Cardiovascular Research Onlife family: the Portuguese Society of Cardiology

The Portuguese Society of Cardiology (PSC) was established in 1949 and was one of the founding-father societies of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), in 1950. During these 73 years of existence, the PSC evolved into a modern and vibrating scientific society, always working in very close collaboration with the ESC. Currently, the PSC has 1405 members who work in all the different areas of modern Cardiovascular Medicine. More than 40 Portuguese cardiologists are deeply involved in different roles and responsibilities within several international scientific societies, such as the ESC. In terms of education, beyond the national annual congress, one of the largest and most prestigious scientific meetings in Portugal, with >3000 national and international participants, there are many other regular annual activities organized by the 15 PSC Working Groups, 2 Associations, 3 Nuclei, and 2 Councils. In fact, these constituent bodies are all very active and generate a significant number of high-quality educational events in their fields of expertise. The PSC also includes within its structure a Cardiovascular Academy responsible for the delivery of 12 high-quality educational courses throughout the year, every year. Moreover, the PSC publishes the Portuguese Journal of Cardiology monthly, a peer-review journal indexed in Medline. Beyond the traditional post-graduate education that scientific societies usually deliver, the current Board of the PSC decided to start a pioneer collaboration with the Council of the Portuguese Medical Schools and subsequently also became involved in pre-graduated education. By contributing towards the creation of state-of-the-art educational materials organized according to the 2020’ ESC Core curriculum structure,1 the main goal of this initiative is to promote the harmonization of Cardiology learning in all Portuguese medical schools. This educational tool can also be useful for other Portuguese-speaking countries around the world since this educational resource will be available for free, in Portuguese, on the Internet. In terms of research, the PSC created, in 2002, the National Centre for the development and research in Cardiology (CNCDC).2 Throughout the past 20 years, 15 registries and 4 prospective studies were developed allowing all together the collection of databases with more than 300 000 patients. These large databases resulted in the presentation of 245 communications at international meetings and the publication of 30 papers in international peer-review journals, as well as 41 papers published in national peer-reviewed journals. Some of these papers were published in top scientific journals such as the most recent publication (Coronary Artery Disease)3 and the oldest one (Circulation).4 These are only a couple of examples among many others. This large experience in registries allowed us to be part of the first group of nine countries involved in the important EuroHeart project. The mission of EuroHeart is: ‘to develop and maintain an international collaboration that provides common definitions of quality of care indicators, and an optional IT infrastructure for continuous online registration of harmonised patient data with real-time feedback, supporting continuous improvement of care and outcomes in patients with common cardiovascular diseases’ (https://www.escardio.org/Research/euroheart). In 2022, the Board of the PSC decided to create a Biobank of biological samples to further support cardiovascular scientific research in Portugal. The first project that is going to use this facility is the PORTHOS (PORTuguese Heart failure Observational Study) registry that aims to evaluate the prevalence of heart failure in Portugal and is expected to enrol nearly 6000 people who are representative of the Portuguese population. Beyond the demographic data, and the collection of electrocardiographic and echocardiographic information, blood samples will be collected and stored in this biobank for further analysis. We are confident that this will be an important asset for international research collaborations. Biography: Lino Manuel Martins Gonçalves, MD, MSc, PhD, FESC President of the PSC Head of the Cardiology Department at CHUC, Full Professor of Cardiology at the University of Coimbra, Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, President of the Portuguese Society of Cardiology, and Biomed Alliance Board Member. Lino Gonçalves obtained his MD degree at the University of Coimbra, in 1984. In 1994, he received a master’s degree in Cellular Biology from the University of Coimbra, and in 2000, he obtained his PhD degree in Cardiology from the same University. In terms of post-graduate training, he did his Cardiology Fellowship at the Coimbra University Hospital Centre (1987–91). The Portuguese Medical Association certified him as Cardiologist, in 1992, and as an interventional cardiologist, in 2009. He worked as Visiting Associate at the National Institutes of Health’s Cardiology Branch (Bethesda, USA), from 1997 to 1998. He is FESC, since 2001. He is the Head of the Cardiology Department at the Coimbra University Hospital Centre, since 2013. In terms of academic position, he is the Full Professor of Cardiology, since 2016. He is the Scientific Council’s member of the Coimbra University Medical School, since 2011. He was the Co-director of the Portugal Clinical Scholars Research Training (PTCSRT) programme, and he has a long experience (since 2002) in the field of Cardiology education and training at the European level. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the Portuguese Journal of Cardiology from 2016 to 2019. He authored, or co-authored more than 1000 communications, and published 340 manuscripts in peer-review journals. He received 38 scientific awards. He is the reviewer for 14 scientific journals.