Medical Hydrology and Balneology: Environmental Aspects

Balneology in Europe: results of a new survey
Cantista P (1-2)
(1) Invited Professor of the University of Porto - ICBAS School of Medicine, Porto, Portugal
(2) President of the Portuguese Society of Medical Hydrology
pedrocantista@netcabo.pt
Balneology or Medical Hydrology has been an important modality in the area of
Medicine with a wide scope of interventions which include prevention, treatment
and rehabilitation of a large number of health conditions.
Nevertheless there are relevant differences from country to country regarding
Balneology recognition, clinical practice, reimbursement, education or research.
In the last months of 2007 a survey was conducted by the Balneology Group of
the Professional Practice Committee of the UEMS PRM Section concluding by the
relevance of this discipline in the majority of the European countries.
Those results encouraged us to keep working for building a subdivision of Balneology
as the natural evolution of this Group of the UEMS PRM Section.
With this goal already achieved we decided to update the 2007 data with a new
survey, now that five years have passed.
In order to collect this information we designed a new questionnaire that was
sent to a delegate in each European country.
In our lecture we present these results, we analyze them and we point the main
aspects that may lead to an effective strategy for the desired development of Balneology
in Europe.
Key words: Balneology, Medical Hydrology, Europe, Survey
Balnea
2012, núm. 6, 43
43
ISBN: 978-84-669-1887-0
978-84-669-3482-4