The 4th year students of the Integrated Master's Degree in Medicine of Universidade Católica Portuguesa will have the opportunity to carry out their clinical training at the Hospital Professor Doutor Fernando Fonseca, as of September 2024. This important step in the clinical training of future doctors of Católica results from the agreement signed between the University and the Hospital last March 10.

Through this partnership, the institutions will provide practical teaching, tutorials and curricular clinical internships for students of the Integrated Masters in Medicine.

Present at the signing of the protocol were the President of Católica, Isabel Capeloa Gil, the Dean of the Católica Medical School, António Almeida, the representative of the Executive Board of the National Health Service, Francisco Goiana da Silva, the President of the Amadora City Council, Carla Tavares, and the President of the Sintra City Council, Basílio Horta.

The cooperation between the Católica Medical School and the Hospital Fernando da Fonseca aims to provide students of the Faculty the opportunity to carry out not only practical teaching and clinical rotations but also a biomedical and clinical research collaboration.

The Hospital Fernando da Fonseca, which has extensive experience in university teaching in the area of medicine, thus joins the Universidade Católica as a clinical collaborator of the clinical training offer of the Católica Medical School, whose main partner is the Luz Saúde Group. 

The first students in the 4th year of the Integrated Master in Medicine will begin clinical rotations in the most recent partner hospital as of September 2024. In the following year, the expansion to 5th-year clinical rotations is planned, with groups of 10 students.

"This is a joint path of two institutions that share the same vision". These were the words of Isabel Capeloa Gil, Universidade Católica's President, at the signing of the protocol between Católica Medical School and Hospital Beatriz Ângelo (HBA).

The protocol signed on April 17 will allow medical students to carry out clinical internships in this hospital and promote the involvement of hospital physicians in research projects.

"Medicine is an activity of service and vocation. It is oriented towards the common good", mentioned the President of Católica at the ceremony, and addressing the President of the Board of Directors of the HBA, Rosário Sepúlveda, she assured: "You have our commitment to this service to the country".

Stressing the "pride" in this "important partnership" with the Católica Medical School, Rosário Sepúlveda recalled that "we have to be distinctive for the quality of care and show evidence of transmission of knowledge. Health deserves that".

The Clinical Director of the Hospital Beatriz Ângelo, Carlos Simões Pereira, said that "the partnership with Católica Medical School is the beginning of a journey that will allow us to reap many benefits together", adding that the HBA is a place where both passion and the need for knowledge are shared".

Recalling that the Beatriz Ângelo Hospital was included and valued in the Católica Medical School's project from the beginning, the Director António de Almeida stressed the importance of "strengthening the partnership with this hospital, which will continue to receive our students, with the faculty also being open to receive the Hospital's clinical staff."

The first students from Católica Medical School should arrive at Hospital Beatriz Ângelo in the second quarter of 2024. Internships in psychiatry are planned for the 3rd year of the course and medical and surgical specialties from the 4th year onwards. Around 30 students from Católica Medical School are estimated to intern at the HBA per academic year when the course is fully operational.

Therefore, Hospital Beatriz Ângelo becomes a clinical collaborator of Católica Medical School, whose partner is Grupo Luz Saúde. This partnership with Grupo Luz includes all the group's hospitals, including Hospital da Luz Lisboa, which will be the University Hospital.

The Católica Medical School (CMS) and the Hospital de Vila Franca de Xira, EPE, signed a protocol that will allow students from this School to carry out clinical internships in that Hospital.

Also within the scope of this partnership, the involvement of clinicians from the Hospital in research projects will be promoted.

The first students of the Católica Medical School should arrive at Hospital de Vila Franca de Xira, EPE, in the third trimester of 2024. Until then the procedures to be implemented for the concretization of the protocol signed between the two institutions are taking place.

"This collaboration will enrich the training that the students of the CMS will have, exposing them to different clinical realities and valuing the teaching staff of the Faculty with highly differentiated doctors of this Hospital" says the director of the Católica Medical School, António de Almeida.

Carlos Andrade Costa, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hospital de Vila Franca de Xira, EPE, considers that this protocol with the Universidade Católica "encourages even more the HVFX, EPE, to deepen the ambitious project of investment and technological renovation, providing its professionals with state-of-the-art technological conditions for the diagnosis and treatment of their patients. These conditions can only create a very favourable environment for the presence of the students of the Católica Medical School and their tutors, doctors from this Hospital".

The president of the Administration Board of the HVFX, EPE also reinforces "the positive impact of this investment plan in the internship campus of the Medicine students".

The present protocol came into effect upon its signature and will be in force for three-year periods, renewable for equal periods. This way, the Hospital de Vila Franca de Xira, EPE becomes a clinical collaborator of the Católica Medical School, whose partner is Grupo Luz Saúde. This partnership with Grupo Luz includes all the hospitals of the group, including Hospital da Luz Lisboa, which will be the University Hospital of the Católica Medical School.