Today we live with the reality of a global calamity that is reflected in daily challenges and which demands unprecedented adaptation and resistance from everyone. However, it is in the present that we create tomorrow. As such, we do not lose focus on the goals we want to achieve and the goals we set for the future. And it was about the future, about the new and ambitious projects that will soon materialize, opening doors to a new world, that we talked with Professor Fausto J. Pinto.
Almost a year after the inauguration of the Reynaldo dos Santos Building, we share the vision for the future of the Director of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon. A future based on technological innovation at the service of medical training, which now reaches a new level of excellence through the creation of a reference Technological Centre. Some of the main units designed for this new Technological Centre are completed, others are still in the creation and implementation phase, with support from external financing. “We won some tenders at the CCDR (Commission for Coordination and Regional Development) for investment in some areas, and all this takes time to execute, so there is a phasing in the process of fully operationalizing the Reynaldo dos Santos Technological Centre”, explained Fausto J. Pinto, pointing out the specific cases of the new Bioimaging Centre and the Experimental Surgery Centre that will operate there, referring to the current values of the CTRS (Reynaldo dos Santos Technological Centre). “At the moment, we have the Advanced Simulation Centre running, which includes several elements and areas, such as cardiovascular, gynaecological, laparoscopic, anaesthesiologic, operating theatre, and intensive care. There is a set of several components of this Advanced Simulation Centre that are part of a package we acquired, also with CCDR financing", explained the Professor, including the contract signed for the application of the Body Interact technology, a state-of-the-art interactive digital simulator, "through which we will have two digital platforms available to simulate clinical cases”.
In order to explore the potential of the Advanced Simulation Centre, a programme is being developed with a view to including several of these elements in the teaching of multiple areas, both in under and postgraduate courses. “The Simulation Centre itself has a team coordinated by Professor Lucindo Ormonde and we have now created, at the opening of the academic year, a specific committee to assess the use of the virtual teaching of Medicine, coordinated by Professor Rui Tato Marinho and with several elements from other areas”. The Professor reiterated the effort that has been made to make our Simulation Centre one of the most qualified in Europe, saying that the current pandemic forced the postponement of many activities that had been planned. According to him, new events are currently being planned and “various types of projects so that the Simulation Centre can start to be used and several ideas implemented as soon as possible regarding under and postgraduate training”.
Our students' contact with the modern equipment of the Advanced Simulation Centre “will happen soon”. “We will have them, at least in small groups, soon. As you know, it was quite a lengthy and complex process to set up the beginning of the academic year and this is part of the progressive process”, said Professor Fausto Pinto, indicating that the current pandemic has conditioned operationalization and logistics in a decisive way, rendering the “full use” of the Advanced Simulation Centre impossible. “The use of a Simulation Centre like ours can be adapted, ranging from anatomy to clinical practice, that is, the contents can be adapted. However, the operational logistics is a more complex process and we are not operating under normal conditions, due to the pandemic”.
The CCUL, Cardiovascular Centre of the University of Lisbon, coordinated by Professor Fausto Pinto, is also operational. It has two areas in the Reynaldo dos Santos Building. “We have the Exercise and Rehabilitation Laboratory, coordinated by Professor Ana Abreu, where all activities related to exercise will be conducted. There are programmes already under development, namely one that covers the University Stadium, called CRECUL, Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Centre of the University Lisbon, coordinated by us, Faculty of Medicine, which has been functioning for about 3 years,
now expanding this activity to the Exercise Laboratory”, explained Fausto Pinto, referring also to the involvement of the Exercise and Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Laboratory in several research projects, some of which international, “in the scope of rehabilitation and exercise, with a focus on the cardiovascular aspect, but more comprehensive”.
He also highlighted the project "For a Healthy Heart", a prevention project involving the academic community of the University of Lisbon, in close collaboration with the Faculty of Human Kinetics, the Faculty of Psychology and the University Stadium.
In turn, the new Cardiovascular Centre that will operate on the top floor is "in the assembly phase, given that part of the equipment is included in the package co-financed by the CCDR, which is currently in the execution phase", underlined the Director.
