The Hospital da Luz Learning Health Simulation Centre, of Luz Saúde Group, was inaugurated and officially presented last September 9, in a ceremony that counted with the presence of several personalities, among them the Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor. This state-of-the-art centre is located at Hospital da Luz Lisboa and is the largest in Portugal and one of the largest in Europe, including over a hundred simulators and manikins for the training of present and future health professionals. In this equipment alone, an investment of around 2.8 million Euros was made, the Simulation Centre also obtaining European Union funding. The inauguration ceremony of this centre was integrated in the launching of the new Medicine Course by Universidade Católica Portuguesa, the first private medicine course in Portugal, where Hospital da Luz is a clinical partner. On that same day, the students of this new course had the opportunity to try, for the first time, the simulators and clinical environments of the Simulation Centre they will be working with in the coming years, along their academic education. Read about Hospital da Luz Learning Health Simulation Centre “The future generations of health professionals: the largest investment ever by Hospital da Luz” “Creating a simulation centre with engineering and students inside a hospital is, in fact, the path to the future” , highlighted Manuel Heitor , the Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, stressing that “the clinical academic centres, being based on the concept of university hospital, will be ever more relevant in the future”. “We are well aware that it is not possible to train physicians, nurses or engineers other than in living laboratories and in simulation centres such as this one”, he added, reminding that this is a project “with public European funding, but supported by private investment”, in a kind of articulation that should serve as an example. “ This simulation centre represents essentially the way our group – Fidelidade and Luz Saúde – positions itself in business: not in a short-sighted and immediate perspective, but in a perspective of development, innovation and excellence. It was the Fidelidade investment on Luz Saúde – started seven years ago next October – that made it possible the expansion of Hospital da Luz Lisboa (over 100 million Euros, creating about 900 jobs) and will allow us to continue expanding our group with more units”, asserted Jorge Magalhães Correia, the president of Fidelidade and Luz Saúde Board of Directors. “ Today, we celebrate the major of all investments ever made by our group: the investment in the future generations of health professionals, to tackle the extraordinary challenges of health in the 21st century and this digital era”, highlighted, on its turn, Isabel Vaz , the Luz Saúde CEO. With the inauguration of the Simulation Centre, she reminded, the expansion of Hospital da Luz Lisboa is concluded, presently the largest private hospital in Portugal and one of the largest in Europe, and now also a true university hospital, in partnership with Universidade Católica Portuguesa: “No brand will be as important as being the clinical and research partner in a new medicine course and assuming the greater responsibility of contributing to the education of future medical generations in our country”. “ This Simulation Centre is a centre of knowledge , integrating education, research and innovation. We have a simulated hospital inside a real hospital, allowing to train and develop investigation and innovation projects in a completely safe environment, both for patients and professionals”, stated on its turn Francisca Leite , the director of Hospital da Luz Learning Health – the “mother-company” of the Simulation Centre. Founded in 2015, this Luz Saúde company has already developed hundreds of training activities for health professionals and has several research projects underway in augmented reality and virtual reality, sensors and robots, in partnership with other institutions in the sector”. “ Hospital da Luz is today the largest and technologically most advanced private hospital in Portugal. Since its opening in 2007, it has served over 1.6 million clients, performed 6 million consultations and emergency assistances, 170 thousand surgeries, 30 thousand deliveries and 26 million exams. Notwithstanding this intense assistential activity, it develops a quite relevant educational and research activity, positioning itself as a true university hospital”, declared Rui Maio , the clinical director of Hospital da Luz Lisboa. “This simulation centre, one of the most sophisticated in Europe, constitutes an alternative mechanism of training and education: allowing to acquire manual skill, and to understand and perform all the sequence of complex gestures, training each of its components without the constraints that could limit learning, if a real patient was involved”, he further added. “ Concluding the academic career with a Bachelor’s Degree is no longer enough . The speed of science advancement and the changes in the processes of work and organization of health teams demand a new profile of nurses”, stressed Anisabel Soares , Hospital da Luz Lisboa director of nursing, thus highlighting how simulation is also decisive for nursing. “This is an historical day” “ Together with Luz Saúde, our commitment is to make a difference educating quality physicians , scientists that will take knowledge further ahead, contributing more and more to the qualification of higher education and research developed in Portugal”, emphasized on its turn Isabel Capeloa Gil , the dean of Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP), who expressed her gratitude to physicians and other health professionals, from teachers to student advisors, that integrate this new Medicine course, “a project we are all aware is historic”. “ This is, in fact, an historical day, for both Luz Saúde and Católica. The simulation centre marks the beginning of a great educational project which integrates perfectly the Católica medicine course. It will allow our students, right from the pre-graduation stage, to be in an educational continuum, going from basic simulation to professionalizing simulation (which is what we have here), and all of this without putting patients at risk. This is all in line with the main goal of our course: to educate physicians that will be able to approach patients already with clinical experience, without putting anyone at risk”, explained António Medina Almeida , the director of the UCP School of Medicine. A “memorable” experience On the Hospital da Luz Simulation Centre Open Day, and along several hours, the students of the new Medicine course of UCP shared with Hospital da Luz Learning Health teams the experience of being in a hospital environment, as if it was real, thus being able to anticipate what will be their training along the Medicine course and their future professional life, as physicians. In the safe environment of the Simulation Centre, the students had the opportunity to assist a delivery, participate in the resuscitation of a patient in intensive care, intubate a patient for surgery, and act swiftly in a situation of emergency. All of it done in simulators, where error does not imply risks – an experience unanimously described as “memorable”.
