Presentation

The Department of Child Care and Pediatrics of the Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo (FMRP-USP), established the first Graduate Program in Pediatrics in Brazil, in 1971.

The Graduate Program in Pediatrics at FMRP-USP, offered to pediatricians, was restructured in 2006 to enable professionals from different areas who work with children and adolescents. In this restructuring, which included non-pediatricians and non-physicians, the program was renamed Graduate Program in Child and Adolescent Health.

The Graduate Program in Child and Adolescent Health at FMRP-USP offers Master, Doctorate, and Direct Doctorate courses in two areas of concentration:

– Pediatrics: for pediatricians.

– Child and Adolescent Health: for non-pediatricians and non-medical professionals whose interest involves the area of child and adolescent health. The professionals who attend the program are biologists, biomedical scientists, physical educators, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, bioinformaticians, nutritionists, dentists, psychologists, and occupational therapists.

The Program’s advisors are mostly physicians from various pediatric subspecialties, including Cardiology, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Adolescent Medicine, Hematology/Cancerology, Immunology/Allergy, Emergency/Intensive Care, Neonatology, Social Pediatrics, and Rheumatology, in addition to a nutritionist.

A striking feature of the Program is the interaction between different advisors, including those from other programs inside and outside FMRP and USP. In this context, translational research has been developed in partnership with researchers in basic sciences to elucidate pathophysiological aspects of various diseases and discover new therapeutic agents.

The Program offers 12 disciplines covering methodology and scientific writing, biostatistics, laboratory investigation methods, child growth and development, pediatric nutrition, and advanced topics in allergy/immunology, oncology, and adolescent health (Link to Disciplines). It is worth mentioning the discipline taught in English (Nutrition in Critically ill Children: Systems Approach and Omics Sciences), which has the participation of an American professor (Prof. James Kaput).

The Program has invested in national and international exchanges, which have increased joint research projects with Brazilian and foreign institutions. Also, these exchanges have enabled the participation of foreign researchers in graduate disciplines and postdoctoral and sandwich doctoral studies of students linked to the Program. The following collaborating institutions are described below:

International

Imperial College of London, UK

Kanazawa University, Japan

King´s College London, UK

MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA

National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), USA

Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences, Switzerland

New York University School of Medicine, USA

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Miraflores, Lima, Peru

University Children’s Hospital Zürich, Switzerland

University of Alabama, USA

University of Colorado, Denver, USA

University of Leeds, Reino UK

University of Pennsylvania, USA

University of Toronto, Canada

National 

Centro de Pesquisa Boldrini, Campinas

Hospital Universitário da USP, São Paulo

Instituto da Criança do Hospital das Clínicas da FMUSP, São Paulo

Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo

Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Botucatu

Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas

Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul

Universidade Federal do Maranhão, São Luís, Maranhão

The Program relies on funding for research and thematic projects from FAPESP and federal research and education development agencies, such as CNPq and CAPES. Most of these projects involve several faculty advisors from the Program, other FMRP programs, and other institutions in the country and abroad. This interaction illustrates the main characteristics of the Program: interdisciplinarity and collaboration with different research groups inside and outside the Unit.

Since CAPES established the evaluation system for graduate courses in the country, the Program has received the following grades (from A to E) / (from 1 to 7):

YearGrade
1981-1991A
1992-1993 B
1994-1995 A
1996-1997 4
1998-2000 4
2001-2003 6
2004-2006 5
2007-2009 6
2010-2012 6
2013-2016 5
2017-2020 5

From February 1971 to December 2022, the Program graduated 344 masters and 223 doctors. Currently (in October 2023), the Program has 11 students enrolled in the master’s degree, 14 in the doctorate and 18 in the direct doctorate. The Program has 19 Full Advisors and 5 Specific Advisors.