Cochrane is delighted to announce the official launch of Cochrane Portugal, a new Cochrane centre with a vision to increase the use of best evidence to inform healthcare decision making throughout Portugal.
On January 16th, 2020, Cochrane Portugal was launched in Lisbon, at the Institute for Evidence Based Health of the Faculties of Medicine and Pharmacy at the University of Lisbon.
After presenting the actual structure approved by the Cochrane Board - three Associate Centers at the Faculties of Medicine at the Universities of Lisbon, Coimbra and Porto – António Vaz Carneiro (Director of Cochrane Portugal) projected the future in terms of adding three potential Affiliate Centers at Universities of Braga, Covilhã and Lisbon (Nova University) that will constitute Cochrane Portugal in the near future.
After this introduction, Mark Wilson (CEO of Cochrane) addressed a 150 strong audience talking about “Leading Global Evidence-Informed Healthcare in the 2020s: Cochrane’s Achievements and Challenges”. He provided an overview of Cochrane, spoke about Strategy 2020 and presented Cochrane’s four goals. Also stressed was the need to have strong Knowledge Translation activities in Portugal.
The final part of the meeting was a roundtable headed by the former Ministry of Health, Prof. Adalberto Campos Fernandes and the representatives of the Portuguese Medical Association (Alexandre Lourenço, MD) and Portuguese Pharmacists Association (Ana Paula Martins, PharmD). The exchange with the audience was a lively one and plenty of ideas on how Cochrane Portugal can play an important role in the national health system were shared.
The meeting was closed by the Secretary of State (António Sales) who, in a short speech, addressed the need for high quality evidence to support policy decision making and stated the need for Cochrane Portugal to work closely with the government in providing relevant and usable evidence.
- For more information on the work of the Cochrane Portugal, please visit the Cochrane Portugal website.
