INOVATEC’s activities contribute to solving problems and optimizing processes in the healthcare area, with a potential impact on reducing surgical morbidity and mortality, which has a direct or indirect social impact. The projects can contribute to the formulation of guidelines on access to surgical treatment and perioperative care. The infrastructure and intellectual capital of faculty and students related to the care of surgical patients contributed to minimizing the health effects of the COVID-19 crisis and included the generation of new knowledge about the pandemic. The progressive increase in the number of auxiliary qualifications contributes to the training of qualified professionals, with the potential for long-term economic and social impact.
Economic and Social Activities Regarding Impact, Relevance, and Transparency
The quantitative analysis of the impact of the scientific production of the Professional Master’s Program in Technological Innovation and Perioperative Care Processes was carried out with the support of librarians from the Faculty of Medicine of USP, through the Overton platform (https://www.overton.io). This advisory service mapped the scientific and technological production of each permanent faculty member who participated in the Program from 2021 to 2024, regardless of their participation time, identifying the connection with the implementation of public policies and tracking how these productions influence governmental decisions and health guidelines. Furthermore, it was possible to analyze how the knowledge generated by the Program has been used in policy documents, covering various areas of knowledge. The analysis aimed to show how academic articles, books, and other types of bibliographic productions by Program members are being used as an evidence base by different political sources. The survey results indicated that the production of the PF in the quadrennium, regardless of their participation time in the program, was cited in public policies of the United Kingdom, China, and South Korea, including two NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) documents from the United Kingdom. This initial analysis encourages Program members to continue evaluating the impact of their productions beyond the number of citations in other journals.
Scientometric Analysis of Economic Impact
The analysis on the SciVal platform showed that one publication had the participation of companies and that two publications were cited in patents. This data demonstrates the importance of the PPG’s strategic objective of fostering a culture of technological innovation and entrepreneurship in academia to generate social value, which is aligned with the Institutional Development Plan.
Other Social Impact Actions
In addition to the social impact related to technological innovation, the strengthening of the innovation culture, the knowledge generated, and the training of qualified human resources to work in other HEIs, in the pharmaceutical industry, or in the equipment and materials industry for health. The trained professionals can act as members of clinical research companies or as highly qualified instructors for the training of specialists, especially in the areas of anesthesiology, surgery, pain management, and surgical intensive care. The Program considers the following social impact actions important, which have a direct or indirect relationship with the program’s activities:
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Human Resources Training: in addition to physicians, other professionals in the human or animal health field can apply to the Program. This activity in human resources training has an indirect social role in contributing to the qualification of the activities of the Health System in Brazil. Aiming at the optimization of social insertion through the nucleation of alumni, the Program has specific actions to increase the recruitment of students from different regions of Brazil. The Program continuously monitors the destination and activities of alumni through communication with them via email and encouragement to register on the USP Alumni platform.
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Interface with Medical Residency: the involvement of several PPG faculty members in institutional Medical Residency Programs, which annually admit Brazilian physicians from different regions and foreigners for Specialization Programs. The technical training and involvement of resident physicians in scientific-technological projects contribute to the training of qualified human resources and the optimization of care for the population, expanding the social impact of the Program.
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Partnership with “Smile Train”: the program of the NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) Smile Train, headquartered in the United States, which performs surgeries for the correction of cleft lip and palate and in pre-selected locations in Brazil. It is a project with voluntary participation of students and faculty of the PPG, with the NGO sponsoring scholarships for Program students who specialize in anesthesia for pediatric and neonatal surgery. The participation of these scholarship recipients in the NGO’s actions contributes to a virtuous cycle of care improvement. The scholarships are provided through CEDAR (the Center for Studies of the Discipline of Anesthesiology).
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Collaboration with the Anesthesiology Medical Residency Program of Luanda-Angola: it was one of the first anesthesiologist training programs in Angola, created in conjunction with former Angolan specialization students of the Training Program for Foreign Physicians of HCFMUSP. The PF Maria José Carvalho Carmona and José Otávio Costa Auler Júnior participate in this project, and support occurs through mentoring for the Program’s activities, online access to the theoretical schedule of the USP Anesthesiology Medical Residency course, and the possibility for final-year residents to have an internship at the Hospital das Clínicas of FMUSP. Testimony about this collaboration in the link https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4awc70ueCh/?igsh=d3U1NmZmaXlyOWhx. Graduates of this program are current candidates for PPG students.
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Partnership in the Professional Training Program for Foreign Physicians: In partnership with the School of Continuing Education (EEP-HCX) of HCFMUSP, the Discipline of Anesthesiology (Coordination of PF José Otávio Costa Auler Júnior and Marcelo Luiz Abramides Torres) offers two annual positions for internships lasting three years, with the same activities as Brazilian Specialty Residents, with most physicians coming from Latin America (Bolivia, Ecuador, and Colombia).
Internships for Program Students
In addition to the PPG’s disciplines and activities related to scientific-technological projects, students have opportunities to fulfill activities as instructors for professionals specializing at HCFMUSP, under the supervision of the PF, in their respective areas of expertise. Such opportunities include practical/technical instructions, continuing education activities for the internal or extra-institutional public, or voluntary activities such as the Kids Save Lives Brasil Project.
