Over the past two decades, the Portuguese public health sector has been marked by processes of managerialization inspired by the principles of New Public Management, which have introduced models oriented toward efficiency, contracting mechanisms, and performance-based management. Although the literature points to economic gains, critical gaps remain regarding the impact of these models on the quality, humanization, and effectiveness of care, particularly in professions centered on relational work and the protection of vulnerable populations, such as Hospital Social Work. This project aims to analyse how managerialization within the Portuguese National Health Service (SNS), particularly in Public Enterprise Entities (E.P.E.) - namely Local Health Units (ULS) and the Portuguese Oncology Institutes (IPO) - influences professional identity, technical autonomy, perceptions of care effectiveness, and the quality of Hospital Social Work interventions, while also considering the well-being of social workers. It further seeks to understand how experience across different governance models over time - including former Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) or direct public administration - influences the current perceptions of professionals who now work within E.P.E. organizations. This perspective allows for the examination of whether professional trajectories across different management models, either within the same organization or throughout a career, contribute to differences in professional identity, technical autonomy, and perceived effectiveness of care. The study will adopt a comparative quantitative design, using validated instruments to assess professional identity, ethical conflicts, perceived effectiveness, quality and humanization of care, motivation, job satisfaction, and burnout. The analysis will include multivariate statistical techniques aimed at constructing explanatory models regarding the mediating role of professional autonomy and ethical–deontological val...

Based on the experience of the Generalitat de Catalunya- Institut Català de la Salut, this national pilot project aims to implement and validate a standardized battery of Social Determinants of Health (SDH) integrated into the electronic health record system of Primary Health Care within the Portuguese National Health Service (SNS). The project seeks to develop a national interoperable model for SDH registration and monitoring, designed to support clinical and governance decision-making, promote the adjustment of health financing according to social vulnerability, and strengthen coordination between the health and social sectors, thereby contributing to greater equity and sustainability within the Portuguese health system. The theoretical foundation is grounded in the frameworks of Dahlgren and Whitehead (1991), Diderichsen and Hallqvist (1998), and Solar and Irwin (2010), which conceptualize SDH as structural determinants of health inequities and emphasize intersectoral approaches and evidence-informed policy. According to the World Health Organization, SDH encompasses the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and are age-shaped by the distribution of power, resources, and policies-and are decisive in determining population health and social justice. The lack of structured social data has constrained health systems’ capacity to effectively address population needs (Bicalho & Campos, 2024), reinforcing the strategic importance of this proposal. Inspired by the Catalan experience, where SDH codification was successfully integrated and evaluated in primary care settings (Rodoreda-Pallàs et al., 2024), this project aims to adapt and operationalize that methodology in the Portuguese context, aligned with recent research demonstrating its technical, ethical, and political feasibility. Methodologically, the project adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining a quantitative component, focused on collecting structured and standardized indicators throug...