News # 10 | nov/dez. 2009 « News@fmul News@fmul

News # 10 | nov/dez. 2009

Editorial Note

Congratulations news@fmul!

A year on it is time to take stock of this initiative that has set out a change in the FMUL’s communications strategy and has contributed to unite the institutions of the Faculty, the Hospital and the IMM, all of which are now a part of the Lisbon Academic Medical Centre. I firmly believe that we have managed to achieve the aims we set out for ourselves in this project, namely having assumed an editorial project that is accessible to everyone and a powerful instrument for knowledge and the divulging of our Medical School. The success of this initiative, which […]

FMUL News

Evaluation of the news@fmul Newsletter – Main Results

In the month when the newsletter is one year old, the team that designed and brought about the project from its conception to the first issue of news@fmul is presenting the results of the assessment made six months after its launch. In order to verify whether the initial aims of the project have been achieved and to identify aspects that can be improved, this assessment involved analysis of the first five issues (from November 2008 to April 2009) and of all the work and resources involved for their publication, as well as the opinions of those concerned and the readers. […]

Swearing-in of the Coordinating Secretary of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (FMUL)

On the 2nd of November last, in the Main Hall of the Direction of the FMUL, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Professor J. Fernandes e Fernandes, swore in the new Coordinating Secretary, Dr. Luís Pereira. Editorial Team news@fm.ul.pt

New@FMUL New Editorial Team

And a year later… a new role in my life Raquel Moreira Editorial Office armoreira@fm.ul.pt About a year and a half ago I accompanied, albeit at a distance, the start of a new project being undertaken by a group of colleagues at my faculty. The several meetings with the faculty secretary, which I attended, allowed me to see the enthusiasm with which this team defined the lined and strategies for that which would later become a project that I also see as being mine. After many ideas and a great deal of work, News@FMUL was born, and with the exceptional […]

Opening of the 2009/2010 Academic Year with Appeals for Greater Projection of the University of Lisbon

At the Opening Ceremony for the 2009/2010 Academic Year on the 18th of November in the Aula Magna of the University of Lisbon Chancellery, the Chancellor of the University of Lisbon, Professor António Sampaio da Nóvoa announced his pleasure at seeing the government’s intention to establish a “contract of trust” with Higher Education, but at the same time criticized the “bureaucracy” imposed upon universities and which seems to drive them away from what is essential. The Chancellor thus mentioned the situation that has been the case over recent years and which he classified as “almost unbearable” due to the “permanent […]

Interview with Professor Fernandes e Fernandes for RCM Pharmagazine

The Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (FMUL), Professor Fernandes e Fernandes, granted a long interview to the sixth issue of the RCM Pharmagazine (http://www.rcmpharma.com/), in which he dealt with such diverse issues as teaching medicine in Portugal, the vocation of the students who choose the medicine course, the Lisbon Academic Medical Centre, the creation of new medical schools and the shortage of doctors in Portugal, among other subjects. In the opinion of the Dean of the FMUL, teaching of medicine in Portugal “is going through an absolutely necessary phase of transition and change.” Although […]

Appended terms of Academic Cooperation between the FMUL and FMUFRJ and FMUFMG

On the 5th of November 2009, in the Rio de Janeiro Royal Portuguese Reading Bureau, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, represented by its Dean, Professor J. Fernandes e Fernandes, and the Faculties of Medicine of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (FMUFRJ) and the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte) (FMUFMG) represented, respectively, by their Deans, Professor Antonio José Ledo Alves da Cunha and Professor Francisco José Penna, signed an appended contract agreement or cooperation between the respective universities. These addenda aim at tightening the already-established links between the Faculty of Medicine of the […]

