The healthcare professional dedicated to activities related to diseases of the Digestive System is many times referred to by the nickname “Gastro”, or the “Gastros”.

It is an honour and a pleasure to direct the destination of the Portuguese Society of Gastroenterology for the next two years.

This would not have been possible without my Training in the School of Life, which are the two institutions where I’ve worked for the last three decades, i.e., the Santa Maria Hospital and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon. In all my connections, I’ve always felt the excellent, door-opening, brand image of both institutions. The weight of the “jersey” is very heavy. To exemplify, I’ve spent around 25,000 hours at the emergency service in approximately 30 years. More than TAP captains:

Many leaders of various Portuguese medical-scientific societies, and even foreign ones, have taken training within both these institutions throughout the last 50 years.

The history of medical-scientific publications indexed in PubMed/Medline passes by this house: Cardiology, Rheumatology, Pneumology, Vascular Surgery, Gastroenterology, Acta Médica Portuguesa. Many of its editors have worked or currently work here, where they have evolved, innovated and indexed.

Can we refer to this as a career in scientific societies? I have been developing an intense work in scientific societies: General-Secretary and President of the Portuguese Association for the Study of the Liver, General-Secretary, member, vice-president and chief-editor of GE – Portuguese Journal of Gastroenterology, president of the Haepatology College within the Medical Association and chief-editor of the Acta Médica. At an international level within the European Union for Gastroenterology, Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board, European Liver Patient Association

The experience at a Scientific Society brings scientific learning, networking, negotiation, leadership, conflict management, team work, multitasking, financial management, time management, event organisation, the use of social networks, pedagogy, dealing with various stakeholders, a balance between work and personal life, understanding the national dimension of our practice as specialists, etc. Currently, the position of Service Director often demands experience in Scientific Societies and management.

Gastroenterology deals with various entities of high impact in the Portuguese society. It is impossible to imagine a country without gastroenterologists. Who would perform endoscopies, colonoscopies? Who would deal with digestive haemorrhaging, complex hepatic patients, jaundice, chronic diarrhoea?

What is our core business: Three diseases in the Top Ten of Portuguese mortality (colon and rectum cancer, stomach cancer and liver disease), 1/3 of all cancers are related to the digestive system, two of the worst prognosis cancers are related to the digestive system, and their occurrence and mortality rate are expected to increase in the next three decades. And what to say about the million Portuguese people with irritable bowel syndrome, 2 million with constipation, 3 million with reflux disease, 20,000 with inflammatory bowel disease, 10 million with diarrhoeas per year…

The Portuguese Society of Gastroenterology is going through a phase of intense growth, representing 800 gastroenterologists, with a new and modern headquarters, high quality and professional staff, a magazine that has been recently indexed into PubMed, together with an increasing number of international publications which has increased by approximately 1000% per year in the last fifteen years.

Thought to take home? Despite the so-called crisis (Prof. Vitorino Nemésio said that the crisis is permanent, Humankind is constantly in crisis, in “Era do Átomo, Crise do Homem”) it is possible to be happy and have a fulfilling career at the Santa Maria Hospital and the Faculty of Medicine. It has been an honour and a pleasure.

Basically, to provide better healthcare to the Portuguese people, to train our physicians and to conduct more efficient investigations. This is our triple Mission.

Scientific Societies are a multifaceted vehicle that potentially facilitates these objectives.

More informtaion HERE

Professor Rui Tato Marinho