From Portugal to Guinea-Bissau, a clinician in the field
For eight months, doctors from the Guinean hospitals of S. José in Bôr, Simão Mendes and
Cumura in Bissau will be trained in the areas of anesthesiology, general surgery,
gynecology, by Portuguese clinicians, within the scope of internal projects “IANDA – Health Strengthening of Guinea-Bissau” and Advanced Medical Training in Internal Medicine.
Funded by the European Union and co-funded by the Gulbenkian Foundation, responsible for
implementation, as well as by the Camões Institute (Camões IP), the “IANDA” project encompasses
24 doctors from various specialties.
As for the Advanced Medical Training in Internal Medicine initiative, in which six participants
doctors, this is a project supported by Camões IP and the Calouste Foundation
Gulbenkian, which has a technical and scientific partnership with the Escola de Medicina da
University of Minho, in conjunction with the Portuguese Medical Association.
This field training is provided by doctors from six Portuguese hospitals: Hospital de
Braga; Medium Ave Hospital Center; Tondela-Viseu Hospital Center; hospital Center
University of São João do Porto; Nossa Sra. da Oliveira Hospital, in Guimarães; and Local Unit
of Health in Alto Minho.
In addition to training in a hospital context, three months in Portugal are added, taking into account
always taking into account the adaptation of education to the reality of Guinea-Bissau, and the contact of
forming realities with new techniques and other clinical realities.
In 2021, the theoretical component of the training took place online, for four months, in the
areas of Portuguese language and medical informatics.
This project, which reinforces the skills of Guinean clinicians, opens doors to a future
specialization training, in conjunction with the Portuguese Medical Association and the Ministry
Public Health in Guinea-Bissau.
With an estimated population of 1.85 million inhabitants and considered one of the
poorest in the world, Guinea-Bissau ranks 175 (out of 189) in the
Human Development, with a life expectancy of 53.8 years at source.