8 December 2009 – Anniversary of the Santa Maria Hospital (HSM)

Hospital commemorates 55 years of activity with inauguration of two new services. A homage to the professionals who have passed on, a Eucharistic celebration and a lunch in the new premises of the refectory, were the ceremonies for the anniversary of the Santa Maria Hospital (HSM). A day, the Feast of the Immaculate Heart, which had the presence of the Minister of Health, Ana Jorge, when the new premises for Medical Oncology and the new service of Paediatric Advanced Life Support Transportation (INEM SAV) were inaugurated. The new HSM Medical Oncology premises are the result of an investment of about […]

News Report / Profile

Interview with Isabel Jonet – President of the Portuguese Federation of Food Banks

Subject: The Food Bank, the biggest voluntary operation organised in Portugal 1. To start off with, we would like you to give us a brief outline of the development of the Food Bank in Portugal. The Food Bank started out in Portugal in 1992, due to the work of Captain José Vaz Pinto, who imported the idea from France, where it had been inspired by a project that started in the USA in the sixties, and was then called “second harvest”. The “second harvest” is a right that exists in the US Constitution, in which the poor have the right […]

News@FMUL – First year testimonies

“A year of publishing the electronic version of the newsletter is equivalent to: 1. Hundreds of kilos of paper and ink saved. 2. A few metres of shelves spared. 3. A little folder on entitled “Newsletter FMUL” on the hard drive. Tiny. 4. Ability to read it anywhere in the world (there are moments when we miss it…). 5. Divulging of the news in any part of the universe (there are moments when we feel vain…). Conclusion: could w ego back to a paper version of the Newsletter? We could. But it wouldn’t be the same thing anymore”. Armando Brito […]

First Year of news@fmul – The Faculty to Remember

Events

12th “EDUCATION THROUGH SCIENCE” WORKSHOP

On the 10th of December last, at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (FMUL) the 12th “Education through Science” Workshop was held, organised by the GAPIC and attended by about ninety participants, including students, teachers and researchers. The opening session was attended by the Dean of the FMUL, Professor J. Fernandes e Fernandes, the President of the Scientific Council, Professor Rui Victorino, the Coordinator do GAPIC, Professor João Ferreira, and the President of the AEFML, Diogo Medina. Twenty-four posters were presented and sixteen oral communications, all of high scientific quality, by the 53 students who carried out […]

2nd Endovascular Panamerican Congress – ENDOPAN

The “2nd Endovascular Panamerican Congress – ENDOPAN” and the “”2nd Latin American Congress on Venous Disease and Laser Therapy – LatinVenous” took place in Rio de Janeiro from the 5th to the 7th of November 2009, at which Professor Fernandes e Fernandes was granted the title of Honorary Member of the Brazilian Society of Angiology and Vascular Surgery.

Going onto the Stage and sharing the Adventure of Research

“Scientists doing theatre? To talk about research?” It’s true. All of this and much more took place on Researchers’ Night 2009 simultaneously on stages in four Portuguese cities, where over 11,000 people went to share the adventure of research with researchers. The event, which we called Scientists on Stage, was organised by nine Portuguese partners, including research centres, a science museum and small and medium-sized company, and was financed by the European Commission. The IMM, through its Communication and Training Unit, was involved in the organisation of the project from the beginning. The Researchers’ Night is an initiative by the […]

ENJOY Med (National Encounter of Young Medicine Students)

Sans possible, le désirable n’est qu’un rêve… François Jacob, Nobel Prize for Medicine In illustrating the ENJOY Med (National Encounter of Young Medicine Students) chapter with the above quotation, one may get the impression that creativity is born out of ideas, and that from creativity springs the desire to make an initiative that is yet to be discovered possible. It was exactly like this that ENJOY Med was born. It started out being created as a common idea among colleagues, with the aim of providing the medicine and health sciences students with an event in which there would be the establishing […]

More and Better

Food Bank Against Hunger: FMUL’s participation

Once again the FMUL, through a group of organised volunteers, gave some of its weekend time on the 28th and 29th of November to help collect food for the Food Bank Against Hunger. This took place in the Minipreço Supermarket in Lisbon and allowed us to collect 1,325 kilos of food products. With the collaboration and generosity of everyone who participated in this campaign it was possible to reach 2,498 tons of foodstuffs throughout Portugal. We are counting on everyone in the next campaign in May 2010! In the name of the FMUL team, once again our great thanks!

