Last January, the IR subspecialty was finally approved by the Portuguese Medical Association and the Portuguese College of Radiology.
After creating the Portuguese Society of Interventional Radiology (APRI) in 2018 all Portuguese IRs and all IR teams came together and pushed IR forward within Radiology and increased IR
awareness among other specialties.
We still need more lobbying to invest, to have more budgets and to create more IR centres in Portugal. The future is IR!
By Dr. Belarmino Gonçalves, MD, EBIR
Angiography Section Chief and Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto, FG - Porto/PT
Combining efforts and lobbing of several teams and institutions around Portugal, the IR subspecialty was finally approved by the PT Medical Association and PT College of Radiology.
Portugal is a small country, but full of strong, innovative, and warm people. By creating the Portuguese Society of Interventional Radiology (APRI) in 2018, we stablished the final step to put
colleagues together, talking the same IR language and sharing IR expertise and experiences. A PT language syllabus was translated and adapted, the specialty IR training centers were defined and
with CIRSE helpful support everything became possible.
With the subspecialty together with EBIR certification professional knowledge will be certified and careers enhanced.
Currently with the biannual congress and regular IR meetings, by putting a strong focus on learning and a sustained commitment on their members APRI came to the lead. Investing in youth and
promoting IR events all people come to us, including IR residents, IR Nurses, Radiographers, and students.
IR awareness and advertising is now one of the major tasks around the country.
The major lacks that we still need to manage is promoting the creation of more widespread and new IR centers, more well equipped, less depend on general radiology services. Government and its
Health division, needs to invest a lot more on IRs and give them even more recognition.
The future is IR!
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