António de Almeida | Dean of the Católica Medical School

The creation of a Católica Medical School has been a project of Universidade Católica Portuguesa for more than 20 years, but only now have the right conditions come together for its creation. Our Medical School begins its journey at a unique moment in our civilization: a pandemic on a global scale that has imposed so many changes, difficulties, questions, and doubts that compel us to rethink two fundamental areas for humans: education and health care.

In this context, we adopted three strategic lines to train healthcare professionals of excellence, with a high ethical sense and social responsibility, capable of contributing to the continuous improvement of health care and inspired by the mission of working for the common good, in a firm commitment to the patients:

• The use of student-centred teaching methods to ensure the transmission of knowledge and of the most advanced medical and scientific techniques, placing students at the centre of their learning and empowering them with the autonomy to make decisions about their academic and professional paths;
• Training in clinical skills from the first year of the medical degree and the organization of semi-professional clinical internships, with the integration of students as full members of medical teams;
• The inclusion of research, both laboratory and clinical, in the curriculum of the medical degree, thus stimulating education in the scientific method and facilitating the training of clinician-scientists.

The excellence of teaching that we offer is guaranteed by four fundamental pillars:

• Our inclusion in the universe of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, an institution with significant experience in the health sciences and well known at national and international level for excellence in teaching and research, which we will perpetuate here.
• The partnership with the University of Maastricht, one of the leading Universities in Europe which occupies a top position among the best Young Universities and whose Medical curriculum, which will be adapted and implemented in our Medical School, has proven excellence.
• The partnership with the Grupo Luz Saúde, one of the largest private health groups in Portugal. The clinical excellence practiced in its hospitals, recognized through the accreditation of Hospital da Luz Lisboa by the Joint Commission International (JCI), guarantees the quality of clinical teaching. Hospital da Luz Lisboa has all the variety of medical and surgical specialties, equipment, laboratories, and clinical research required of a university hospital. In addition, it has a strong tradition in teaching - Hospital da Luz Learning Health - with the experience and notoriety acquired in Training, Research, and Innovation.
• The faculty made up of educators recognized and distinguished for their medical practice, as teachers or in research.

It is with great enthusiasm and sense of responsibility that we dedicate ourselves to the creation of this Medical School, certain of its enormous value for those with a vocation to practice medicine as well as to contribute to the excellence of the teaching of Medicine in Portugal.

António de Almeida 
Dean of the Católica Medical School

Católica Medical School is supported by the TRAINING4RESILIENCE project, funded by the European Union (NextGenerationEU), STEAM Youth Impulse and Adult Impulse, as part of the Recovery and Resilience Programme (PRR).