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 and scientific culture, which promotes differentiation, human development and science.
It is important for us to be capable of fixing considered targets, which aim at compatibility among the needs of medical education and research and the development of the aid mission within a framework of solid institutional cooperation.
The times of crisis we are going through should not diminish the commitment and motivation in the work of institutional transformation begun in 2005. On the contrary, it is our imperative during these difficulties to find the moral incentive for fulfilling these strategic, convergent aims between the Santa Maria University Hospital, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon and the Institute of Molecular Medicine.
Modern medicine and the new requirements of academic and professional practice demand an opening to the new paradigms, whether of assistance or scientific, that innovation has brought to the health system. This process of continuous transformation gives us the responsibility to construct new models of institutional governing capable of making a synthesis between academic and scientific culture and the practical expression of the different areas of professional activity.
Perception of the new limits, of the health system, gives us an incentive towards deepening the academic dimension of clinical medicine, as well as towards stimulating biomedical and clinical research.
It is thus fundamental to react with strategic rationality. In this sense it is very important to maintain a favourable attitude in relation to the modernization of the models of organization and cooperation, having present the need to incorporate the contribution from professionals and the respect for the values that consecrate the fundamental identity of the institutions.
It is in this context that it is our responsibility in 2009 to respond to the important institutional challenge of putting into operation the Lisbon Academic Medicine Centre, congregating the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, the Institute of Molecular Medicine and the Santa Maria Hospital (North Lisbon Hospital Centre, EPE).
In a year of difficulties and crisis we will be faced with a great opportunity in the development of the academic dimension in clinical medicine and of the principles of clinical governance.
Adalberto Campos Fernandes
Chairman of the Board of the North Lisbon Hospital Centre, EPE
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 and scientific culture, which promotes differentiation, human development and science.
It is important for us to be capable of fixing considered targets, which aim at compatibility among the needs of medical education and research and the development of the aid mission within a framework of solid institutional cooperation.
The times of crisis we are going through should not diminish the commitment and motivation in the work of institutional transformation begun in 2005. On the contrary, it is our imperative during these difficulties to find the moral incentive for fulfilling these strategic, convergent aims between the Santa Maria University Hospital, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon and the Institute of Molecular Medicine.
Modern medicine and the new requirements of academic and professional practice demand an opening to the new paradigms, whether of assistance or scientific, that innovation has brought to the health system. This process of continuous transformation gives us the responsibility to construct new models of institutional governing capable of making a synthesis between academic and scientific culture and the practical expression of the different areas of professional activity.
Perception of the new limits, of the health system, gives us an incentive towards deepening the academic dimension of clinical medicine, as well as towards stimulating biomedical and clinical research.
It is thus fundamental to react with strategic rationality. In this sense it is very important to maintain a favourable attitude in relation to the modernization of the models of organization and cooperation, having present the need to incorporate the contribution from professionals and the respect for the values that consecrate the fundamental identity of the institutions.
It is in this context that it is our responsibility in 2009 to respond to the important institutional challenge of putting into operation the Lisbon Academic Medicine Centre, congregating the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, the Institute of Molecular Medicine and the Santa Maria Hospital (North Lisbon Hospital Centre, EPE).
In a year of difficulties and crisis we will be faced with a great opportunity in the development of the academic dimension in clinical medicine and of the principles of clinical governance.
Adalberto Campos Fernandes
Chairman of the Board of the North Lisbon Hospital Centre, EPE