The 1st Council of Citizens was held last January 30 at the Direction of the FMUL. This Council, created in 2018, (Order 38/2018, 6 June), aims at strengthening the connection between the Faculty of Medicine and Civil Society, promoting a meeting of personalities from various professional, scientific and cultural areas to help reflect on the present and future challenges faced by our School.

The session began with a Port Wine Tasting, welcoming the Director of the FMUL, Professor Fausto Pinto, the attending members of the Council of Citizens, Professor Francisco George, President of the Portuguese Red Cross, Professor Heitor Romana, Full Professor at the ISCSP-UL, and Mark Mekelburg, co-founder of Operation Red Nose.

The session was also attended by the deputy directors Professor Ana Sebastião and Professor Mamede de Carvalho; the presidents of the Scientific and Pedagogical Councils, Professor José Melo Cristino and Professor Joaquim Ferreira, respectively; the Managing Director Luís Pereira; the coordinator of the Strategic Planning and Quality Office, Sónia Barroso; and the president of the AEFML, Andreia Daniel.

The Director of the FMUL, Professor Fausto Pinto, began by introducing the FMUL, highlighting the Strategic Areas defined for the 2018-2022 mandate. This was followed by a debate and reflection, from which we highlight the interventions of the members of the Council of Citizens, who introduced themes and explored lines of strategic reflection that are extremely interesting for the pursuit of FMUL’s mission.

This was the first of several meetings, and at least two others are due to take place this year, so as to maintain a fruitful dialogue aimed at increasing and creating conditions for the development of a modern Medicine, adjusted to the challenges of the present and, especially, of the future, positioning the FMUL at the world-class level we all aim at achieving.

Strategic Planning and Quality Office