Director

José Manuel Amarante, MD, PhD

Professor

Nature

The department of Surgery is a self-governing unit of the Faculty of Medicine - with its own facilities, also comprising the human, material and financial resources - associated to the scientific and educational areas of FMUP.

Mission

To contribute to the scientific and pedagogical development of Surgery and Anesthesiology, at the level of the various specialties represented in the Department, namely in pre and postgraduate teaching, research and medical care.

Aims

The Department of Surgery comprises scientific and educational areas, which aim to promote the knowledge in surgical operation and its quality, as well as patient's safety during the perioperative period, in its various perspectives and implications.

The teaching, research and technical staff, who were working in their departments, will now be part of this department, in order to meet its objectives.

The Department of Surgery encompasses scientific subjects of different surgical areas and anesthesiology. The latter shares features with the first, namely the understanding of the surgical patient, as well as safety and quality conditions.

The Department is organized in various units, which correspond to areas of medical knowledge. They are, however, scientifically and educationally autonomous as they have inherent specificities of knowledge and types of service, in order to achieve high-standards of quality.

The Department also aims to optimize the available resources, in order to integrate in teaching and learning the different subject matter that belong to different areas.

The teaching activity of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd cycle of studies, as well as the one developed in training units of continuing education (specialization courses, advanced study programs, courses/units of knowledge update and open courses/units), will be transferred from the former services to the current units, thus integrating the pedagogical patrimony of the Department, which is meant to be strengthen.

The research developed in the Department should gradually involve the participation of the most possible units, as well as other departments of FMUP and other university or healthcare institutions.

It is acknowledge that a significant part of the pedagogical and scientific activities of the Department of Surgery is based on the delivery of health services. Such activities demand for patients in a hospital environment, therefore the participation of medical doctors and other professionals not related to FMUP are welcome and their contribution must be fostered.

One of the aims of the Department of Surgery is the promotion of the participation of hospital doctors in research. It will be thus required material and human resources, in order to meet the objectives and needs of FMUP and the different hospital institutions.

Since research is essential to meet the specific aims of the department, the participation of its teaching staff and researchers in research projects associated to other academic departments, will be promoted.

The service of Experimental Surgery, which will later be included in the Department, is part of the plan of scientific and educational development and services delivery. It is part of what surgery professors have been doing for more than 50 years: training and teaching students in how to perform invasive surgeries in models and animals, training interns, introducing surgical innovation (namely in the acquisition of endo-trainers and virtual surgery simulators)and helping in the development of Doctoral and Master thesis.

In order to meet department's objectives, as well as the corresponding units, FMUP's direction will help secure the indispensible logistic support, both material and human, namely the access to published papers and audiovisual material.