"The Católica-Luz Clinical Academic Centre contains all the necessary elements to fulfil the mission of combining the efforts of teaching, research and medical care to improve the services provided to the population"
Isabel Capeloa Gil, Rector of Universidade Católica Portuguesa
The Católica Luz Clinical Academic Centre, which has now been created, aims to promote the quality of healthcare provided to the population by stimulating synergies between teaching, research and medical care.
The decree conferring the status of Clinical Academic Centre on the CAC Católica Luz association was published today in the Diário da República.
The Associação CAC Católica Luz – Centro Académico Clínico Católica Luz is a private non-profit association whose aim is to boost the synergies that already exist between the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Grupo Luz Saúde, S.A., Hospital da Luz, S.A., GLSMED Learning Health, S.A and the União das Misericórdias Portuguesas, entities that integrate the teaching, research and medical care components and that already collaborate with each other to develop strategies that strengthen the links between these components.
This collaboration aims to create a common institutional culture, focused on scientific and clinical quality in an international context, facilitating 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 contains all the necessary elements to fulfil the mission of combining the efforts of teaching, research and medical care to improve the services provided to the population”.
“The CAC – Catolica 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 fundamental role in teaching, providing a hub for the development of research projects that will have great relevance in clinical practice,” adds the UCP Rector.
Isabel Capeloa Gil also said that “the creation of this CAC will make an important contribution to medicine in Portugal, allowing it to develop and progress through the creation of close ties between all the players in the health field”.
With the first Clinical Academic Centre involving exclusively private and social sector institutions, it confirms the recognition of our role in the development of clinical research and innovation allied to a clinical practice of excellence, with the aim of obtaining the best results in health.
Isabel Vaz, CEO of Luz Saúde, emphasised that “in partnership with UCP, Hospital da Luz, as a university hospital, and Hospital da Luz Learning Health, in terms of training, research and innovation, are today leading 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 is committed, through this new Clinical Academic Centre, to continuing to promote solid clinical and biomedical research that makes a distinctive contribution to the health system, through the introduction of new standards of care and new technologies to support the provision of care,” adds Isabel Vaz.
Regarding the CAC- Católica Luz, Manuel Caldas de Almeida, vice-president of the Union of Portuguese Misericórdias, said that “the UMP represents nearly 400 misericórdias with extensive clinical and care areas, and the continuity of this partnership, now expressed in the clinical academic centre, expresses the clear option of linking this practice to teaching and research, a strategy for promoting specialised human resources integrated into a culture of excellence”.
“With the clear matrix of our social responsibility, the future will necessarily be built on these partnerships. In a society that is always facing new challenges, it’s not enough to do good, we have to do it with quality and organisational efficiency,” he concludes.