Contributions of the institutional fund of FAPESP in the improvement of the infrastructure of the Clinical and Epidemiologic Research Center of the Hospital Universitário

Abstract

The Clinical and Epidemiologic Research Center of Hospital Universitário has an area of 650 m2 equipped for clinical research with a room at central laboratory for processing biological samples and a biorepository using nitrogen tanks and freezers. The renovation of the center and the equipments were done using funds of the Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil) e of Rede Nacional de Pesquisa Clinics in which the hospital is included. The center has 9 interview rooms, 2 places for anthropometrics (2 stadiometers, chair for' measurement of seat height, mirror for measurement of waist and hip circumferences, electronic scales and bioimpedancy), measurement of blood pressure (20 Omron devices, 2 SPACELABS ABPM), electrocardiography (4 Atria-Burdick devices), pulse wave velocity (4 Complior devices), heart rate variability (4 WinCardio with dedicated software), retinography (Canon), polysomnography (1 EMBLA, 2 EMBLETIAS). The center still has 6 box for blood samples collection and 2 rooms for ultrasonography/echocardiography (2 Toshiba devices), a place to prepare snacks and a meeting room. The Center will have a small renovation to install internet in all rooms permitting that the measurements obtained in an equipment can be sent online to the Data Center. Most of equipments in the research center was bought in 2008. Although the good structure and the great number of equipments in the center, problems in the electric net and in air conditioning; and equipments that need to be substituted by new ones are real necessities at this moment. We planned to use the FAPESP Technical Funds obtained in several projects developed in the research center to improve the infrastructure and the capacity of the center to receive new projects. The specification of each one of the necessary equipments as well as a short text explaining its importance in the structure of the research center is attached. (AU)