History and objectives

Proposal to establish the graduate program in Tropical Medicine in the area of Tropical Diseases and International Health, Academic and Masters levels.

Proponent Institution

UNIVERSITY OF SAO PAULO

Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo

Competent unit collegiate

Board of IMTSP – approved in ordinary meeting on 10 May 2005.

Graduate Committee of the IMTSP

Prof. Dr. Hector Franco de Andrade Jr. (Coordinator)

Prof. Dr. Paulo César Cotrim

Prof. Dr. Vanda Akiko Ueda Ficks de Souza

CAPES area

Medicine II – Infectious and parasitic diseases.

Diploma

The masters and doctors will be graduates in science, within the program of Tropical Medicine, the University of São Paulo, in the area of Tropical Diseases and International Health, according to the current standards in USP and within the specific regulation of the program.

Proposal

This proposal aims at the creation of the graduate program in Tropical Medicine, tropical diseases and International Health, Institute of Tropical Medicine of São Paulo (IMTSP) of the University of São Paulo, in masters and PhD level. The study area of tropical diseases and International Health involve knowledge about the agents and diseases of greatest occurrence in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, in its various aspects, such as biochemical, immunological, biological, epidemiological and therapeutic pathogenetic, including the dynamics of international transmission of disease, with evaluation and production of inputs for diagnosis, therapy and prevention, targeting your control and possible eradication.

The Master has the objective to establish specific and in-depth technical and academic knowledge in healthcare graduates, enabling the formation of teachers of higher education in Tropical Medicine, tropical diseases and International Health.

The Doctorate is specific objective form researchers in Tropical Medicine, for expansion of knowledge in the area of Tropical Diseases and International Health, with scientific independence and able to develop own projects, consolidating its didactic training and guidance, with the development of the ability to drive independently original research in the area.

Justification

Our proposal aims at establishing a graduate program in the areas of knowledge that represent the interface between medicine and health, the study of agents and diseases occur in tropical regions of the world. As we will see below, a former field of knowledge, the Tropical Medicine is a thriving part of the scientific knowledge and their knowledge is the goal of our institution, including its name. Knowledge of tropical diseases of occurrence in our midst is an institutional goal easily understandable, but that needs to be pointed out, on the recent and ongoing advances in human knowledge and of current social changes, requiring ongoing review. In addition, the intended graduate will create an area toward the knowledge interface between medicine and human health, regardless of national or regional borders in the current globalisation, International Health, whose aim is to ensure full health in every corner of our planet, for knowledge of diseases of a region by other countries and scientists , aiming the production of knowledge and inputs that promote protection against them.

The essential characteristic of Tropical Medicine is the production of knowledge and interventions aimed at the promotion of individual and collective health, serving as an interface between the Medicine itself, performed exclusively by doctors and the sciences that produce the knowledge of infectious agents and their biology, where numerous other professionals interact to achieve the common purpose, full International Health. This fact can be proven by the profile of our counselors, which always belong to this interface, our main target, the Alliance of several areas of knowledge for the Elimination of evils affecting our population.

In today's world of globalization process, the importance of Tropical Medicine Classic will be associated with the new charges and duties. The ancient medicine of ports, where only the tropical countries were sources of transmission of exotic diseases, have importance with the development of more efficient means of transport that cause the rapid spread of disease in both directions, both of the tropical countries to the developed, but also to the tropical. Thus, both malaria can be a problem for tourists returning from fishing in the Amazon or the pantanal, as epidemics of diseases such as influenza, can be broadcast to African countries by increasing mortality in tropical countries. The AIDS pandemic is another classic example of worldwide distribution of an infectious disease.

Recently we had two world mobilizations of prevention of transmission of diseases (pneumonia and influenza associated with Asian chicken), with international assistance needed, to which we see the need to maintain and establish a new national science and technology critical mass in the area, avoiding the mere acceptance of concepts imposed by other countries or international organizations.

The Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo (IMT-SP) always acted in order to research and the development of tools that could improve health in Brazil and Latin America, characterized as a diffuser of knowledge in Tropical Diseases and, more recently, International Health, in line with this new concept.  These performances are characterized by significant scientific output of its researchers, in addition to the publishing of the journal of the Institute of Tropical Medicine of São Paulo, Qualis international and recently indexed in ISI, of the specialization course in Tropical Medicine from the IMT-SP, an initiative of Professor Carlos da Silva Lacaz that of 1960 to 2000 attended a large number of doctors in Brazil and abroad.

The research groups of IMT-SP always get involved with development of research projects and staff training focused on: 1) research, development and evaluation of materials for diagnosis and prevention of infectious and parasitic diseases, 2) implementation of multicenter studies aimed at the study of endemics, and 3) study of infectious agents and their relationship with the hosts, aiming to obtain technological training for the control of infectious and parasitic diseases. The steady work with these approaches originated specific laboratories distributed in a physical area of 10,000 m2, under the guidance of researchers linked to applied science projects on these themes.

The multidisciplinary nature of research activities and researchers ' extension of the IMT-SP, associated to their vocation, we induced to opt for the creation of a postgraduate course in Tropical Medicine in the areas of tropical diseases and International Health, in order to adapt our institution to a new reality for graduate education in the area of health.

