Editorial Team
news@fm.ul.pt

For the second year in succession, with the implementation of the new curriculum, the first year of the Integrated Masters Course in Medicine began its training with the Introduction Week, an integral part of the study plan for this year. The week took place from the 29th of September to the 3rd of October, in the Main Auditorium of the Egas Moniz Building.

Given that from the 2004/2005 academic year onwards there has been a Cooperation Protocol between the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (FMUL) and the University of Madeira for teaching the first two years of the medicine course in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, within the scope of the Cooperation Agreement between the two universities, all activities held during this week took place by videoconference for the students in Madeira.

The programme for the week began with the Welcome Ceremony, which included the presence of the Dean of the FMUL, Professor J. Fernandes e Fernandes, of the President of the Board of the Lisbon North Hospital Centre, Dr. Adalberto Campos Fernandes, the President of the Association of Former Students of the FMUL, Dr. Rui Bento, of Professor Carlota Saldanha, professor at the FMUL, and of the President of the Students’ Association, Gonçalo Envia. All the participants came together to receive the new students, welcome them and wish them a career full of success at the faculty.

In an approaching year full of new experiences and countless needs for adapting, this was a week that allowed them an early contact with the specificities (programme, teaching and assessment methodology) of the curricular units on the study plan through the presentations given by the coordinators of the curricular units or heads of the disciplinary areas to which they belong, as well as a first contact with study matters, through a course in general introduction to the human body given by the Institute of Anatomy.
Besides these extremely important contents in relation to the Compulsory Curriculum Nucleus, they also had contact with the options they will have in the Optional Curriculum Nucleus, namely in relation to the Optional Subjects, Open Courses and Pedagogical Initiation and Laboratory Research Training Periods.

Besides the content referring to their academic education, they had contact with the services that the faculty provides for their personal development and better academic integration, the Bureau for Student Support and Accompaniment (GAPAE) and, for investment in an eminently research-based area, the Bureau for Scientific, Technological and Innovation Research Support (GAPIC). The participation by the Students’ Association was also relevant.

Throughout the week there were some sessions with a more scientific content, namely through the participations of Professor J. Lobo Antunes, with two presentations on the subject of “Medicine in Art” and “What it means to be a doctor today”; by Professor António Vaz Carneiro, with a participation on “Learning, Science and Intuition in Medicine” and a Panel on Social Medicine and Disease Prevention, which included the presence of Professor J. Pereira Miguel, Professor Maria de Fátima Reis, Sofia Guiomar and Rui Portugal, with interventions in the areas of the environment, nutrition and health services.

At the request of the organizing committee of the Freshman Reception 2008, a session held by Professor J. Forjaz de Lacerda (Director of the University Clinic of Haematology) was included on “Transplanting Haematopoietic Progenitor Cells” in order to prepare the students for a session to raise awareness and encourage bone marrow donors. As this is an immensely creative activity within the scope of the reception for the new students, and is extremely useful, it was considered relevant to introduce it into the programme for the week.