After having collaborated with Technologists of Santa Maria Hospital in the organisation of 4 Meetings, of which the first three involved just a few professions and the forth, in 2008, brought together all the professions represented at the two institutions, the Diagnostics and Therapeutics Technologists of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon decided to organise single-handed a Meeting that was held on 12 November 2011 at the Grand Auditorium of the Egas Moniz Building, in the Faculty of Medicine, and which was attended by about 300 people.

The reason for this is that, despite performing many tasks similar to those undertaken by colleagues at the Hospital, Technologists working at the Faculty of Medicine carry out specific tasks that clearly differentiate them. However, since we did not wish to be in isolation, we opened up our place of work to knowledge. Accordingly, we built a scientific programme whereby representatives of the Faculty Technologists sat on all the panels and also invited key representatives of other institutions and from other professions to share their profound knowledge with us.

FMUL’s Diagnostics and Therapeutics Technologists have been at this Faculty since its inception, but over the past years thy have been disappearing. We have lost over 50% of the workforce in the last decade, for reasons that still escape us. We continue to believe that we are valid and necessary members of this great team formed by all the members of staff of this century-old institution.

Hopefully this meeting has also demonstrated that we are right in our way of thinking and that in an institution which has just celebrated 100 years of existence, Diagnostics and Therapeutics Technologists have a place and a role to play. Gone are the days when Technologists were limited to doing the tasks they were given on the job and when their knowledge came almost entirely from their work experience. They are professionals with high academic competence and with a professional competence equivalent to any Senior Health Technician.
Diagnostics and Therapeutics Technologists are a professional class composed of 18 professions with very different historical backgrounds. It is not easy to deal with this situation but it is possible and good to create unity in diversity.

On the whole, these health professionals face several professional challenges, including the increase in the illegal practice of the profession, the absence of effective professional regulation (i.e. professional association or similar), the delay in the restructuring of the working career, the immoral lack of parity with Health Senior Technicians, the attempt made by the leading class to be given parity to administrative staff, partially forgetting the specifics aspect that led to the creation of special bodies of the Civil Service, among others. These topics were addressed in some way in the first panel “The Diagnostics and Therapeutics Technologist”.

Later, works were presented in areas where the Faculty has played/plays a key role, such as Neuroscience, Microbiology, Cardiac Science, and Advanced Technologies.
We concluded the meeting with a cheerful cultural event, the performance of the Tuna (Musical Group) of the Alcoitão Higher College of Health. The Organisation awarded a prize (Lusodidacta book voucher) to the best of the 29 posters presented at the meeting.
We can only thank the individuals who honoured us with their presence at the opening session: Professor Melo Cristino on behalf of the Director of FMUL and of the President of the Scientific Council, Professor Correia da Cunha, President of the Board and Clinical Director of the Northern Lisbon Hospital Centre, Dr. Isabel Aguiar on behalf of the Secretary of FMUL and all the speakers who shared their knowledge with us.

We extend our thanks to the Director of FMUL, Professor J. Fernandes e Fernandes, who from the beginning believed in this project and supported our dream, to the Department of Administrative Management in the persons of its Secretary, Dr. Luís Pereira and to the Human Resources Director, Dr Isabel Aguiar, to the Office of Communication and Image, in the person of Mr. Bruno Moura, to sponsors and all the colleagues who, anonymously, helped us achieve these objectives. Without the support and collaboration of all, none of this would have been possible, and certainly would not have had a reason for existing.

The Organising Committee was formed by Technologists Ana Catarina Laborinho, Maria Antonieta Alves, Maria do Amparo Barros and Maria Teresa Santos.
The Scientific Committee was composed of members of the Technical Council of Diagnostics and Therapeutics Technologists of FMUL, Technologists Graça Caldeira, Hermínia Chester, Hortênsia Sequeira and Therapist José Fonseca.

What will remain is the resolve and firm determination to, with the highest conjugation of efforts, repeat the event on a regular basis.

José Fonseca
Speech Therapist
Laboratory for the Study of Language
jfonseca@fm.ul.pt