Rita Sá Machado will replace Graça Freitas as Director-General of Health, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Health on Tuesday.

Until now, she has been working at the World Health Organization (WHO) as a health advisor, and will begin her new role on November 1st.

"Rita Sá Machado completed her integrated master's degree in Medicine at Nova Medical School and has a master's degree in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. With a degree in Travel Medicine and Mobile Populations from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, she also has a postgraduate degree in Health Management from Católica Porto Business School, and a postgraduate degree in Medical Education from Harvard Medical School", according to information released by the Ministry of Health.

Rita Sá Machado is a public health doctor and was head of the Epidemiology and Statistics division at the DGS until September 2020. She was currently working in Geneva as a WHO advisor on Health and Migration. Before that, she was the Migration and Humanitarian Affairs Advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Permanent Mission in Portugal.

The department led by Manuel Pizarro also takes the opportunity to wish the new Director-General of Health "every success", as well as to "renew our thanks to the previous director, Graça Freitas, for the dedication and quality of her work over the many years she dedicated to the institution and the public cause", it concludes.