The application submitted by the Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon-FMUL to the Regional Operational Programme of Lisbon-PORLisboa, Axis 1, action "Education Infrastructure for Higher Education: Equipment", with the initiative "Equipment for New Higher Education Programmes in the area of Health through Multidisciplinary Advanced Simulation" was approved.
This initiative of the FMUL, to be implemented in 2017, will enable creating new higher education programmes to meet labour market needs, particularly in the context of the Integrated Master Degree in Medicine and through new short postgraduate programmes not leading to a degree aimed at responding to existing needs, whether in the field of medicine or in other areas of health.
The acquisition of advanced simulation equipment will allow the FMUL to create a Multidisciplinary Advanced Simulation Centre, an international reference unit for improving the skills of students, professionals and health teams. It aims to promote education and research capacity, innovation and scientific development in clinical practice, providing an integrated response based on an inter-professional and multidisciplinary approach in various medical specialties, benefiting from the partnership between FMUL and the North Lisbon Hospital Centre, EPE-CHLN.
One of the strategic pillars defined for the FMUL aims to implement new higher education methods and instruments to ensure teaching excellence to medical students, and to include inter-professional and multidisciplinary advanced simulation in educational programmes in various specialties. This, associated with the promotion of the best scientific and pedagogical conditions, will ensure the best clinical practices and patient safety, responding adequately to the new needs that scientific innovation in clinical practice in various specialties permanently require.
At the same time, this initiative will enable the FMUL to invest in offering courses not leading to a degree, as it will also allow creating the appropriate structures to carry out simulation and multidisciplinary training activities focusing on creating courses in emerging and little explored areas based on innovative high-fidelity advanced simulation technologies (technology still virtually non-existent in Portugal and completely non-existent in the Lisbon region).
In short, this initiative adequately addresses medical and health care training needs, particularly in terms of training and assessment of both theoretical, technical and behavioural medical education, without jeopardizing patients in anaesthesiology, emergency, medical and surgical emergency, and intensive care critical areas, among others. It equally enables the qualification and strengthening of the learning of health professionals, in partnership with the CHLN, through new inter-professional training programmes based on scientific evidence and technological innovation. This will allow the FMUL to become an international reference regarding education through high-fidelity advanced simulation in various medical specialties.
The partnership and cooperation relationship between the FMUL and CHLN proves to be crucial to ensure the necessary tools to do better and different in undergraduate and postgraduate education, research and in the creation of channels for the introduction of innovative techniques that create added value, including through translational research, by providing a unique multidisciplinary environment with a comprehensive and relevant critical mass in the Lisbon region and even nationally.
The Multidisciplinary Advanced Simulation Centre will offer training in a simulation environment that is a new tier in clinical teaching and one of the most promising and innovative scientific fields worldwide. With the current technological developments, it will allow the full combination of architecture and information technologies and robotics with medicine and health care. It can thus be said that advanced simulation training is a true revolution in medical education and in the training of professionals and health teams, placing the clinical education institutions that incorporate it in their educational programmes at levels of excellence and international reference.