Teaching Improvement Program (PAE)
The Teaching Improvement Program (PAE) is a supervised teaching internship program for postgraduate students at the University of São Paulo (USP) and prepares students for teaching, in addition to contributing to the qualification of undergraduate teaching. It is a mandatory internship for scholarship students of Academic Master’s and Doctoral programs, being optional for Professional Master’s students who do not have the option of institutional scholarships. In the period 2021-2024, no student participated in this Program, an activity that will be encouraged in the next quadrennium.
Participation in InCube
Students can also participate in InCube (https://inovahc.hc.fm.usp.br/in-cube/), a free 09-month program of NIT InovaHC that is an entrepreneurial training aimed at multidisciplinary teams with health technology projects that are in the initial stage of development and aims to help teams evolve and improve their innovation and technology projects through consultancies, workshops, mentoring, and other activities that should generate deliverables that are periodically evaluated. The following students participated in internships during the quadrennium: Silvio Tacla Alves Barbosa participated in the 2021 edition of InCube, and Victor Sapountzakis Ribeiro participated in the 2023 edition of InCube.
Social Impact of Organizing Continuing Education Events
Faculty and students participate in the organization or teach classes in continuing education events within or outside the Institution, providing opportunities for the dissemination of knowledge, much of it related to the PPG’s projects. Some of the activities developed in the 2021-2024 quadrennium are described below and contribute to the social impact of the Program:
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USP Anesthesiology Congress: Annual event of the Discipline of Anesthesiology of FMUSP, since 2014, with the participation of PPG faculty and students and international research partners, and with an average of 600 participants in the in-person editions. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first online, and free, version occurred in 2020 and had 7,727 registered participants and a workload of 16 hours, being one of the main online events in anesthesiology in Brazil during the COVID crisis, contributing to the visibility of the Program, with the opportunity for dissemination and student recruitment. The number of registrants for this event was 7,367 in 2021, 4,050 in 2022, 3686 in 2023, and 3,181 in 2024, consolidating itself as a free online event for updating and contributing to anesthesiology in Brazil.
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International Trauma Symposium: Biannual event held in partnership between the Discipline of Anesthesiology and the Discipline of General Surgery and Trauma, with the participation of PF and students of the PPG and international research partners, with classes and workshops that include the dissemination of project results, with an impact on the care of polytraumatized patients in Brazil.
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University extension courses: continuing education courses linked to the Study Centers of the Disciplines and registered with the School of Continuing Education of HC or the Continuing Education Committee of FMUSP.
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Projects Related to the Priority Agendas of the Brazilian State: the PPG’s projects related to telehealth and telemedicine are aligned with the priorities of the Brazilian Unified Health System.
Social Impact in Interaction with Basic Education
- Kids Save Lives Brasil Project: in addition to national and international partnerships and an international award in 2024, the integration with basic education through the training of children and adolescents in basic life support (https://sites.usp.br/kidssavelivesbrasil/) is innovative. The project, coordinated by PF and with voluntary participation of PPG students, recently also showed an indirect social impact by encouraging an adolescent from a public school participating in a KSLB workshop to study and be approved as a student of the Faculty of Medicine of USP, as recorded in the link https://www.linkedin.com/posts/maria-carmona-a1a79526_calouros-da-fmusp-sejam-muito-bem-vindos-activity-7299303365165879297-ttch?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAAV0dHYBmTDHcxp9XMtZdsV59ki4g6jyPqA.
KSLB aims at training in basic life support and the use of an automated external defibrillator for cardiac arrests occurring outside the hospital environment. Training for children aged 8 to 14 (and their teachers) from the public network of Greater São Paulo and for high school students who are interns in the “Young Apprentice” Project of the Empresa-Escola Integration Center (CIEE) at the Hospital das Clínicas of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo (Basic Level Professional Education Actions Development Program). The project has a recent publication on its results in partnership with researcher Bernd W. Böttiger, from the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany, who develops KIDS SAVE LIVES with the support of the World Health Organization. The partnership with this researcher seeks the alignment of the proposed basic education interface project with the one carried out in Germany and other European countries. More information about the project is available at https://sites.usp.br/kidssavelivesbrasil/. The Project is supported by the Faculty of Medicine Foundation (FMUSP) and CEDAR (Center for Studies in Anesthesiology and Resuscitation, of the Discipline of Anesthesiology of FMUSP). Training sessions in “Basic Life Support” (BLS) are also held for young apprentices from different state schools in the State of São Paulo who work as interns in the “Basic Level Professional Education Actions Development Program”. As instructors, the training includes the participation of PPG faculty and students, as well as undergraduate students from FMUSP. The activity takes place in the FMUSP Skills Laboratory, with training for approximately 1,000 young people per year. The Optional/elective Discipline at the Faculty of Medicine of USP, MST4070 – Kids Save Lives, aims to train undergraduate students in the health area to act as basic life support instructors in the training of elementary and high school children. Among the various training sessions held in Public Schools of Greater São Paulo, with the collaboration of MP students who can volunteer as instructors. During the pandemic, the project was adapted for online training. In 2024, in Chicago, IL, the Kids Save Lives Group received the Ian G. Jacobs Award for International Group Collaboration to Advance Resuscitation Science, awarded by the American Heart Association and the Resuscitation Science Symposium (ReSS) Committee.
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The World Restart a Heart Day: Annually on October 16th, in partnership with the International Kids Save Lives Group, “The World Restart a Heart Day” is held in Brazil, with activities for the community under the coordination of the European Resuscitation Council. “The World Restart a Heart Day” empowers the population with basic life support skills, increasing the chances of survival in cases of cardiorespiratory arrest and promoting a community more prepared for emergencies.