Social Responsibility at the FMUL

Social Responsibility consists of voluntary integration of social and environmental concerns by organisations in their activities, as well as their interaction with other interested parties, and is thus an issue that is more and more important in the behaviour of organisations, with an impact on their aims, strategies and even meaning. It is no longer a merely voluntary option or a privilege of major organizations, but is up to all of them, independently of their nature, size and sector of activity, to seek out a balance between their needs and the economic, environmental and social issues to which they have […]

Research and Advanced Education

Perspectives for GAPIC – The View of the New Coordinator

The idea of promoting and supporting the scientific research carried out by undergraduates in research units in our faculty was the result of masterful foresight by Professor David Ferreira, mine and our Master, in 1989. Thus was born the GAPIC – Office for Scientific, Technological and Innovation Research Support. The GAPIC Project, even today, over two decades later, is considered innovative both in Portugal and internationally. It resulted from the foresight that scientific research, in particular in its most basic aspect, would play an increasing role in advanced in modern medicine, and that doctors should have not only Professional training, […]

6th AstraZeneca Foundation / Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon

Last September saw the opening of applications to the 6th AstraZeneca Foundation Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (FMUL) Research Grant, the aim of which is to finance a research project in the area of health proposed by a recent graduate in Medicine. There were nine applications for this grant, from among which the jury decided to attribute the financing of €5,000 to the candidate Dr. Bruno André e Silva Miranda, with the project “Benefit of prolonged anticoagulation in cerebral vein thromboses”, to be carried out at the FMUL University Neurology Clinic and the Neurological Clinical Research Unit […]

Bruno Silva-Santos wins Pfizer Clinical Research Prize

Bruno Silva-Santos, director of the Unit of Molecular Immunology of the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM) and Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, has been awarded the Pfizer Prize 2009 for Clinical Research for his work in the area of cancer immunotherapy. The prize-winning project aims at contributing towards the design of more efficient immunotherapies to be applied above all in situations of resistance to more conventional treatments, such as chemo- or radiotherapy. In order to do this his research team studied a population of cells of the immune system (lymphocytes T gamma-delta) which have […]

About the Advanced Training Course in Metabolic Diseases and Disturbances in Dietary Behaviour

My name is Isabel Pinheiro, I am a hospital assistant in Internal Medicine and I have a Masters Degree in Clinical Nutrition in which I defended a thesis on the expression of ghrelin and other cytokines and oncological cachexia. At the moment I am working in the Medicine 2 Service at Santa Maria Hospital, where I am daily confronted with a significant number of patients with pathologies resulting from obesity, high blood pressure, dyslipidemias and type 2 diabetes, with countless complications in different target organs; lives that could have had more years and a better quality if they had had […]

About Masters Course in Bioethics

Bárbara Pinho Costa For me the Masters Course in Bioethics was my first contact with the University of Lisbon. Despite it being a new environment, I felt very welcomed by colleagues and teachers. I think that the wide area covered by the subjects, the quality of the transmitting of knowledge, the dynamic nature of the classes and the concern for the more human dimension were decisive in reinforcing the interest and motivation on the part of all the masters students. The fact that we come from different professional areas is also an advantage, allowing the exchanging of experiences and different […]

Participation by Teachers on Juries for Academic Examinations in Other Institutions

PhDs Teachers: Ana Maria Ferreira de Sousa Sebastião Examination: PhD Institution: University of Oporto Faculty of Medicine Teachers: José Pereira Miguel Examination: PhD in International Health Institution: Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine – New University of Lisbon Teachers: Luís António Marques da Costa Examination: PhD in Medicine Institution: Faculty of Medical Sciences – New University of Lisbon Teachers: Maria Manuel Dias da Mota Examination: PhD in Biomedical Sciences Institution: Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine – New University of Lisbon Aggregations Teachers: José Augusto Gamito Melo Cristino Examination: Aggregation Institution: School of Agrarian and Veterinary Sciences – University of […]

