Archive for year: 2015
Instituto Marquês de Valle Flôr awarded Distinguished Services Medal
Instituto Marquês de Valle Flôr, which has been developing for the last 25 years an extensive work on heath care next to Sao Tome and Principe’s population, was distinguished by the Minister of Health, Paulo Macedo, on Health Day, in a celebration that took place in INFARMED’s auditorium in Lisbon.
The programme Health for All developed by Instituto Marquês de Valle Flor now guarantees universal health coverage in Sao Tome and Principe. The programme assured a significant increase in efficient health care services through the action of specialist physicians in the field and through telemedicine.
The telemedicine appointments brought the Central Hospital of Sao Tome and the specialist Portuguese doctors closer, allowing for clinical cases, follow up and orientation in more complex cases. There was also training and monitoring at a distance of Sao Toméan physicians. This led to a 50% reduction of sanitary evacuation requests to Portugal, between 2009 and 2013. Not only did it had benefits in the proximity of the health care services provided but the reduction of evacuations led to a decrease in expenditure of 20% in the State Health Care budget of Sao Tome and about one million Euros for the Portuguese Ministry of Health.
“It is an honour to receive this distinction. It is undoubtedly due to the partnership spirit between local teams and national institutions that work with us.”, stated Paulo Telles de Freitas, IMVF Administrator. “It is also a recognition of our partners and financers for the quality of the work done and an incentive to continue our intervention on health care.”, he said.
The development of the programme Health for All depends on the efficient partnership between the Sao Tome and Principe Government, Portuguese Cooperation, the Directorate General of Health, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, PT, José De Mello Saúde Group, amongst others.
In 2013, the telemedicine platform Medigraf, developed in partnership with PT Innovation, gained new competences and benefits that boosted its use, due to the direct access to the Heath Information Network – RIS (Rede de Informação da Saúde). This Network now allows for the connection between the hospitals of the National Health Care Service of Portugal and the Central Hospital of Sao Tome, favouring a vaster follow up of the Sao Toméan population.
The programme Health for All covers the whole country and has transformed a centralised and inefficient national health care service in a network of preventive, primary and specialised health care providers, universal and functional, which benefits the entire Sao Toméan population.
Medigraf Awarded
The 3.0 version of the Medigraf telemedicine platform used in the telemedicine with Sao Tome and Principe was awarded, in late 2013, with two awards if the Changing Lives category.
The AfricaCom 2013 awards celebrate the best achievements within the health industry in Africa and the Broadband Infovision are considered amongst the most prestigious in the recognition of excellence in the broadband market and have recognized Medigraf as an initiative with a positive impact in the african telecommunications, contributing to its economic and social development.
Medigraf, developed in close partnership with PT Innovation,stands out as application capable of improving the living conditions of the population, with regard to their most precious assets: health and well –being.
Luso Sao Tomean Otolaryngology Journeys return to Sao Tome and Principe
The second edition of the Luso Sao Tomean Otolaryngology Journeyrs took place in Sao Tome and Principe on the 20 and 21st of February 2014, coorganized by the IMVF and the Otolaryngology portuguese medical team that perform the short term medical missions within the scope of Health for All Integrated Programme Specialised Care and Telemedicine, cofinanced by Camões: Institute for Cooperation and Language and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
First Official Dictionary of the Sao Tomean Sign Language
It was launched on July 10, 2014, at the Portuguese Cultural Centre, in Sao Tome, the first Dictionary of Sign Language of Sao Tome and Principe, born out of the need to improve the quality of life and combat the isolation of the deaf community of Sao Tome, consisting of about 5.000 people, or 3% of the population of this small archipelago of 180.000 inhabitants.
Optimizing the teaching ability, learning and social integration, and in order to break the existing linguistic constraints, this dictionary is developed under the project ” No Barriers” promoted by the Portuguese Catholic University, the Otolaryngology Department of Hospital CUF Infante Santo and the IMVF, with the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Training and the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs of Sao Tome and Principe.
