News # 3 | jan/fev. 2009 « News@fmul News@fmul

News # 3 | jan/fev. 2009

Editorial Note

Message from the Chairman of the Board of the North Lisbon Hospital Centre, EPE

The beginning of a new year is an occasion favourable to reflection on the perspectives that stand out for the future. It is also like this in the life of institutions. Today we are confronted with a very adverse context in which uncertainty is prevalent. The known difficulties deepen an atmosphere of despondency that does not favour change. It is therefore fundamental to re-centre energies and strengthen trust. Under the current circumstances it is indispensable to reinforce the mechanisms of cohesion among the institutions. In this cohesion resides the critical factor capable of consolidating the bases of a new medical […]

Omelettes without Eggs

The year of 2009 will have three important aspects as its main challenges: the first, the change arising from the restructuring of the Faculty with the new statutes that will come into effect during the second term of 2009; the second aspect, the consolidation of the curricular alteration in the medicine course and going beyond 2,000 undergraduate students, and finally the definitive implementation of computer software that will introduce significant improvements in the faculty/user relationship. As is logical, the alteration of the Statutes of the Faculty will be reflected in the organics of its services. At the same time, the […]

FMUL News

12th “Education through Science” Programme – Research Projects for FMUL Students 2008/2009

The “Education through Science” Programme aims at promoting the practice of scientific research by undergraduate students, and has allowed them to participate directly in the drawing up and carrying out of laboratory or clinical research projects as members of a research team in a unit of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (FMUL) and of the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM). As has been the tradition over the last eleven years, the Bureau for Scientific, Technological and Innovation Research Support (GAPIC) opened a competition for the twelfth programme (2008/2009) during the month of October 2008. The 41 […]

V Conference “Pharmaceutical Industry – Innovation in Health and Global Development”

As in previous years, on the 15th of January last the Diário Económico newspaper and Merck Sharp & Dohme held the V Conference on the “Pharmaceutical Industry – Innovation in Health and Global Development” at the Ritz Four Seasons Hotel in Lisbon. The Medical Faculty, besides having some of its teaching staff among the audience, participated actively in the session through the presence, as Chairman, of Professor João Lobo Antunes and Professor Maria Mota (IMM), as a speaker on the second panel (Globalisation of Health – Innovating Strategies in the Fight against Global Diseases). In her presentation, Professor Maria Mota spoke about […]

Ceremony of Granting the Insignias of Honoris Causa Doctor by the University of Lisbon

On the 21st of January last, in the Aula Magna of the Chancellory of the University of Lisbon, the Ceremony of the Granting of the Insignias of Honoris Causa Doctor was held for DoctorsHans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Albert Guerard Professor of Literature at Stanford University, Maria Helena da Rocha Pereira, Retired Professor of Classical Culture at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Coimbra, Sir Peter Robert Frank Bell, Emeritus Professor in Surgery at the University of Leicester, UK, and Mark Savickas, Professor and Director of the Behavioral Sciences Department at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. In the […]

Events

VII Edition of the Little Ones’ Hospital at the Lisbon Medical Faculty

The Lisbon Medical Faculty Students’ Association (AEFML) once again organized the Little Ones’ Hospital, between the 9th and 13th of December 2008, in the Egas Moniz Building of the FMUL, on the premises of the Santa Maria Hospital. This edition included a joint collaboration among students of Nursing, Medicine, Dental Medicine, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Nutrition, who, through their respective student associations, made it possible for about 800 children to be received in the event. The aim of this project is to use a role play game in order to reduce the anxiety that children feel when they are confronted with […]

More and Better

The North Lisbon Hospital Centre creates “Core Lab”

On December the 8th 2008, within the scope of the commemorations of the 54th anniversary of the Santa Maria Hospital, the North Lisbon Hospital Centre (NLHC) inaugurated the new premises of the Clinical Pathology Service, located on the third floor of the building. The structural alterations, which are now completed, allowed the creating of conditions for the setting up of a “Core Lab” in the North Lisbon Hospital Centre – Santa Maria Hospital Unit, one of the largest labs in the Iberian Peninsula and with the greatest capacity in Portugal, where from now on most analytical determinations will be carried […]