Moments

Rural and Autumnal Breviary of the Chestnut and the Chestnut Tree

“Soito” or “Souto”? These are two correct terms used in Portuguese to refer to a grove of chestnut trees. The chestnut is an impressive tree, which in Portugal grows mainly in the regions of Trás-os-Montes, Inner Beira and also the Upper Alentejo, particularly in the area of Marvão, and besides giving us this magnificent fruit, chestnut trees grant unique beauty to the landscape. This tree should receive special care from the forestry officials. A chestnut tree takes decades to reach its impressive structure and start to produce fruit. There is also another species of tree that comes from the chestnut, […]

Christmas Lights in Lisbon

The 2009 Christmas lights, set out in 39 streets in the downtown area of the city of Lisbon, were turned on last November 20th, with none of the advertising upsets of the previous year. They are interactive and made up of 2.3 million energy-saving bulbs and they cost a million Euros, less than last year. Councillor for Public Spaces, José Sá Fernandes, admitted to the Lusa News Agency that the 2008 lighting, which was paid for by companies who set up advertising in areas such as the Marquês de Pombal roundabout, “was terrible”, so that this year the Christmas lights had no […]

Comments and Suggestions

Sends us your comments and / or suggestions through: news@fm.ul.pt

Open Space

Christmas Message

Still at the beginning of this Millennium, in our Western world, the month of December is a moment at which social, economic and cultural contrasts take on an even more expressive meaning. Alongside the Christian calendar, in which there is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, with all that this signifies from the religious point of view, there has been a progressive imposing of the image of Father Christmas, generalized throughout the Anglo-Saxon world. The symbolic act of the birth of Jesus and of the gift this meant for men, shown for children in the gifts He offered, has […]

Listening to FMUL

Characterisation of First Year Students

Characterisation of First Year Students 2009-2010 Academic Year. First Year – First Time This informative article presents some data characterising the students on the Integrated Masters in Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon who came into the first year for the first time in the academic year 2009-2010. Source: SIGES – Integrated System of Management of Higher Education (Consultation made on the 3rd of November 2009). NB: The full number of the students who entered through the “Competition for Graduates” is included in the 1st year (some students, whose previously-obtained study cycles received accreditation or […]

Keep in Mind

DEBATE CYCLE BY THE FMUL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION (AAAFML)

“WHAT DOCTORS DO WE WANT?”, January 13th 2010, from 11 am to 1 pm, in the FMUL Aula Magna, AAAFML Reflection Debates Cycle. You may consult all necessary information on the following addresses: AAAFML Blog: http://aaafml.blogspot.com or AAAFML Internet Page: http://sites.google.com/site/aaafmul/Home. Contact us through e-mail: aaafml@fm.ul.pt for more information. Consult the programme here

RESEARCH PROGRAMME ON THE FRONTIER OF LIFE SCIENCES

The Research Programme on the Frontier of Life Sciences, promoted by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, intends to motivate originality in research work in the fields of life sciences and to stimulate an attitude of risk in younger researchers through the presenting of proposals with innovating characteristics, containing new suggestions and creative ideas. Applications may be submitted until January 29, 2010. Regulation and other additional information available on: http://www.gulbenkian.pt/index.php?section=65&artId=383

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM “STATE OF ART IN CARDIOLOGY”

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM “STATE OF ART IN CARDIOLOGY – CLINICAL APPLICATION OF CARDIAC IMAGING TECHNIQUES” On the 15th and 16th of January 2010 the International Symposium “State of Art in Cardiology – Clinical application of Cardiac imaging techniques” will be held in the Egas Moniz Building of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon. More information: http://www.spc.pt/spc/default.aspx?redir=http://www.spc.pt/SPC/congressos/ReunioesPatrocinadas.aspx