Válter Bruno Ribeiro Fonseca, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Pathophysiology at FMUL and Researcher at the Luís Graça Laboratory of the Institute of Molecular Medicine, has been appointed Director of the Health Quality Department of the Directorate General of Health of the Ministry of Health for the next 3 years.
Professor Válter Fonseca specialized in Internal Medicine and has a Ph.D. in Immunology, both from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon. His scientific curriculum includes several publications in scientific journals, awards and praises, as well as some work as Scientific Reviewer and Clinical Consultant.
With the new management position at DGS, Professor Válter Fonseca proposes to lead the publication of a set of guidelines and technical standards aimed at improving the quality of health services.
In reaction to this most recent appointment, Válter Fonseca has explained his main lines of work, giving us a brief personal reflection about the responsibility of his new role.
“After the concluding the Integrated Master Degree in Medicine, the Internal Medicine Internship, the Ph.D. in Medicine and a career of over 10 years in university teaching, including conducting scientific research, I accepted a challenge that placed me in front of, not one, but more than 10 million Portuguese citizens”.
This personal path is certainly a catalyst for an innovative vision of Health Quality, which places it at the centre of solutions to the challenges of modern health systems: demographic change, biotechnological innovation and the different expectations of people regarding health (whether as patients or as health professionals). In fact, this is why Health Quality has been pointed out as a goal for the sustainability of health systems globally.
Being able to foster this transformative action from the Health Quality Department of the Directorate General of Health is an opportunity to affirm the importance of an approach that brings together, in health, the various areas of knowledge.
In order to attain excellence in health care, the Health Quality Department has to keep up with scientific and social developments, as well as the unpredictability of current times, looking far beyond the classic quality tools. This means that a strong focus on supporting clinical decisions (beyond scientific evidence), adequacy, safety and humanization of health care, and critical quality assessment based on health outcomes and gains, including those reported by patients, is, today an unquestionable path.
Congratulations, Professor Válter Fonseca!
Joana Sousa
Editorial Team