The Nutrition Sciences Degree gained added value in the new Reynaldo dos Santos Building with the creation of the Advanced Nutrition Centre, which is in operation and intends to enhance research and training activities in the field of Nutrition, led by Professor Catarina Sousa Guerreiro.
The Bioimaging Centre, funded by the CCDR, which will operate on the lower floor, is also underway. “Its main component is a 3 Tesla Magnetic Resonance”, and, despite the fact that negotiations of some aspects are still in progress, Fausto J. Pinto is confident with the arrival of the most advanced RM technology in 2021.
It should also be noted that the Bioimaging Centre has the collaboration of the Higher Technical Institute. The project has a group coordinated by Professor Sofia Reimão, professor of Imageology at FMUL, with the support of Professor Patrícia Figueiredo, from the Higher Technical Institute.
In the meantime, the logistical and operational aspect to set in motion the ambitious and improved Centre for Experimental Surgery are also underway. “We are in the implementation phase of the Experimental Surgery Centre, where Dr Carla Fonseca, our veterinarian responsible for the animal experimentation area, and Dr João Coutinho, from Surgery, are included in a group that is preparing the creation of the new Experimental Surgery Centre”, in close collaboration with Santa Maria Hospital.” In the end, it will represent a great centre for the surgery of medium sized and large animals - following what has existed for some time on the 9th floor of the hospital. So, within the scope of the CAML (Lisbon Academic Medical Centre), our idea is to implement a large Experimental Surgery Centre”, explained the Professor.
The CAML's Biobank will be transferred to a new space in the new building, thus finding a different purpose in this new complex of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, which is an example of innovation and progress, welcoming other companies to conduct activities in the field of Medicine and Biomedicine. “We will have a place to support new technological areas, where, by means of tenders, companies will be able to conduct their activity. It is a stimulus to technological development and innovation”, emphasizes Fausto J. Pinto, who also referred to the new Centre for Aerospace Medicine, in articulation with the Higher Technical Institute, highlighting “the microgravity laboratory”.
The Reynaldo dos Santos building also opens doors to the Evidence-Based Health Institute (ISBE), which will be moving there. “In addition, we have educational spaces, auditoriums, classrooms and areas for students, which constitute the main spaces in terms of physical structure”.
In short, the idea of the Reynaldo dos Santos Technological Centre was consolidated in a concrete objective: to promote development in the field of research, education and training. In this context, there are several spaces that have been properly identified and distributed for these activities, which will integrate research and under and postgraduate training, “from which some by-products will be derived”. The new Masterclasses Online Courses are an example of this.
“These programmes have been developed in collaboration with other universities, including the University of Cambridge, in a course coordinated by Professor Luís Mendes Pedro. It is a very interesting course, more focused on the surgical part, organized in terms of the operating room. It aims to promote the acquisition of new skills and leadership, aimed at doctors and other health professionals, in particular in the area of anaesthesiology and surgery, and may also cover specialties.”
For its part, the new Trauma course results from the partnership with the University of Miami. Its coordinator at FMUL is Professor Pedro Fernandes. “It is a multidisciplinary course that involves orthopaedics, anaesthesia, surgery, and intensive care. Therefore, it is an advanced postgraduate training course that aims to promote dissemination and advanced training in this area”, explained Professor Fausto J. Pinto, also responsible for coordinating the new Masterclass Online Course in Cardiovascular Emergencies. As its name implies, it is a course based on the presentation of 16 cardiovascular emergency scenarios, developed in collaboration with the company Take the Wind, a Portuguese leader in technology for clinical education. "The goal is to provide training in the main cardiovascular emergency situations through concrete cases that represent the main cardiovascular emergency situations, in an integrated approach."
Aimed mainly at specialists in the cardiovascular area, this new course is for all health professionals. "It is a course focused on major cardiovascular emergencies, but it can have a wider scope, also addressing intensivists, anaesthesiologists and surgeons".
