New Algarve medical faculty could help with the region’s healthcare issues

The Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, authorized, on September 20th, the creation of a new Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in the Algarve.

The proposal was approved unanimously at a General Council meeting held on September 11th, and was submitted for approval by the guardianship on September 13th. This process culminated with the approval of the new Faculty’s statutes and the election of the management bodies.

According to the dean of Algarve University Paulo Águas, this is a measure inscribed in the Strategic Plan that was set to take place from 2017-2021, approved by the General Council two years ago.

After 10 years of development and planning by the current Department of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine, the dean pointed out that “regularization in this new situation was imperative”, since the current Department of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine has 151 teachers, 8 non-teaching staff and almost 450 students.

The Integrated Masters in Medicine, according to Paulo Águas “has been able to assert itself very positively at national and international levels”, showing the achievement of the 1st place in the European Medical Simulation Championship 2018, in terms of the grades obtained by its students in the Board of Medical Assessors exams.  

In addition, the current faculty “has made a very positive contribution to the establishment of doctors in the Algarve, and the improvement of the quality of healthcare and associated research, notably by training about 250 new doctors, of which around 50% currently work in the Algarve region.”