José Miguel Ribeiro de Castro Guimarães is the new chairman of the Medical Association for the 2017/2019 triennium. He is an urologist at São João Hospital, 54 years old and has led in recent years the Northern Regional Council of the Medical Association (CRNOM).

In his Letter of Commitment, he emphasized the importance of defending the quality of medicine and patients, and that it is essential to focus the medical activity on the patients and on quality. Undergraduate and postgraduate medical training, compliance with the ethics and deontology of the medical profession, working conditions, access to proven efficacy and efficiency therapies and technologies, health literacy, and economic and financial constraints are issues to be taken into account during his term of office. He also stressed the importance of the professional appreciation of doctors, which needs a new drive to restore their dignity as people and professionals, and the need to value the outcome of medical work according to the level of responsibility doctors have in civil society. He argues that the Medical Association has the duty and obligation to promote peer solidarity, and that it is fundamental to continue the work already begun on the modernization of the Association. He believes that it is imperative to defend a Health Policy centered on people and patients that respects, listens, values and dignifies health professionals.

Raquel Moreira
Editorial Team
news@medicina.ulisboa.pt