Cutting-edge magnetic resonance The brande new equipment based in the city of Loulé "will be a very important facility for improving health services throughout the region", said the Municipality of Loulé at the inauguration on Friday, September 27th.
The project promises to make a difference in the development of clinical research in the Algarve, through the performance of high-quality magnetic resonance imaging exams, in close collaboration with the Local Health Unit.
This is an advanced technology, essential for the diagnosis and monitoring of various medical conditions, in areas such as neurological, musculoskeletal, abdominal, genitourinary, breast/senology, oncology, cardiovascular or pediatrics. It is capable of producing images that are currently not possible in the NHS in the Algarve, allowing, for example, full-body, cardiac or fetal magnetic resonance imaging. And it allows this to be done “as accurately and quickly as possible”. In addition, it integrates artificial intelligence tools that will allow for an improvement in the type of image.
To coordinate this service, Helena Guerreiro, a young doctor from Loulé, left Hamburg, Germany, where she was leading a research team, to embrace this project. According to her, the facility will have three pillars: the creation of lines of research with users of the National Health Service, also framed to combat waiting lists; the creation of prospective research studies that allow the development of new techniques and new technologies for medical image acquisition; and the creation of an “ideal platform”, through the connection and collaboration between the Hospital, the Algarve Local Health Unit, the University and the Algarve Biomedical Center, to support the development of clinical research.
The MRI scans will all have to be performed by hospital referral, and are intended for users who fall within the scope of collaborative research between the Local Health Unit and the Academic Center. However, as Helena Guerreiro explained, “the goal is that, one day, these referrals can also be performed by health centers and not just by the Hospital”. “We are developing something unique, an imaging unit in an academic center, and we are trying to strengthen this connection with the ULS so that, later on, we can reach the largest possible number of users”, explained the doctor.
For the president of ABC – Algarve Biomedical Center, Pedro Castelo Branco, “this project, which is now becoming a reality, aims, above all, to boost medical research in the region, and, in this way, improve the quality of life of those who live here”.
This official highlighted the fact that the creation of this unit was only possible with the efforts of several entities such as the CCDR, through the support of community funds, the Municipality of Loulé, “a key partner in this and other projects”, the ULS which contributed with “all the medical know-how and hospital structures”, and the University of Algarve, “which contributed with all the scientific knowledge and training capacity”.
The president of ABC highlighted the contribution of this equipment in reducing waiting lists and stressed that “it will allow users in the region to access highly specialized exams that previously required travel to other areas of the country”.
The unit will temporarily operate in a container next to the Professor Joaquim Vairinhos Municipal Pavilion, but the idea is that it will be integrated into the Mariano Gago Building, the future “mother house” of the ABC, which will be built next to the Loulé Municipal Stadium. This is where other ABC facilities that are spread throughout the city of Loulé will be relocated, such as the Experimental Surgery Centre, which will operate on Rua de Betunes, explains the Loulé local authority in the same note.
This will be a building dedicated exclusively to research, in an area of 4200m2. The public tender for the project will be launched at the end of the first quarter of 2025, as announced by the Mayor of Loulé, Vítor Aleixo.
For the mayor, this magnetic resonance imaging is “another pillar of the grand project that is already – and will increasingly be – the complex ecosystem of innovation and scientific research to support Biomedicine”. “A project that is already out there and will now enter its infancy. We are still a long way from what the impact of this investment that Loulé is making with ABC will be”, said the mayor, recalling the political commitment that the Municipality of Loulé is making to the development of Science.
Still in the area of Health, “the first Academic Health Center in the country” will soon be opened in Loulé, said Vítor Aleixo.
All these investments are “a clear political choice by this executive, who understands that the economy of our region cannot continue to be limited to just one activity, which is tourism and real estate activity combined with tourism. The investment in Science, which we are making in the Algarve, and particularly in Loulé, is in fact the great future that lies ahead for our region”, stressed Vítor Aleixo.
Source https://www.algarveprimeiro.com/ - photo by Loulé Camara
