Following last year’s success, this year, the ClinMed 2019 – SummerSchool returns with more countries involved, more challenges and more students with backgrounds in health participating in this immersive experience of health innovation.

But what is the ClinMed Summer School?

ClinMed aims to give students a perspective of the entire journey, from the initial idea of a medical device to its realisation in the European market. An immersive activity with 2 distinct phases.

In the first phase, students have a 3-day immersive experience at a Health Unit or Specialist Unit in each of the participating countries where they will interact with professionals in the field and identify patient needs. Students can choose, for example, to go to a Paediatric and Obstetrics Unit in Rennes, France, or, for instance, to a Psychiatric department at the Brandenburg University Hospital in Germany.

In our case, here at the FMUL, students who have come to complete this immersive phase had the opportunity to learn advanced techniques in cardiology at the Santa Maria Hospital Cardiac Imaging Unit in addition to contact with specialists in interconnected fields.

As such, the Faculty had the pleasure of hosting, from the 2nd to the 4th of July, Diana Mindroc-Filimon, a biomedical engineer from Germany, Sara Abu Ajamieh, biomedical scientist from Sweden, and Irene Martín Mozo, biomedical scientist from Spain.

Day 1, 2nd July, they were hosted at the Faculty’s Physiology Department, where they received a presentation of the 3-day programme and the objectives they would achieve. They were then taught about advanced techniques in cardiology by Professor Ana Almeida, Ph.D, at the Hospital, and were given the challenge of creating an app. For part of the afternoon, they met with Professor Isabel Rocha, where they went through a clinical case, as well as Cardiologist Dr. Eduardo Oliveira, who cleared up any potential doubts.

Day 2, 3rd July, they visited various facilities at the Santa Maria Hospital with Cardiologist Dr. Pedro Carvalho, notably the Haemodynamics room, where they became acquainted with its functioning. During the afternoon, they worked on the project and had an international Skype session to clear up any doubts. They also had a small session on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Day 3, the final day, they worked on the project and, before embarking on the second phase of the Summer School, there was a debriefing session on the past three days, evaluating their experience with 7 out of 10.

The second phase of the SummmerSchool took place in Autrans, France, where they had a 7-day intensive course, together with all the participants that completed their immersion with other partner institutes.

Here they were given training by specialists from various fields, with access to and support of specific innovative tools and various lectures with specialists. One of the specialists was Dr. Hugo Ferreira, professor at the FCUL, our guest, who went to talk about the translation of clinical needs to the specifications of engineering. As such, the students had access to a lot of knowledge in areas of innovation, entrepreneurship and translation of science to the market to thus carry out their projects and present them to us at a competitive pitch on 12th July. This was then followed by a panel deliberation. This panel consisted of various specialists in the field of health and innovation, notably Professor Isabela Rocha, Ph.D, lecturer of Physiology and Chairwoman of the FMUL’s Board of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

The experience of international Summer Schools is very rewarding and enriching and we hope that these types of activities continue their success. The exchange of experiences and knowledge among students, field professionals and specialists fosters the development of new techniques, new products that could one day be the hope of a better quality of life for many patients.

Sónia Teixeira

Editorial Team