Teaching, research, assistance and innovation together towards commitment to comprehensive care for life
Photo: Camila Cunha
In view of the multitude of concepts that the scientific term longevity can define, as a consequence of the increase in life expectancy all over the world, PUCRS’ Health Campus has been designed not only to promote more living, but to guarantee good living. This is such a complete facility that is available for the population of Rio Grande do Sul and Brazil to achieve healthy and autonomous longevity. It has been designed to bring together everything that is needed to take care of life in a comprehensive way.
PUCRS will officially launch this initiative in Porto Alegre, in the month of November. It has a unique format in the country and will congregate education, research, innovation and assistance for the benefit of people. The integrated and multidisciplinary model has been planned to meet the principles of the movement of comprehensive care to life and health promotion in all of their dimensions. In this regard, it will connect the actions of the Sports Park, Brain Institute of Rio Grande do Sul – BraIns, Clinical Center, Rehabilitation Center, PUCRS’ São Lucas Hospital (HSL), School of Medicine and School of Health and Life Sciences and other innovation initiatives, such as BioHub, an endeavor headquartered at Tecnopuc that generates innovative business in life sciences.
“With the mission of transforming health through innovation as well as production and dissemination of knowledge, we want it to be a facility for people, a space that maximizes their leading role in providing care for themselves and others. An initiative that, in view of the values of the Marist Brothers, may become an arena for the promotion of life in all of its dimensions. Every step of the way, in each of our projects, our intention is to make people realize the importance of living a healthy life now. They can count on us to learn how to do this and to make these processes easier with a complete structure”, Br. Evilázio Teixeira, President of PUCRS, says.
Still in 2020, the Health Campus’ first delivery will occur: the expansion of the Brain Institute of Rio Grande do Sul. “It is a different model, a shift of paradigms as we are bringing all these units together with facilitated access”, Dr. Jaderson Costa da Costa, Senior Vice President of PUCRS and Director of BraIns, says. Among the improvements in this new stage is the increase in capacity of production of the Radiopharmaceutical Production Center.
The entire production process for these new products will take place at BraIns. This includes from basic research to discover new biomarkers, to their application in patients. Known as Translational Research, this cycle will be developed in a large new structure, devoted to research and patient care. Radiopharmaceuticals are substances that are used in neurodegenerative and oncological diseases. They have aroused major interest all over the word due to the significant occurrence in the population.
There are other ongoing initiatives that will integrate the Health Campus. One of them is the complete repositioning of the PUCRS’ Sports Park, which will now offer additional services together with recognized dedicated partners, such as Technogym, an Italian company that produces machines combining design, research and innovative technology. Besides that, PUCRS’ São Lucas Hospital will be undergoing a shift of paradigms, too, as it will now address the needs of the adult and 60+ population.
According to Dr. da Costa, this model will stand out for a variety of things. One of them is the existence of an innovation environment associated with the best Science and Technology Park in the country according to the National Association of Entities Promoting Innovative Enterprises (Anprotec). The fact that it is anchored in a hospital that is a reference in the country is also a major highlight. To top it off, PUCRS has some of the best Medicine, Dentistry and Psychology programs in Brazil and, most importantly, the quality of the clinical body, staff and faculty members is certified.
● PUCRS’ Sports Park: one of the largest health and wellness complexes in Brazil. It brings together a wide variety of services for people of all ages, including the latest developments in sports, several areas for rental as well as green and leisure areas. ● BraIns: headed by a team of world-renowned neuroscientists, it combines cutting-edge research and high-quality assistance through the Image Center. The Center relies on state-of-the-art machines for Magnetic Resonance, Tomography, Scintigraphy / Spect and PET / CT. In November, the expanded facility will open to the public. The remodeling actions will guarantee an even better structure for research and services to the population and companies.
● São Lucas Hospital: serves more than 100,000 people every year – in urgency and emergency care alone -, as well as hospitalizations, medical appointments, exams and surgeries, in basically all medical specialties. The idea behind the repositioning of HSL is to address the new and increasing demands resulting from population aging. Since March, it has been providing neurological, cardiological and oncological care, among other medium and high complex specialties, to Universal Health Care System (SUS) patients, as recommended by the Municipal Department of Health of Porto Alegre.
● School of Medicine: with an undergraduate course that always ranks among the best programs in the country, according to MEC, three graduate programs and cutting-edge research, the School turns 50 years old in 2020, being a reference in the training of professionals and researchers in health care.
● School of Health and Life Sciences: it brings together, in a multidisciplinary movement, 12 Bachelor’s degree programs including teacher track programs: Biomedicine, Biological Sciences, Physical Education, Nursing, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Gastronomy, Nutrition, Dentistry and Psychology. It also embraces five graduate programs.
● BioHub: it is an initiative that congregates the entire university, with more than 90 laboratories, 100 research groups, 14 graduate programs, and countless research institutes and centers that integrate a living lab of tests and experiments for life sciences. It is committed to bringing all these areas together to promote innovation, as it connects talents and scholarship to generate innovative life sciences businesses.
● Rehabilitation Center: a distinct project that has been designed to provide support to individual and family health. It relies on specialized team of professionals, a complete infrastructure and cutting-edge technology to provide assistance for rehabilitation, prevention and promotion of health. Based on the premises of comprehensive health care, the actions developed by the Rehabilitation Center are interdisciplinary.
● Interdisciplinary Health Center: a facility that will guarantee undivided attention for patients. It is a specialized infrastructure to better serve the 350,000 specialized outpatient consultations for SUS patients every year. It will bring together the following programs in a single facility: Ambulatory of Specialties, Center for Prevention and Education in Health, Collection Station and Simulation Laboratory. It aims to bring together patients, medical professionals and students in a more humanized way with more assertive schedules.
