Infrastructure

The program has a ROBUST INSTITUTIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE with emphasis on state-of-the-art laboratories.

We have access to the University of São Paulo infrastructure park and, mainly, to the Hospital das Clínicas Complex of the USP Medical School. The HC Complex occupies a total area of 600,000 square meters with around 2,400 beds distributed among 8 specialized institutions and 2 auxiliary hospitals.

The University of São Paulo Medical School (FMUSP) is recognized for its pioneering spirit and excellence in teaching, research and university extension environments. The institution invests in modernization, technological innovation and its educational platform, in addition to building partnerships with the private sector and expanding the internationalization process to be an educational center of reference in the world. The USP Medical School is made up of 17 departments, among them the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology and the Department of Clinical Medicine, to which belong the disciplines of Rheumatology, General Practice and Propaedeutics, Clinical Emergencies, Endocrinology and Metabology, Geriatrics, Hematology and Hemotherapy, Clinical Immunology and Allergy, Molecular Medicine and Nephrology.

For research project development, we have the building of the FMUSP Institute of Orthopedics and Traumatology (IOT) at the disposal of our Program students, which brings together all the teaching, research and care activities of the Department of Orthopedics and the entire Rheumatology area, which has laboratories in the main FMUSP Building and also areas within the Hospital das Clínicas itself.

The IOT occupies two buildings, the first with ten floors and the second with four, totaling 25,000m² of building space. Both are dedicated to the treatment of diseases of the locomotor apparatus. The IOT also has seven specialty laboratories and a clinical staff of approximately 160 doctors, among them orthopedists, residents in the specialties and a team of anesthesiologists. Other members of the group include pediatricians, geriatricians, physiatrists, chest and plastic surgeons, urologists and cardiologists, who provide medical support to orthopedic patients. It has laboratories equipped to meet the needs of the teachers, students and researchers and a Surgical Center with 11 rooms, also considered as a place for teaching and the development of various research projects. Within the structure, a Clinical Research Center was designed and conceived according to rigid Good Clinical Research Practices standards. The Physical Medicine Division (625 m² of rehabilitation infrastructure) is noteworthy, including Physiodiagnostic Services, the Rehabilitation Service and the Physical Therapy Service. There is an Occupational Therapy Service, a Psychology Service and a Medical Social Service. There is also a specific Prostheses and Orthoses division (760m² of workshops), made up of the Surgical Instrumental Production Service – Prostheses Unit, Orthoses Unit, the Saddle, Vest and Shoe Unit, in addition to the Administrative Unit, storage and support areas. The IOT has a Radiology Center with magnetic resonance, radiography and ultrasound apparatus and a report room devoted to the Musculoskeletal System that facilitates graduate student access to practical learning, as well as the use of these methods in research projects.

In Rheumatology, we have a research area inside the medical school where the LIM 17 is located (Rheumatology Investigation Laboratory), which has eight laboratories, all renovated with help from FAPESP, and that offer training in basic and clinical research in Cellular Immunology, Humoral Immunology, Extracellular Matrix, Bone Metabolism, HR-pQCT, Bone Densitometry & Bone Biopsy, Lyme (Baggio Yoshinari Syndrome), Inflammatory Myopathies, Applied Physiology & Nutrition and Antiphospholipid Syndrome. We also have a Vivarium for experimentation in the Clinical Medicine Department that is coordinated by the Rheumatology discipline. The Rheumatology ward, located in the Central Institute of the Hospital das Clínicas, has 16 hospital beds distributed in double rooms and 10 beds for the Rheumatology day-hospital. Our group handles approximately 29,000 patients per year in 24 specialized walk-in clinics, screening, requests for consultation and infiltration. All assistance is carried out using electronic medical records, in a pioneer program using a specialty-specific database. It also has training areas in ultrasound, capillaroscopy, sports medicine applied to rheumatological diseases, infusion center and research experience. Another part of our Service is a Physical Conditioning and Rehabilitation Laboratory for Rheumatological Patients (LACRE) and a Multidisciplinary Center for Dispensing High-Cost Medications (CEDMAC). The latter is in a partnership with the São Paulo State Secretariat and has become the Coordinating Center for a central biologics network associated with tertiary hospitals in the State of São Paulo.