The current group of researchers of the IMT-SP comes participating actively in the formation of teachers and researchers. In the last five years, concluded the guidance of at least 38 masters and 29 PhD students in related areas such as infectious and parasitic diseases, microbiology, immunology, biology of host-Pathogen Relationship, Experimental Physiopathology, public health, pharmacy, etc. An important aspect of our group is the collaboration and integration between different laboratories. This integration enables the analysis of various phenomena investigated by diverse points of view and at different levels, enabling interdisciplinary studies of greater effectiveness. This is manifested in the diversity of specialties and our guiding institutions, all considered consolidated by governing bodies of scientific and university institutions.

Thus, we anticipate a potential emerging in national and international interaction with research and educational institutions, as well as application in International Health, as has already occurred with who, PAHO, Johns Hopkins University, Keio University, and that is happening currently with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the FUNASA.

The future development of IMTSP provides that becomes a Center provider and evaluator of knowledge in Tropical Medicine, aiming at the training of professionals and scientists capable of dealing with new advances and subtle details of new processes of knowledge and management of diseases at risk of establishment in new regions, through studies on the agent, the disease, its prevention and therapy. How distant goal, International Health provides for the equality of the risk of transmission of disease in human populations, avoiding the current gaps in social development among Nations, resulting in the unsettling success of tropical diseases as diseases difficult to control and even without any expectations of preventing vaccine.

In this new type of international relations, it is necessary the constant updating of knowledge, perfect field for the activities of our Institute. The need for improvement in knowledge of international transmission of disease, strategic planning of your control and evaluation and production of inputs essential for diagnosis and prevention are the primary targets, the goal being secondary to constant updating and research due to the success of these challenging disease still prevalent despite several measures, which fully justify the formation of specialized personnel in the area.

Within the administrative scope of the governing bodies of the USP and the CAPES, the proposal to establish the graduate in Tropical Medicine was hatched within solid and fundamental principles, aiming to absorb new advisors and with the potential to reach levels 5 and 6 of the CAPES in the short term. To this end, careful formal documents and consultation meetings with advisors of CAPES and the Dean of graduate studies at USP guided proponents for this proposal.

The first question was the name of the program, initially proposed as Tropical diseases and International Health, difficult to understand and no area specifies in CAPES. In discussions with advisers and with members of the central committees of CAPES, it became clear that the proposal simply to repeat the consolidated name of the institution would be the ideal way to style our program, clearly linked to the Institute and already used by formal programs 05 in CAPES. This represented a significant step, since the name of the program associated to the unit that proposes, and extends the recognition of unity, given to it by the governing bodies of the University of São Paulo, for your graduate program, allowing for greater identity of the program with the unit.

The new name has set the area in which the program would be inserted in the CAPES, namely, the area of Medicine II. Based on standards of the CAPES and specifies for creating new programs, defined the type of prototype program Advisor, these should be consolidated, with guiding institutional and scientific capacity and binding of staff training. In this context, include permanent guiding researchers with activity for more than two years at USP accredited in other areas of the USP, but that can participate in more than one graduate program in the same Institution, here understood as the alma mater, the University of São Paulo.

The requirements for permanent advisors by CAPES aim to consolidate the institutional holders of the program, valuing those linked to the Institution longer and full-time steady, with at least 40 hours per week the USP. Each of them can expand your range of guidelines in two programs within the same institution, which is a valuable and desirable objective, aiming to broaden the horizons of graduate student training and diversify the interactions within the institution, thus avoiding an enclosure in very limited rows and thematic programmes.

The numerical requirements of CAPES for the creation of a program are clear and defined, particularly in the area of Medicine II, by requiring 10 permanent advisors, with 60% of these should have dedication of at least 40 hours in the institution, i.e. 06 (six) teachers of the program full-time or 40 hs in USP for this proposal.

In that providing guidance, program 11 permanent guiding USP, and the vast majority is dedicated to IMTSP (7/11), there are more than 05 years at USP, most on scholarship to research productivity from CNPq (8/11), all with at least a dissertation or thesis defended and ~ 90% of these, november 10, working under RDIDP. These profiles and numbers meet completely the requirements of CAPES and medicine II proposal for the program, according to the rules and instructions in force, as can be seen in table I, of the descriptive numerical data requested in comparison with those of the present proposal.

As all specialized Institute of USP, IMTSP, even though his own administration, is tied in congregations of teachers issues to other units, such as the FMUSP, and their teachers, although formally linked the FMUSP or other units of USP, are crowded in the laboratories of IMTSP, where they exert their research activities and graduate. This special feature is an operational advantage, allowing a kind of laboratory research applied that consolidates the knowledge of Tropical Medicine, a scientific area which aims to not direct management of patients, but the study of the disease, its transmission, prevention, epidemiology and ecosystems, their vectors and other related scientific areas.

Table 1 – comparison between the numerical values required for submission of proposal for a graduate program in CAPES, medicine II, and our proposal.

* Permanent Teachers can guide in more than one program in the same institution, but at most in two shows, standards of CAPES and the area.

We have included a cast of subjects divided into two large groups, one already consolidated based on active subjects of permanent advisors have offered and well evaluated and a group of new disciplines, exciting and aimed at the development and update of concepts, to form students a critical mindset about the development of the programme and the areas of study within the new needs of the world.

We hope to achieve with this constant interaction between the consolidated and the new scientific personnel training able to offer society new, effective and efficient solutions to the old problems of Tropical Medicine and emerging issues of International Health.