Facts about Unifesp

The Mission

To develop, with high standards of excellence , interrelated activities of teaching, research and extension, aiming for national and international leadership in health sciences.

To accomplish its mission, UNIFESP – EPM has assumed the following major commitments:

The strategies devised to accomplish these challenging goals are summarized in the following propositions:

Graduation- to assure the quality of the different available courses, emphasizing a practical and humanistic approach to teaching. To critically analyze the results through permanent evaluation programs.

Post-graduation in stricto and lato sensu - to maintain the high entitlement of the faculty members and the quality and diversity of research projects, to assure a leading role in training in health sciences.

Continued education - to develop systematic updating programs for faculty members, administrative personnel and technical staff. To offer continued education programs in health sciences, open to professionals not attached to the University.

New methodologies - to stimulate the critical adoption of new educational strategies.

Research - to develop institutional programs and mechanisms that encourage the realization of basic and applied research projects, enabling a close relationship between teaching and extension. To maintain the high level of excellence of the faculty members as well as the quality and diversity of the research projects, to attain a leading role in training in medical sciences.

Extension - to guarantee the quality of assistance in social care. To promote other extension practices and establish lines of action based on the needs of society and the university’s potential.

Evaluation - to keep a permanent system of institutional evaluation to ascertain the quality of all the services provided by the university.

Information - to broaden the use of network information, updating technological resources all the time, and expanding its use for teaching, research, extension and support activities such as evaluations and planning.

The biggest University in Brazil specialized in health sciences

The history of UNIFESP- EPM began in the early 30’s. At the time, São Paulo had only one medical school. In 1933 a group of outstanding and creative young physicians founded a promising medical school in a house near the present University campus. These enthusiastic doctors conveyed their experience and idealism to the next generations. At its very beginning, UNIFESP-EPM had no property of its own, but due to the founders’ perseverance, it conquered its own piece of land some years later. In the late 50’s, the Department of Medicine was awarded a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. This support allowed the installation of the research laboratory, enabled the school to pay young faculty members’ training abroad and provided the basis for the payment of the full-time senior staff of the faculty.

Clinical research centers and the foundations for medical residence programs were then established. In addition, stricto sensu post-graduate programs in clinical fields were created. Throughout the years, there has been a significant shift from a technical School of Medicine to a research university in the field of health sciences. The creation of the institution’s first basic research center (1948) was fundamental for this transformation. The centralization of experimental and clinical research as well as the creation of the Biomedical course determined the destiny of EPM. Nowadays, UNIFESP is the most productive Brazilian university, taking into account the amount of published papers in international scientific journals in relation to the number of faculty members. Seventy years later, UNIFESP stands out for its virtues in teaching, research and assistance. Its five graduation courses, post-graduation programs and health assistance are national references by the quality of their contents, the professionals’ backgrounds and the technology they offer.

Excellency in teaching

Research of international level

UNIFESP – EPM’s first post-graduation courses were created in 1970. Their beginning, together with the inauguration of a complete medical library on the same campus, urged the fast development of research in the institution, making it known in a very short time, nationally and internationally, as a center of excellence for the graduation of masters and doctors.

The University provides 39 master degree post-graduation courses and 38 PhD courses, five of them in basic sciences and the remaining aimed at specialization in different fields. Most programs have been offered for more than 15 years.

UNIFESP became a pole of research in health sciences and frequently takes part in the development of relevant world studies. Scientific production at UNIFESP – EPM is the largest in the health field in Brazil, either by the range of papers published in international journals or by the number of published papers per faculty member. The amount of published papers increased from 1500 in 1992 to more than 8000 in 2002.

Research activities relate closely to post-graduation projects

Social Responsibility of the extensions programs

The responsibility of UNIFESP is not restricted to the formation of human resources, building of knowledge and health assistance. The University supports 70 established social projects, such as extension programs, scholarships, an open university for elders, and partnerships with private companies and the government. Some of these programs offer a unique opportunity to secure a closer tie between the needs of the population, and the faculty and students who help them to pursue better conditions of life. UNIFESP is also concerned about teaching-related information technology: the so called Virtual University offers courses, seminars and on-line tests for the students and the community enabling them to have access to information and to improve their knowledge all the time, anywhere. Besides this, it also helps professors in their elaboration of the didactic contents for their classes

The most important current social projects are:

Science to serve the people

The partnership with SPDM (Sociedade Paulista para o Desenvolvimento da Medicina) engendered the significant expansion of the University. EPM became the UNIFESP/SPDM complex, which today manages 6 hospitals and other affiliated centers with the capacity to offer health care to more than 6 million people. Hospital São Paulo is a huge hospital (600 beds) equipped to carry out high-complexity procedures. The quality of medical assistance relies upon the union between high technology and a humanistic vision, both present in different projects such as the multidisciplinary care of diabetic patients, medical and psychological support for pregnant adolescents, day-care for patients with mental disturbances, surgery and home-care. The Sleep Institute has been developing studies in sleeping disturbances for more than 20 years.

UNIFESP is also responsible for the management of the Family Health Program in 11 of the 41 health districts of the city, providing care for communities of little economic means.

Furthermore, UNIFESP is concerned with the improvement of the aptitudes of physicians, nurses and other professionals, aiming for a better teamwork.