The Stricto Sensu Graduate Program in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery of the School of Medicine of the University of São Paulo (FMUSP) began its activities in 1989, with the purpose of promoting intellectual formation and the production of knowledge in the fields encompassing its area of concentration. This program, whose headquarters are located at the Heart Institute of the Clinical Hospital of FMUSP, comprises a set of scheduled activities, both advanced and individualized, supervised by an advisor, which include and privilege teaching and research, always aiming to integrate knowledge. The existence of a Thoracic and Cardiovascular Program is justified by the fact that the Heart Institute is an autonomous segment within FMUSP, developing specific research and teaching activities, with great national and international penetration.

In order to achieve these goals, the Graduate Program in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery receives as students professionals with medical degree and individuals with a degree in other related areas who are affiliated with or were sent by university and non-university institutions linked to the Health System or to research and teaching centers and who are interested in developing projects in their area of knowledge. At the end of the Course, after passing the disciplines, the general qualification test and the thesis defense, the student receives the PhD degree in Sciences by the FMUSP, in the area of concentration in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.

History

During its existence, the Graduate Program in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery has been changed, according to the guidelines of CAPES Evaluation Committee. The Program Coordination, together with the professors, established several goals for improving the Program: renewal and expansion of the faculty staff; reorganization of research activities; incentive for PhD students to stay in the Service and participate in investigations; restructuring of disciplines; reduction in the time required for obtain the degree, and expansion of the intellectual production related to the defended doctoral theses.

Seeking to attain these goals, several actions were taken: renewal and expansion of the faculty staff, incorporating professors with well-defined lines of research and recognized scientific production; establishment of quarterly periodic meetings with advisors, in order to promote the strengthening of the lines of research and to follow-up the development of the thesis projects of PhD students; rigorous selection process of graduate students by the Committee, with a careful analysis of doctoral thesis projects regarding scientific merit and feasibility; opening and incentive to the application of non-medical professionals; restructuring of the curricular framework, with the expansion in the group of compulsory disciplines; incentive to the participation of scientific initiation students together with professors in their research laboratories; and increase in the capacity of advisors to raise funds from development agencies.

The members of the faculty of the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Program has a relevant academic and professional tradition in their area of knowledge and their activity has always been characterized by the high number and quality of their scientific production. This fact is testified by the level of the dissemination vehicles used and also often by the recognition of the national and international scientific community. However, the existence of only one area of concentration and very broad lines of research at the beginning of the program hampered the access and positioning of students regarding the subjects of their theses and also negatively interfered in the evaluation process developed by CAPES. In 1998, there was a restructuring in areas of concentration, lines of research and projects, and the program began to comprise three areas of concentration: General Thoracic Surgery, Surgery for Acquired Heart Diseases, and Surgery for Congenital Heart Diseases, which resulted in the program being awarded grade 4 by CAPES in the triennium 1998-2000.

In the next triennium, these areas of concentration were comprised again by the area of concentration in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, by order of the Graduate Dean’s Office of the University of São Paulo, due to the fact that the other areas were not registered in its database. Despite this, the proposal and the activity of the Program remained objective and coherent, and a significant improvement was observed in the period from 2001 to 2003 regarding training activity, participation of the student body, and preparation of doctoral Theses. However, these improvements did not result in an improvement in the grade obtained by the Program in CAPES evaluation.

Continuing the project established in the previous triennium, in the triennium 2004-2006 the Program finished the restructuring of its training and research activities, which are now focused predominantly on the participation of the student body and on its appropriate research training. In this period, there was the expansion of the student body, along with the solid fundraising with development agencies, the establishment of inter-institutional exchanges, and the opening of the postdoctoral program, actions that, together with a good core training syllabus and with lines of research consolidated by numerous publications and defended theses, resulted in an increase in high-quality intellectual production, linked predominantly to the stricto sensu graduate level of education.

These actions resulted in an additional improvement in quality, with the Program achieving a solid position in its area of expertise, a situation that justified the Grade 5 awarded by CAPES. The expectation of maintaining this trend, based on a process of continuous improvement, opens the prospect of obtaining better scores and a solid insertion in the international scenario.

In this sense, the Program began the new triennium with a significant expansion in its intellectual production, situation represented by 10 publications in level A international journals, 9 in level B international journals, and 13 in level C international journals in the year 2007, 50% of which related to end of course papers.