From an improvised outpatient clinic under the stairs of Santa Casa de Campinas, retired Unicamp professor, Silvia Brandalise, created the largest reference center for the treatment of childhood cancer and blood diseases in Latin America.
It was during an event by the Unicamp Ventures group, in 2020, with a “health” theme, that Silvia Brandalise approached the Unicamp Innovation Agency with a request, at first, strange. She sought registration and recognition of the Boldrini Children's Center as one of Unicamp's first daughter companies, with the intention of connecting to the ecosystem. Brandalise showed that the request was not only valid, with documentary basis, but also involved a unique story of social entrepreneurship driven by Zeferino Vaz himself, doctor and dean who led the construction of the Campinas State University.
With 43 years of existence, the Dr. Domingos A. Boldrini Children's Center for Hematological Research, in Campinas, can be considered, today, the greatest example of a Unicamp daughter company with high social impact. The philanthropic hospital has already treated more than 30 thousand patients referred with suspected or diagnosed cancer or hematological diseases and 10 thousand are being monitored. Many of whom, Dr Silvia Brandalise, an oncologist, makes a point of meeting in person.
At 78 years old, the retired Unicamp professor who made it possible to cure 6 children diagnosed with malignant tumors and helped train a significant number of new doctors, does not think about stopping working. On the contrary, the president of Boldrini, accustomed to transforming difficulties into opportunities, has many projects in mind for which she seeks partnerships. All based on the same tripod that gave rise to the reference center for child treatment: assistance, teaching and research. “My objective is one: to prevent the child from getting sick. This is the only point that guides my profession and, at this age, I am starting from scratch”, says the pediatrician who returned to studying basic physics after fifty years of training, in an attempt to find new irradiation modalities for the treatment of brain cancer in children.
From doctor to child health entrepreneur
When she arrived in Campinas, in the 1970s, at the invitation of her fiancé, there was no place for the newly qualified doctor to stay at the Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Campinas outpatient clinic. But Silvia wanted to treat patients and found a space under the hospital stairs where she set up a makeshift office. She helped children who arrived late and had to wait a long time to be evaluated.
It didn't take long for the doctor to be called by superiors. The small outpatient clinic was doing so well that families stopped attending scheduled appointments to have their children evaluated by Brandalise.
The doctor who welcomed patients and humanized consultations also began to care for the children of families from Campinas with high purchasing power. It was at this time that a women's service club in the city, the Lady's Club, provided a house for Brandalise to set up a practice. “All the people who came to me to solve any of their children's problems, I waited for the question: 'How can I help you?' I never started the conversation myself, and so we equipped the reception, offices, meeting room and laboratory”, recalls Brandalise about Boldrini's first address, in the central region of Campinas.
The rector's scolding that gave impetus to the creation of Boldrini
Brandalise was a professor dedicated exclusively to teaching and research at Medical Sciences College (FCM) from the State University of Campinas. At that time, the Hospital of Clinics (HC) at Unicamp was still a project laid in stone – “the campus was a huge field”, remembers the oncologist – and the doctors, residents and interns carried out their activities and studies at the Holy House of the city.
But it was in the basement of number twenty-one, on Rua José Teodoro de Lima, right in front of the Santa Casa Blood Bank, that Brandalise spent most of her time. As attendances grew at the philanthropic office, the lack of beds at the hospital became more glaring. This time, Professor Zeferino Vaz himself called the doctor to give her a warning. “You cannot cross the street, you have to stay inside the Santa Casa”, said the then rector at the time.
As Brandalise knew the importance of the work she was doing, she found a way to reverse the situation. To convince the dean that the trips were worth it, he explained that everything in the improvised clinic was donated by volunteers. More than providing care, the office served as a source of studies and research. One of this health entrepreneur's hallmarks is persuasion, and so she was advised to formalize the place. “You will write a regulation of a legal personality, she will give a name and, then, we will form a public-private partnership”, recalls Brandalise about the direct order received from the dean. “And did I know how to make a regiment? Of course not!”, adds the doctor, with good humor.
Boldrini and Unicamp: partnership sealed four decades ago
Boldrini's first statute was based on the rules of the Association for the Education of the Man of Tomorrow – the Guard, in Campinas -, initiating the creation of the Boldrini Children's Center, as one of Unicamp's first philanthropic daughter companies. At the time, this terminology was not yet used to designate enterprises created by students, former students and professors at the State University of Campinas.
Boldrini's close relationship with Unicamp is recorded in documents, kept by Brandalise. On June 1981, XNUMX, the Partnership Term with the University was signed, “aiming at the exchange of knowledge and cooperation in their work programs”, as described in the document’s header.
The person signing the document is socialite Betty Nunes, representative of Boldrini – Brandalise would only assume the presidency years later – and professor Plínio de Alves Moraes, as rector of Unicamp. Zeferino Vaz had passed away four months earlier and never saw the formal beginning of the largest reference center for the treatment of childhood cancer and blood diseases in Latin America. “I have no doubt that this partnership was a trustworthy undertaking by Professor Zeferino Vaz, which was enormously successful. A success that translated into lives saved, teaching to resident doctors and students, in addition to the research carried out”, comments Brandalise.
Boldrini’s impact as a daughter company on society
Over these four decades, Silvia Brandalise helped define childhood cancer treatment protocols and increase the cure rate for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia from just 5% at the end of the 1970s to the current 80%.
Today, Boldrini carries out an average of 3,2 consultations per month and has its own research center – the largest in Latin America focusing on pediatric cancer. Among the research targets are new drugs and new therapies, either to specifically attack cancer cells (target therapy) or based on the introduction of healthy genes (gene therapy). “As a younger daughter, I would like my brothers to help me carry the young researchers so that we can guarantee our future. I would really like you to help me analyze and diagnose environmental health. What we breathe, what we drink and what we ingest, with a focus on the child’s health”, calls the doctor.
The next dream that the president of Boldrini has made her life's task is to build a pediatric specialty hospital in Campinas. It even has a name – the city of children's health – and would avoid the pilgrimage of many children and their families looking for specialized treatment beyond cancer and blood diseases.
The project has been ready for more than ten years, there is a lack of investment from strategic philanthropists, willing to collaborate in the search for answers to problems that impact the entire Brazilian society.
While the new hospital is still on the drawing board, Boldrini has been working on the standardization of conduct to build an integrated service between basic health units and secondary and tertiary hospitals, so that children (and even those who are past that age, but are unable to disconnect from Boldrini) feel welcomed throughout the network; and the teams, in turn, know how to meet the specificities of some pediatric disease conditions, improving, on the one hand, early diagnosis in the care network and, on the other, relieving referral centers.
More than welcoming, treating and curing, Boldrini's purpose is to provide comprehensive care for children, and this involves going beyond the medical aspect. “The pediatrician doesn’t just look at the disease. He looks at the child’s family, the child’s school and also the child”, concludes Brandalise.
original article published on the Unicamp Innovation Agency website.
