Driving Dental Care in Portugal through the HQA® Visa Program
It was all smiles at the Polytechnic Institute of Guarda (IPG) where the launch of a new project…
It was all smiles at the Polytechnic Institute of Guarda (IPG) where the launch of a new project has the potential to deliver dental care to those who face significant barriers in accessing traditional dental clinics.
Mobile dental vehicles have been proposed as a strategy to supplement traditional oral health care in many regions, and this project aims to turn that hypothetical into reality. MobiSmile, a startup founded by entrepreneur Dr Deepti Amarlal, will be a mobile dentistry service that provides a valuable opportunity for the underserved population living in rural areas as well as those in the geriatric population who cannot reach dental clinics.
Dental Care Delivery
“The project is about the dental vans, which we are planning to open in these mainly in these rural areas of Portugal,” explained Dr Amarlal on the IPG campus where she officially signed a research agreement with the well-regarded institution. “Dentistry is usually in the city limits and people have to come to the dentist to look after their teeth. So once we start this dental van, it’s a mobile dental van which goes to the people, populations which cannot come to the dentist like the geriatric population or the rural areas where it’s difficult for them to come to the dentist, we would like to go to them and provide (them) with quality and good dental care.”
An experienced dentist and published researcher, Amarlal has a history of implementing innovative oral health programs in her home country of India. Her latest endeavour, MobiSmile, will operate its initial phase in the municipality of Guarda before the collaboration with IPG expands its area of intervention to more remote communities.
“By targeting more vulnerable population groups, especially the elderly, who live in less favored rural areas, it will contribute significantly to raising their quality of life levels,” opined IPG President, Joaquim Brigas, who went on to say that the Mobismile project “will bring a positive social impact associated with these actions.”
Empowered at IPG
Amarlal is excited to get this project off the ground and into the Portuguese community. While her previous experience has come in India, she looked beyond those borders for her next entrepreneurial opportunity and found the perfect pathway through the HQA® Visa Program.
“I should thank Empowered Startups for that,” stated Amarlal when asked about choosing Guarda as the landing spot for MobiSmile. “We wanted to do some good research in Portugal, and we got to know Empowered Startups and Mr. Filipe (Galego) and Mr. Paulo (Martins). So that’s how we got to know that we could come to Guarda and associate with the Polytechnic University, and it’s a privilege to do so.”
MobiSmile is the fourth entrepreneurial project welcomed by IPG this year to be facilitated through Empowered Startups’ HQA® Visa Program, which delivers substantial foreign direct investment to universities and polytechnics in Portugal. The Canadian multinational has pledged to bring over 50 million Euros of foreign direct investment to Portugal by the end of 2027.
Learn more about Empowered Startups’ HQA Visa Program
