Local Health Unit of Santo António

The Santo António University Hospital Center (CHUdSA) is one of the leading university hospitals in Portugal, encompassing all areas of healthcare, education, and research. The hospital center is structured like a university campus, supported by the Santo António Hospital, dedicated to multisystem and infectious diseases, the Northern Maternal and Child Center, focused on women's and children's health, the Medical Genetics Center, specializing in genetic diseases, and the Magalhães Lemos Hospital, which provides psychiatric and mental health care. CHUdSA has an installed capacity of 848 beds, 46 beds in the Day Hospital, 35 surgical rooms, and 32 beds in the Intensive Care Unit. It is the affiliated hospital for the Master's Degree in Medicine at ICBAS, University of Porto, and offers internships in all medical specialties. The Education, Training, and Research Department (DEFI) of CHUdSA supports clinical researchers working in partnership with academia, funding agencies, and the industry. DEFI manages 130 clinical trials of pharmaceutical products and medical devices and observational studies annually, coordinating and providing funding and resources with the goal of offering patients the opportunity to participate in high-quality clinical research, with an emphasis on interventional studies. CHUdSA is a partner of the Portuguese Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (PtCRIN), in collaboration with its European counterpart, ECRIN. The hospital center's level of specialization, high proficiency in clinical care, and research capacity have led to the implementation of sixteen national reference centers and the inclusion of CHUdSA in eleven European rare disease networks.