The Minister of Health, Alexandre Padilha, has begun seeking professors from the Center for Comprehensive Women's Health Care (CAISM), which belongs to the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), with the goal of establishing a program within the Unified Health System (SUS). This program aims to improve access to treatments and medications intended for the transition and menopause itself.
This initiative was announced on Tuesday, the 27th, during Padilha's visit to CAISM and the university's Hospital de Clínicas (HC), located in Campinas, in the state of São Paulo. The minister mentioned that the health center was contacted due to its previous contributions to the SUS in areas such as maternal-infant care, in addition to the implementation of new Pap smear techniques and HPV virus detection.
During the visit to CAISM, Padilha stated that he intends to invite the professors to debate a new care plan for women in menopause and transition, addressing everything from medications to practices to be used, aligned with the reorganization proposal of the SUS advocated by President Lula over the next four years.
At CAISM, he observed the use of a bone densitometry equipment, essential for monitoring women in climacteric and menopause, measuring bone density to prevent fractures. There are plans to expand this technology within the scope of the SUS through this new program.
Radiopharmaceutical Pharmacy
Another topic discussed by Padilha during his stay in Campinas was the possibility of extending access to radiopharmaceutical preparation to other states. Radiopharmaceuticals are substances that combine radioactive elements (radionuclides) for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes, and are frequently used in the fight against tumors and cancer.
Unicamp's HC has a Clinical Unit in Nuclear Medicine Service (SMN), inaugurated in June 2024, responsible for producing these radiopharmaceuticals for the diagnosis and treatment of various pathologies. The minister emphasized that this radiopharmaceutical pharmacy model could be replicated in other regions of the country, as it functions as a central point for preparing medications for multiple hospitals.
He stressed that many regions, especially inland, in the North, Northeast, and Central-West, have few services for preparing this type of medication, and that the Unicamp model would be monitored for dissemination in these areas.
Technical Visit
In addition to CAISM, Padilha inspected a nuclear medicine section at Unicamp's HC to learn about the SPECT/CT equipment. This device, valued at R$ 8.6 million and equipped with cadmium-zinc telluride (CZT) detectors, uses artificial intelligence to generate high-precision three-dimensional body images.
SPECT/CT aids in the early identification of lesions, cancer diagnosis, and reducing patient waiting times. According to Unicamp, the HC is the first public hospital in Latin America to have this technology.