Postgraduate
In order to keep our postgraduate courses updated and consistently seek improvements in teaching and content, starting in 2021, following CAPES guidelines, we will initiate a self-assessment process for these courses. All students taking our courses will respond to an anonymous questionnaire that will consist of an analysis of the taught content, the course format, and the evaluation of the instructors regarding their knowledge and teaching ability. This tool will allow us to remain aware of any shortcomings and to continually strive to improve our courses.
A favorable self-assessment experience consisted of evaluating the profile of our graduates, which has been conducted since the previous quadrennium. In the first two years of the prior quadrennium (2013 and 2014), we observed that only 50% of our graduates had any involvement in teaching and/or research. This evaluation contributed to a better selection of students, so that by the end of the previous quadrennium, 92.5% of the graduates were engaged in teaching and research. During the current quadrennium, 86% continue to maintain teaching and/or research activities after their degrees, with some of them at our own institution.
The Strict Sense Postgraduate Program at FMUSP aims to train highly qualified academic human resources for teaching and research through Master's and Doctorate Programs. There are 25 Strict Sense Postgraduate Programs (17 with Master's and Doctorate degrees and 8 for Doctorate degrees only) and 4 Professional Master's Programs. There is a concerted effort to elevate the various subjects taught in the courses to the "state of the art" to better train students. Additionally, a core of subjects was created for the training of researchers, common to all programs, to avoid repetitions: these include courses in Research Methodology and Statistics, Pedagogy, Epidemiology, and others, to more solidly underpin the training of graduate students. Many initiatives are inspired by the 6 thematic axes that have brought greater quality to the Strict Sense Postgraduate Program.
Currently, we have 604 accredited advisors who trained 723 masters and 1,118 doctors from 2014 to 2017. In 2017, there were 569 students enrolled in the master's program and 1,303 in the doctoral program. It is essential to emphasize that much of the scientific output resulting from the master's and doctoral programs integrates the research component that we report next.
The Research Unit at FMUSP aims to encourage the formation of new researchers starting with the Scientific Initiation Program, volunteer opportunities directed at students from various undergraduate courses at FMUSP; aims to train new researchers through the Strict Sense Postgraduate Program at the master's and doctorate levels already mentioned; supports postdoctoral research here at the institution or at institutions abroad; encourages HC physicians or other professionals to participate in or coordinate primarily clinical research projects developed in the 62 available Medical Investigation Laboratories (LIMs); aims to create new research groups (currently numbering 202); aims for the generation of new patents that, in collaboration with national and international entities, may lead to new technologies, and finally aims for the development of new vaccines. Research at the FMUSP Unit is comprehensive and plural, with an emphasis on studies of Health Systems, Public Policies, Disease Prevention, Scientific Testing of Diagnostic Accuracy and New Therapeutic Approaches, Pre-Clinical Research of a translational nature, Prognostic Markers and Predictive Indicators of Therapeutic Response, as well as the Evaluation of New Technologies for diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and innovative treatments. Translational research has been consolidated in various areas of competence of the institution's departments. FMUSP is responsible for four National Institutes of Science and Technology from CNPq (INCTs), namely: National Institute of Developmental Psychiatry; National Institute of Immunology Research; National Institute of Biomarkers in Neuropsychiatry; and National Institute of Computation-Assisted Medicine. It hosts eleven NAPs of USP, where the activities of USP faculty are deliberately presented alongside those of other researchers in the FMUSP-HC system. The institution invests in strengthening the research infrastructure by creating multi-user infrastructures. In 2017, the FMUSP-HC system successfully approved National Multi-User Centers, with the Multi-User Equipment Network Program of the FMUSP-HC System. As a result of the investment in human resources and infrastructure and the qualification of research, a significant quantitative and qualitative evolution in the intellectual output of the System has been observed: from 427 scientific articles published in journals indexed in the ISI database in 2003, it increased to 2,200 in 2017, with an average impact factor of 2.6 to 2.9. The number of ISI-indexed articles in collaboration with international authors increased from 746 to 1,346 between 2012 and 2016. In 2011, FMUSP established an Innovation Office in accordance with the USP Innovation Agency (AUSPIN) to facilitate the processes of intellectual property protection.
On average, 4 patents per year have been filed by FMUSP.
In 2017, FMUSP filed a patent with the USPTO in collaboration with the University of Miami. This was the first international technology transfer from FMUSP. There are 3 patents resulting from partnerships with national companies. The proposed guidelines for the period 2019-2023 involve: improving the quality of scientific publications; promoting the internationalization of research; encouraging intergroup, interunit, and interinstitutional research projects, both national and international; enhancing the solid interaction between the Research Commission of FMUSP and the Directorate of LIMs at HCFMUSP; encouraging undergraduate students to participate more in scientific initiation programs focused on basic research; allowing collaborating faculty at HCFMUSP to supervise postdoctoral students; promoting a full-time postdoctoral program; progressively strengthening the multi-user research infrastructure; harmonizing innovation actions between FMUSP, HCFMUSP, FFM, and FZ; stimulating the development of new technologies in collaboration with small, medium, and large companies and technology-based startups; and finally, disseminating a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation and spreading the concepts of intellectual property among researchers.