Awards and Research Support

Established in Portugal for the first time in 2007, this award aims to encourage the implementation of measures leading to improved quality of healthcare at a national level. The prize is divided into two categories: Best Quality System of Care Services, Better Quality System of Hospital Pharmacy. The winning team from each category receives a prize of 6,000 euros in training in quality management, with the possibility to present a poster at a conference held within this context.

In the first edition of the prize, the winning team was the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Dona Estefânia Hospital, in Lisbon, in the Care category. "Central Venous Catheterization, results of Infection Control and Quality" is the name of the work that shows the implementation of a quality system that allowed lower rates of infection in newborns.

Created in 2008, as a result of a partnership between Merck Portugal and the Portuguese High Commissioner for Health, the awards intends to support national research in oncology, specially the one concerned with epidemiologic aspects. The award, in 70 thousand euros, is intended to Portuguese researchers and organizations. In the choice for the best study, the jury has in account the innovative aspects of essay and its results in an effective improvement in general population's health.

In it's first edition, the award was attributed to a team of Serviço  de Oncologia Médica e Registo Oncológico Regional do Sul, of Instituto Português de Oncologia de Lisboa Francisco Gentil, EPE (Medical Oncology Service and South Oncology Records of the Portuguese Oncology Institute) for their research on the incidence of Testicular Cancer in the South of Portugal.

Considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the leading preventable cause of mental illness and development, the lack of iodine is the cause of diseases that affect about 13% of the world's population, while another 30% are at risk. To obtain data on the prevalence of nutritional deficiency in Portugal, the Group for the Study of the Thyroid of the Portuguese Society of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism (SPEDM) is developing, with the support of Merck Serono, the first Epidemiological Study on “Iodine.” The aim is to establish the national reality in this area and, if necessary, propose to the authorities the introduction of health food supplements iodinated.