Studying Medicine at the FMUL – Candidate’s Day 2008

Summary The why, the what for and the way that the “Studying Medicine at the FMUL – Candidate’s Day” event took place for the first time will be presented in this description. The results of the questionnaires applied and those from the SWOT analysis allowed a reflection on what to change and what to keep in order to carry on with the FMUL’s policy of “opening its doors” to secondary school students. Introduction In the 2007-2008 academic year the FMUL received many requests from secondary schools to be present at the seminars that would be held on the subject of […]

“Book of the Heart”

The request/proposal presented to me by the “Oficina do Livro” publishing house, in the person of Dr. Liliana Valpaços, to write a book on heart diseases was immediately met with a smile and a negative: “I’m very sorry, but … for an interview OK, I’m always ready, but a book? It would give me a lot of work, and I’m too old for that now!” Fifteen minutes later I was saying yes and arranging the details. With a tender smile, Dr. Liliana told me: “If you can convince people by the way you speak to them and by the things […]

“Woman 50 +-10”

The book “Woman 50+-10”, published by Leya, has four authors: three doctors – Isabel do Carmo, endocrinologist, Themudo Barata, specialist in internal medicine and sports physiology, Manuela Paçô, dermatologist – and a psychological – Maria João Fagundes. It is aimed at the more mature woman. For this reason the title is based on a joke suggested by the designation of variables in scientific methods. The target age for the book is thus from 50+-10, but if the standard deviation is 10, we know that the extremes range before 40 and beyond 60. So it is for female maturity, at a […]

Research and Advanced Education

PhD Course “Metabolic Illnesses and Dietary Behaviour”

The experiment of a new pedagogical model The initiative of the creation of this course was centred on two basic ideas: 1. To raise the academic level of preparation in an emerging area in terms of the health of the population. 2. To structure theoretical teaching and its practical derivations in an interdisciplinary manner, transversal to areas that are not usually interrelated. Given the evolution and genetic selection of the human being, one may note that what was beneficial in an evolutionist perspective – the polygenic complex of metabolic “good use” and its phenotype, insulin resistance – has become transformed […]

FMUL/IMM Research Team head European Partnership for Industrial Development of New Drug

FMUL/IMM inaugurate Portuguese Leadership of the “Marie Curie” Action in the “Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways – IAPP” Framework Programme Seven. Researchers from the FMUL Biochemical Institute / Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM) head a European consortium of five partners for the industrial development of a new drug which may be used as an analgesic and in the therapy of neurodegenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. This product (BLV200704) was conceived and initially studied by the team led by Prof. Miguel Castanho, professor at the FMUL and researcher at the IMM, and subsequently licensed to the BIOALVO company, which […]

Academic Exams carried out at the FMUL

November 2008 MASTERS: Emerging Infectious Diseases Thesis “Sero-prevalence and Impact of West Nile Virus Infection and other Flavivirus in Equines” Sara Sofia Parreiras Fernandes Bueno Assumpção November 4 2008 President of the Jury: Professor Francisco Antunes Orientator: Prof.ª Doutora Maria João Alves Co-Orientator: Professor Emília Valadas Jury Member: Professor Thomas Hanschëid Result: Very Good Neurosciences Thesis “Cognitive Deficits in Middle-aged and Older Patients with Bipolar Disorder: Comparison with Mild Cognitive Impairment Subjects” Dina Lúcia Gomes da Silva November 5 2008 President of the Jury: Professor Alexandre Ribeiro Orientator: Professor Manuela Guerreiro Jury Member: Professor Carolina Garrett Jury Member: Professor Luísa […]

Moments

The True Portuguese Tradition of “Singing the New Year Carols”

Two events associated to Christmastide in Portugal are the New Year carols called the Janeiras and Epiphany, which represent the singing of requests on Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and Epiphany or Twelfth Night. These carols, probably inherited from the Roman strenas, are sung in order to receive gifts which take on an allusive and propitiating character, referring us, as in other celebrations, to remote times when pagan gods and goddesses were celebrated or gifts were asked for or given at the beginning of the civil year as a symbol of good fortune both for the givers and the receivers. […]

The Unbearable Lightness of the Snow: adventure, emotion and Magic

A few years ago thinking about holidays in the snow would for us be synonymous with cold, discomfort and even some stress. However, after insistence by friends who are true enthusiasts of snow experiences, our family decided to go off into the adventure of discovering the charms of Winter sports. Taking advantage of the Easter holidays, we went down to Andorra, to the “Grandvalira” Pyrenees ski resort, considered the biggest resort in Europe after the Alps, and which is linked to the ski areas of Pas de la Casa/Grau Roig and Soldeu /El Tarter, which form the large valley of […]

