Biological disciplines in the training of physicians in continuing professional education

Aim. To determine the composition and content of biological disciplines in the continuing professional education (CPE) of physicians. Material and methods . To determine whether the content of medical education programs complies with the current level of biology, an analysis of 178 educational programs for professional retraining and advanced training of physicians in 89 medical specialties was conducted. Using a content analysis method modified by A. V. Teremov, the content of the Fundamental Disciplines section was examined. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of the qualification characteristics of specialists was conducted, revealing the importance of biological disciplines in preparing physicians for their work functions. The relationships between job functions, qualification characteristics, and the necessary knowledge of biological disciplines were identified using the following aggregations of specialties: Clinical Medicine; Health Sciences and Preventive Medicine. The quality of the content of additional professional retraining and ad­van­ced training programs was monitored according to the following crite­ria: 1) compliance of program content with job functions and professional standards; 2) compliance of program content with clinical gui­de­lines. Results. The study revealed the following: — biological disciplines in CPE for physicians serve as fundamental knowledge, forming a systems approach to understanding the inter­actions between the human body and environment; — biological disciplines, structured within a system corresponding to body organization levels (molecular, cellular, organismal, population), enable us to substantiate the mechanisms of disease etiology and pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of patients, and disease prevention from the perspective of a systems approach to the functions of the hu­man body as a whole; — the composition of biological disciplines in the content of the CPE programs for physicians (Clinical Medicine; Health Sciences and Pre­ventive Medicine) is determined by the professional tasks for which physicians are trained; — knowledge of biological disciplines contributes to the formation and development of physician qualifications, determined in accordance with the needs of practical healthcare. Conclusion . The identified composition and content of biological dis­cip­lines in CPE for physicians helps develop physicians' readiness to sub­stantiate the mechanisms of disease etiology and pathogenesis, diagnose and treat patients, and prevent diseases from a systemsbased approach, as defined by the qualification requirements for phy­si­cians, as regulated by regulatory documents of the Russian Ministry of Health.