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About the Program

Information about the program

Program Overview

The wide-ranging initiative will involve professors, researchers and students from the 7 schools of medicine in Portugal, as well as the country's main biomedical research laboratories. At Harvard University, the program will involve researchers from Harvard Medical School and affiliated institutions together with faculty and students from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard School of Public Health, and the Kennedy School of Government.

The Harvard Medical School–Portugal Program will help modernize and improve the quality of medical education in Portugal, which is today a priority that must be addressed with respect to best international practices. Moreover, it must include the broadening of cooperation between Portuguese medical schools and Associated Laboratories and R&D institutions active in the field of biomedical and health sciences in such a way as to spur the creation of a truly competitive level of training at the international level.

The translational research activities are designed to help populate Portuguese research institutions with an increasingly sophisticated clinical and translational research capacity, and to expand the rate and quality of Portuguese clinical and translational research contributions to the international community. The program is also designed to foster long-lasting collaborative ventures, both within Portugal and between Portuguese and Harvard research groups. 

The activities on health information will be based in Portugal  and led by Portuguese academics. HMS will provide training and content through its Harvard Health Publications Division (HHP), which has 33 years of experience creating and disseminating health information for the general public. 

 

Governance

list of people of the program

Lines of Action

1. A research program directed at strengthening the national capacity to produce new translational and clinical knowledge with impact on specialized medical education and the practice of clinical medicine. It will be developed in close cooperation with teams from Harvard Medical School and will encompass networks to be formed between Portuguese schools of medicine and medical sciences and major national laboratories and research centers working in translational and clinical research. Participants in the research grants will include Portuguese and Harvard principal investigators, research fellows, clinical fellows, medical and graduate students, and undergraduate students. The program will include joint Harvard-Portugal workshops, retreats, and symposia.

2. The launching and streamlining of post-graduate medical training, including Junior and Senior Clinical Research and Career Development Awards for Portuguese MD trainees.

3. The systematic production of information concerning health for the general public, and the distribution of educational material to medical students and health professionals in particular, in the Portuguese language. Activities will include the creation of health information and the development of technological platforms for the delivery of the information. The program will also include the training of journalists and medical writers in the understanding, use, and communication of health information, as well as studies on the effectiveness of the program to distribute information to the general public.

The three lines of action will be launched on an entirely competitive basis at the national level, respectively for i) the identification and selection of research projects and networks; ii) the selection of MD trainees for post-graduate programs; iii) the respective training offered at the national level; and iv) the systematic review and production of educational material by specialist teams in Portuguese medical schools.

Benefits

Development and implementation of the Harvard Medical School-Portugal Program will have the following benefits to the major parties:

For Portugal:

  • Increase the availability and understanding of health and biomedical information for the Portuguese public
  • Improve quality and capacity in translational and clinical education and research
  • Foster the development of physician-scientist career paths that involve both clinical medicine and scientific research
  • Create collaborative research opportunities that expand capacity on the national and regional levels, building on existing strengths and filling existing needs
  • Create new research consortia and build on existing consortia among the universities, institutes, and other relevant parties
  • Provide a nexus for translational research collaborations involving scientists in the research laboratories and clinicians in the Faculties of Medicine and Portuguese teaching hospitals 
  • Foster cooperative ties among post-graduate clinical and translational research and education programs to optimize resources and stimulate collaborative work and mobility
  • Strengthen Portugal’s position in health sciences and the global economy, by fostering network activities among parties involved in the health sector in Portugal.


For Harvard Medical School:

  • Provide access to outstanding students who are currently unable to train at Harvard 
  • Support Harvard’s mission of training the best and the brightest 
  • Identify and establish collaborative research projects with the most outstanding health sciences investigators in Portugal
  • Establish new research relationships with Portuguese institutions
  • Identify areas of interaction with Portugal that enrich existing academic programs, activities, and opportunities at HMS and other Harvard University faculties and schools

Technical Annex


For a complete version of the Technical Annex of a Cooperation Agreement signed by Harvard Medical School and the Science and Technology Foundation, Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, see below:

Technical Annex
 

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