CAC Católica Luz: the 1st non-state clinical academic centre
The government decree conferring the status of Clinical Academic Centre to CAC Católica Luz Association, was published today in the Government Gazette, having for major purpose to promote the quality of healthcare provided to the population, through the stimulation of synergies between education, research and healthcare. After the first private Medicine course – launched in this academic year of 2021/2022, resulting from a partnership between Universidade Católica and Hospital da Luz –, the first clinical academic centre has thus been created in Portugal, involving exclusively private institutions and the social sector.
The CAC Católica Luz Association – Católica Luz Clinical Academic Centre is a private non-profit association, that views to potentiate the already existing synergies between Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Luz Saúde Group, Hospital da Luz, GLSMED Learning Health (Hospital da Luz Learning Health, Luz Saúde company comprising the clinical Simulation Centre) and the Union of Portuguese Misericordias, entities that integrate the components of education, research and healthcare, and that have already collaborated with each other in the sense of developing strategies to strengthen the connections between the referred components.
This collaboration intends to create a common institutional culture, focused on scientific and clinical quality in an international context, facilitating and fostering communication and collaboration, optimizing the use of human resources and infrastructure, and generating common cross-sectional projects that may contribute to the continuous improvement of healthcare.
This first Clinical Academic Centre exclusively involving private institutions and the social sector, on the other hand, represents an acknowledgement of the role that these have in the development of clinical research and innovation, allied to a clinical practice of excellence, with the purpose of obtaining the best results in health – with the confirmation of Hospital da Luz Lisboa as university hospital.
“To contribute distinctively for the health system”
“It is with a high sense of responsibility that the network of Hospital da Luz hospitals and clinics assumes the commitment, through the new Clinical Academic Centre, to continue promoting a solid clinical and biomedical research, contributing distinctively for the health system, through the introduction of new care standards and new technologies supporting healthcare providing”, highlights the Luz Saúde CEO, Isabel Vaz.
“In partnership with UCP, Hospital da Luz, as a university hospital, and Hospital da Luz Learning Health, in its areas of education, research and innovation, are today key players in the building of the health professionals of the future”, she adds.
“The CAC Católica Luz will be the catalysing centre, bringing fundamental and translational research closer to clinical practice. In the context of CAC, research will also play an essential role in education, providing a hub for the development of research projects that will have great relevance on clinical practice”, states, on the other hand, the dean of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Isabel Capeloa Gil.
The vice-president of União das Misericórdias Portuguesas (UMP), Manuel Caldas de Almeida, stresses the importance of the establishment of the centre for the future in healthcare providing: “In a society constantly faced with new challenges, it is not sufficient to do good, we have to do it with quality and organizational efficiency”. The UMP represents around 400 misericordias with an extensive care and clinical area. The continuity of this partnership, now expressed in the clinical academic centre, manifests the clear option of connecting this practice to education and research, in a strategy of promotion of specialized human resources integrated in a culture of excellence”.