Cardiovascular Emergencies, Trauma and Leadership in the Operating Room are thus the three new Masterclasses Online Courses currently defined and approved by the Scientific Council. “We are developing other courses, one of which in the gastroenterological area, coordinated by Professor Tato Marinho. These courses are being prepared within an advanced postgraduate training package in key areas”, the Director said.
Postgraduate training is the main new training offer of the Reynaldo dos Santos Technological Centre. “These Masterclasses are aimed at specialists or people already at an advanced stage of their training. Those who can benefit from these new courses are, essentially, people who are at a more advanced stage of their professional career, as they are specific and differentiated training. Eventually, we may think about offering some modules to postgraduate students, who may have some specific interest in some area, but the target population are specialists or specialized interns at an advanced stage”.
Regarding start dates and deadlines, the Director guaranteed that details are being finalized in order to make the new Masterclasses Online Courses available soon, still in 2020, in what is just another step on the path that the Faculty of Medicine of the University de Lisbon has travelled remarkably over the past few years in an example of innovation and excellence in medical education.
We ended the conversation with a reflection on the impact of a project as avant-garde, entrepreneurial and audacious as the Reynaldo dos Santos Technological Centre on the future of FMUL and on everyone involved in this project.
Fausto J. Pinto believes that it is the duty of educational institutions “to keep up with the evolutionary processes, in this specific case, medical training, and to seek the best solutions to achieve these objectives. This includes offering the best modern medical and scientific training adapted to 21st century doctors, in qualitative terms and in terms of integration into society of the values we transmit. And to do this there are tools that help us to implement our vision and fulfil our mission. The technological component is fundamental, as well as the possibility of having spaces and equipment that allow us to convey these concepts and objectives to our trainees. Generally speaking, this is the objective of any higher education institution that has these values, which we believe to be the most appropriate, current and modern way of offering medical training”.
In addition, the possibility of developing innovative areas, such as Bioimaging or Aerospace Medicine, in the new Reynaldo dos Santos Building is fundamental for the expansion and image of the Lisbon Academic Medical Centre, which represents modernity, innovation and the qualification of clinical practice, research and medical education. “It is extremely important to have instruments that enable the conduction of research and training projects that allow the implementation of what should be, as we see it, the strategy of a centre like this one, which is to be on the fringe of advances, on the fringe of knowledge and are the most appropriate to the current medical research and teaching”.
In the opinion of Professor Fausto J. Pinto, the period we are currently facing will remain in the history of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon as a moment for restructuring, transformation and evolution. A period when not only a new structural unit was established, with the acquisition of modern equipment and the realization of new ideas, but also when the reform of clinical education was achieved. “We always try to adapt to the circumstances, which I understand is the obligation of an academic institution, to adapt to reality always from a development perspective. And, according to Darwin, what resists is what best fits. It does not mean that it is the strongest, but it is the one that best adapts. And this moment that we are experiencing is very indicative of that, that is, the institutions that have the greatest capacity to adapt to reality and manage to do it in the best possible way, are the ones that will be most successful. Therefore, our goal is to be successful in the training of our students, in the development of modern, advanced research projects, to provide conditions for our lecturers, researchers and students to be able to conduct their activity in the most appropriate and advanced way possible”.
It is very difficult to predict the future. However, there is the certainty that when we look back 10 or 20 years from now, we will remember the present time as a period when the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon “stood up to its expectations. responsibilities and was able to find the solutions that allowed it to continue to conduct its activity successfully and implement its vision”, transmitting the necessary confidence to the academic community and maintaining a strategic perspective.
Fausto J. Pinto also argues that academic institutions should be one of the “main references for society”, not only in terms of “stance, but also in terms of development, especially in a scientific area like ours”. "And that's all we want to be". To this end, we continue with the uncertainty of today’s times and focus on this greater noble objective, seeking to find the best solutions, even if sculpted in the imperfection of human action, that build the future today and open doors to a new world that we invite you to discover.
Sofia Tavares
Editorial Team