Torres Vedras Carnival, the most Portuguese in Portugal

Torres Vedras Carnival is an event that is rooted in the cultural and social identity of the city. The first reference to the Torres Carnival dates from the time of King Dom D. Sebastião, in a document dated 1574, in which a resident of the town of Torres Vedras presents a complaint against “(…) some lads idling with a cockerel on Shrove Tuesday carrying wheels, swords, cudgels as is the custom on that day”. In the middle of 1862, in the Church of St Peter, the 40-hour jubilee is held over the three days of carnival. But further references to […]

Open Space

Fiscal Guide 2008

The Pensonal Income Tax (IRS) falls back into the general incomes of the taxpayers living in Portugal as also as the incomes obtained in foreign countries. It has also effect on profits obtained in national territory even if the earner doesn’t live in Portugal. The Fiscal Guide 2008, the supplement of the magazine DINHEIRO & DIREITOS from DECO PROTESTE, may help you to clarify all your doubts related to IRS. Augusta Vieira Gabinete do Secretário augustavieira@fm.ul.pt

Comments and Suggestions

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Listening to FMUL

Statistical Indicators on FMUL Graduates in 2008

In 2008 there were eleven successful PhD graduates at the FMUL: 6 in the field of Medicine, 4 in the field of Biomedical Sciences, and one in the field of Health Sciences, distributed over nine different specialties. Graph I – Percentage of PhDs defended in 2008 at the FMUL by fields (N=11) Chart I – Number of PhDs defended in 2008 by specialties (N=11) The FMUL also granted a degree to 64 new Masters from 12 different Masters Courses, with the Masters in Clinical Microbiology being the course with most graduates (15). Graph II – Number of graduates per MA […]

Keep in Mind

Studying Medicine at the FMUL: Candidate’s Day 2009

On March 12th 2009 the FMUL opens its doors, promoting the event “Studying Medicine at the FMUL – Candidate’s Day”. This initiative is only aimed at 12th grade students who intend to apply for the Integrated Masters in Medicine. We invite you to visit a renowned institution of public higher education, to get to know the laboratories, the experiences, the scientific and pedagogical/academic activities! An opportunity for the candidates to interact and bring up their doubts and obtain answers. We request a pre-enrolment by e-mail: estudarmedicina@fm.ul.pt or on 21 798 51 00 (indicating name, age, school, place, e-mail and phone […]

Advanced Training Institute Post-Graduate Courses

III Post-Graduate Refresher Course in Sleep Science TARGET CANDIDATES – Graduates in Medicine, Psychology, Biology, Nursing, Biomedical Engineering, Human Motricity, Pharmacy, Biochemistry, Genetic Engineering, Neurophysiology, Cardiopneumology and others. ENROLMENT REQUIREMENTS – Enrolment form accompanied by Degree Certificate Date – 27 February, 17, 18 April, 26, 27 June, 9, 10 October and 13 November 2009, FMUL I Post-Graduate Refresher Course in Pharmacoepidemiology TARGET CANDIDATES – This course is aimed at graduates in Medicine, Nursing, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Social and Human Sciences, Statistics and other health professionals with an interest in pharmacoepidemiology and drug assessment. ENROLMENT REQUIREMENTS – Enrolment form accompanied by letter of […]

Initiation to SPSS Course for FMUL Students

The initiation to SPSS course for FMUL students will take place in a virtual environment from the 14th to the 28th of March, with an attended session set for the 21st, and enrolments taking place between the 2nd and 6th of the same month. Aware of the importance of statistics, particularly in the field of scientific research, GAPIC, as an office of support for scientific research, namely on the undergraduate level, is organizing this course in order to provide a response to some of the needs felt by FMUL students. In this course, besides showing the potential of statistics in […]

IMM Seminars – February 2009

Monday, February 9, 12:00 PM Speaker: Miguel Castanho Affiliation: Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisboa Title: “Beating the blood-brain-barrier. (S)low (but effective) throughput screening in the quest for a new analgesic drug.” Venue: Edifício Egas Moniz – Piso 01- Anfiteatro 57