On May 13 and 14, the auditorium of the School of Health Sciences of Leiria opened its doors to celebrate 5 years of ciTechCare and 10 years of the Research Center of the Local Health Unit of the Region of Leiria, hosting the Congress ‘Research, Innovation and Sustainability in Health’. 

The 5th anniversary of ciTechCare gathered national and international speakers, to discuss essential and challenging topics of current health research, such as innovative solutions for assistive technologies, design for healthcare and research and education in palliative care. Artificial intelligence, digital health, bioethics, healthy aging, health impact on climate change or research in primary health care were some of the topics highlighted at the congress, through debate sessions, workshops, oral communications or conferences.

Researchers, lectures, physicians, entreperneurs and other professionals from such different backgrounds and institutions such as the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, Portuguese Association of Hospital Administrators, Portuguese Catholic University, International Society of Wheelchair Professionals, COMPETE 2030, NERLEI CCI, EXATRONIC & INOVA-RIA or NOVA School of Science and Technology.

The importance of having a fund for research in the National Health System was pointed out as a real need, as the healthcare professionals “need to be motivated”, claimed Teixeira Veríssimo, President of the Regional Section of the Centre of the Medical Order. “It is essential that there is a structure that supports those who want to do research beyond all the clinical work they already do within hospitals. It is necessary to make research happen and not to wait for research to be made according to the interests”.  

One of the mentioned programes was the ‘Saúde+Ciência’, which aims to foster scientific and technological cooperation between academic institutions, research centers and entities supervised by the Ministry of Health.

Bringing together the public and the private sector in healthcare sector was also a burning point during the congress, underlining the difficulty of companies to be side by side with research institutions, in terms of labour and tax. One of the discussion sessions moderated by Maria Guarino, ciTechCare coordinator, was ‘The role of research in bringing companies closer to academia’.

In both days several oral communications were presented by researchers from ciTechCare and the Research Center of the Local Health Unit of the Region of Leiria, sharing their recent scientific findings with the audience.

Maria Guarino and João Morais, coordinator of the Research Center of the Local Health Unit of the Region of Leiria, and both members of the organizing committee, thanked the people who joined the event and highlighted the importance of maintaining collaborative projects between the Polytechnic of Leiria, the Local Health Unit of the Region of Leiria.

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