professor Paulo Martins
Expert in Intensive Care
Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Course Outline
Module 1 - Unexplained weight loss
Context: The various symptoms presented by a patient may reveal clinical conditions that are critical. Early detection reduces morbidity and mortality by preventing or delaying possible complications. A greater understanding of the clinical conditions underlying the presenting symptoms can result in more patient-specific and tailored management.
Virtual Scenario: Mr. Townsend has been relatively healthy his whole life. However, recently he started to notice unexplained weight loss and is thirsty most of the time.
Module 2 - Angina episode status
Context: The risk of progression or development of recurrent coronary artery disease after an acute episode is frequent and surveillance in the first few months is essential. Direct patient education is important and should be reinforced and documented.
Virtual Scenario: About a month ago, Adelaide required emergency medical care due to unstable angina. Today she has her first appointment for long-term health care management.
Module 3 - Respiratory complaints
Context: Lung diseases can have diverse clinical presentations from multiple causes, including airflow limitation that may or not be reversible. Patients with these clinical conditions are at increased risk for developing comorbidities and their surveillance is critical.
Virtual Scenario: Mr. Bernard felt unwell a few months ago, and his health was not improving. He visited his General Practitioner, who referred him to a visit with Pulmonologist.
Module 4 - Medical appointment for follow-up
Context: The presence of inherited conditions might be characterized by its recurrence. In this case, it has to be followed by a family medicine physician since the condition can be potentially fatal. The type, frequency, and severity of attacks vary between patients, and throughout the life of an individual.
Virtual Scenario: Anthony is being followed by an allergy/immunology outpatient clinic.
Module 5 - Easily fatigue
Context: Fatigue is one of the most common complaints in medicine. Fatigue can be related to physical but also psychological symptoms. The anamnesis is very important to find out the meaning of the patient’s condition.
Virtual Scenario: Mr. Alexander has not been feeling well lately. In the past few months, his daily activities have been increasingly more difficult. Finally, his wife noticed he wasn’t well and persuaded him to visit his doctor.

After acquiring this course, you can access it through the Body Interact app at any time:
If you are not familiar with our Virtual Patient Simulator, visit Body Interact Help Center for FAQs and tutorial videos.