Emerência obtained a degree in Biology at the University of Porto (Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto) and has been teaching Biology and Geology in Portuguese public schools for the last 18 years, from elementary to high school levels. During these years she has had the opportunity to promote and to participate in science outreach activities developed in schools.
The project “A Collaborative Process of Public Awareness for Hereditary Hemochromatosis” was developed as part of her PhD thesis in “Teaching and Dissemination of Science” (Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto). The main goal of this project is to promote public awareness of Hereditary Hemochromatosis (HH) by creating a collaborative platform to engage different stakeholders involved in the process of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease, including government health officials, researchers, health professionals, patients, carriers of the disease and public.
Through a partnership with the Portuguese Hemochromatosis Association a range of outreach strategies were implemented and evaluated, and materials about HH, appropriate for different audiences, produced.
Emerência has also collaborated with the European Federation of Associations of Patients with Haemochromatosis (EFAPH) and Haemochromatosis International (HI) to publish “The importance of the general practitioner as an information source for patients with hereditary haemochromatosis” and co-author the article “Therapeutic recommendations in HFE hemochromatosis for p.Cys282Tyr (C282Y/C282Y) homozygous genotype.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24857332/
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12072-018-9855-0