2020 is a special year for Luz Saúde – it celebrates its 20 th anniversary – and that was the motto for the conversation between the Luz Saúde CEO and founder, Isabel Vaz, and the specialist in Internal Medicine, Vasco Evangelista, in the first Hospital da Luz Podcast . Hospital da Luz Podcast is a series of podcasts where the professionals of the group will discuss the latest themes in their areas. They will be available in the streaming and audio platforms (Spotify, Itunes, Google Podcast, etc.) and also on YouTube. Google | iTunes | S potify In this first podcast, Isabel Vaz evokes some of the most significant moments in the history of Luz Saúde, explains the choice of clinical organization of Hospital da Luz, and approaches the public-private partnership of Hospital Beatriz Ângelo (HBA), which management is granted to Luz Saúde until 2022. Vasco Evangelista, one of the physicians that took his training within the group, justifies why he chose HBA for his internship and analyses together with the Luz Saúde CEO the innovations that are changing health and the challenges posed to the practice of medicine in the future. Isabel Vaz “It was an amazing journey, with people that believed to be able to change the paradigm of private health in Portugal. After 20 years, we hold the same ambition and joy, now in a stage probably even more challenging.” “For me, it was quite clear from the very beginning that Internal Medicine is the specialty that holds the systemic vision of a hospital. And our great advantage is that we all came [referring to the other elements of the Executive Commission, Ivo Antão, João Novais and Tomás Branquinho da Fonseca] from outside Health and holding no prejudice. We were also fortunate to count with great internists, with vision, who helped us to do this, in Hospital da Luz Lisboa first and then in HBA.” “That was the greatest challenge in leadership and clinical governance: to convince the specialties to team medicine, coordinated by the specialists in Internal Medicine, gathered in a multidisciplinary way to decide what’s best for the patient, with no inflated egos.” “For me, the training of internists is a privilege: it means that our units are renewing every five years. Contrary to what happens in other sectors, we are constantly dealing with new persons, “picking at us”. I have a lot of appreciation for the internists who took the risk to do their training in Luz Saúde units.” “All health public-private partnerships entailed quite different scopes and logics, but it gives the impression that it all comes down to numbers – that are moreover positive. My frustration is that the majority of the analyses are economic; I would rather have them evaluating what we did of positive and different, and that can be learnt.” “In the future, we will be more ‘clients’ and less ‘users’. The data science will allow us to create predictive models, so that doctors will detect as early as possible the probability of something happening and can act immediately.” Vasco Evangelista “What motivated me to do my specific training at HBA was precisely the disruptive model of clinical governance, in comparison with other units of the National Health Service.” “The Service of Internal Medicine does not have a specific location: I am everywhere where there is a patient that needs an internist. That is extremely enticing for a doctor in training, for he can contact with the largest number of pathologies, thus gaining clinical experience and confidence.” “To be in a hospital with no barriers, that promotes a permanent dialogue between the different specialities, is always an enriching experience.” “I feel that in the last 30 years, physicians have progressively moved away from patients, and it is time to cut that distance short. Surely the new technologies will free us from a considerable bureaucratic part, allowing us to dedicate more time to the patient.” “The next 10 years? We will leave the hospital, our physical location, and we will be more present in people’s homes. Domiciliary hospitalization is already an example.”
