Orlando Monteiro da Silva

Dr. Pedro Passos Coelho is the new Prime Minister-elect of Portugal, elected last 5th June. He will lead a centre-right government that has the purpose to implement a demanding austerity programme to make sure that Portugal honoured the terms of the bail-out and achieve new prosperity.

Bial is an internationally renowned Portuguese company and its mission is to, among others things, discover and develop therapeutic solutions within the area of health. Bial has been taking on an important role in researching and developing new drugs.

I had the pleasure to be at the ceremony of the BIAL Merit Award in Medical Sciences, last Friday (6th May 2011). This award is one of the most important in the field of health in Europe.
Professor Vladimir Hachinski, a distinguished researcher in the areas of dementia and stroke, was awarded with the sum of 200,000 Euros.

For this and for so much more, I feel that I have to highlight Bial’s work. And because I believe that people are the most important, I have to congratulate Dr. Luis Portela for his presidency in BIAL, along these years.

Prof. Vladimir Hachinski, President of the Portuguese Republic, Prof. Aníbal Cavaco Silva, Bial's President, Dr. Luís Portela

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Last 21 April I was received by His Excellency, the President of the Portuguese Republic, Prof. Aníbal Cavaco Silva, at the Belém Palace, in Lisbon.

I had the opportunity, on the one hand, to introduce FDI World Dental Federation, highlighting its activities and projects, and on the other hand, I had the chance to present a set of concerns about Portuguese dentistry and oral health.

All of those items were positively welcomed by the President.

See more on the FDI website.

Last Monday, 7th March, I met with Dr. Pedro Passos Coelho, President of the Portuguese Social Democrat Party (PSD) and leader of the opposition in Portugal.

The meeting was very fruitful. We approached oral health in general, with updated data, and in particular the current professional situation of the Portuguese dentists and the Portuguese NHS.

I also had the opportunity to introduce the FDI World Dental Federation and to give him a general vision of dentistry around the world.

The PSD President has shown a strong knowledge of the health sector, particularly in issues such as the sustainability of the Portuguese NHS I make a very positive assessment of this meeting.

The University of Porto, where I got my dental medicine degree 23 years ago, is approaching its one hundredth birthday, having been formally founded on 22nd March 1911, immediately after the Portuguese Republic was established.

This is a very important date for the city of Oporto, where I live and I exercise my work as a dentist. Personally, if the date was already very important to me, as former student, has now become even more after being invited to join the Honorary Committee of the centennial of the University of Porto.

Today, the University of Porto has fourteen faculties and one post-graduate school.