CAC Católica Luz. The first non-state Clinical Academic Centre in Portugal has been created
The Católica Luz Clinical Academic Centre, now created, aims at promoting the quality of healthcare provided to the population by stimulating synergies between teaching, research and medical care.
The decree-law that grants the status of Clinical Academic Centre to the association CAC Católica Luz was published today in Diário da República.
The Association CAC Católica Luz - Católica Luz Clinical Academic Centre, is a private non-profit association that intends to empower the synergies that already exist between Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Grupo Luz Saúde, S.A., Hospital da Luz, S.A., GLSMED Learning Health, S.A. and União das Misericórdias Portuguesas, entities that integrate the teaching, research and medical care components, and that already cooperate with each other to develop strategies that strengthen the links between these components.
This collaboration seeks to create a common institutional culture, focused on scientific and clinical quality in an international context, enabling and fostering communication and collaboration, optimising the use of human and infrastructural resources and generating common transversal projects that contribute to the continuous improvement of healthcare.
According to the Rector of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Isabel Capeloa Gil, "the Católica-Luz Clinical Academic Centre gathers all the necessary elements to fulfil the mission of combining the efforts of teaching, research and medical care for the improvement of the services provided to the population".
"The CAC - Católica Luz will be the catalyst centre that will bring fundamental and translational research closer to clinical practice. Within the scope of the CAC, research will also play a key role in teaching, providing a hub for the development of research projects that will have great relevance in clinical practice," adds the Rector of UCP.
Isabel Capeloa Gil also mentions that "the creation of this CAC will bring an important contribution to medicine in Portugal, allowing its development and progress through the creation of close ties between all players in the health area".
With the first Clinical Academic Centre exclusively involving private and social sector institutions, the recognition of our role in the development of clinical research and innovation allied to a clinical practice of excellence is confirmed, with the purpose of obtaining the best results in health.
Isabel Vaz, CEO of Luz Saúde, underlines that "in partnership with UCP, Hospital da Luz, as a university hospital, and Hospital da Luz Learning Health, in its training, research and innovation dimensions, are today key players in building the health professionals of the future".
"It is with a high sense of responsibility that the Hospital da Luz network of hospitals and clinics takes on the commitment, through this new Clinical Academic Centre, to continue to promote a solid clinical and biomedical research that contributes in a distinctive way to the health system, through the introduction of new standards of care and new technologies to support the provision of care," adds Isabel Vaz.
About CAC- Católica Luz, Manuel Caldas de Almeida, Vice President of União das Misericórdias Portuguesas states that "UMP represents close to 400 charities with an extensive clinical and care area, and the continuity of this partnership, now reflected in the clinical academic centre, expresses the clear option to connect this practice to teaching and research, a strategy to promote specialised human resources integrated in a culture of excellence".
"With the clear matrix of our social responsibility the future will necessarily be built with these partnerships. In a society with ever new challenges it is not enough to do good, we have to do it with quality and organizational efficiency", he concludes.
