Patricia Antunes has a doctorate degree in Applied Decision Science to Management obtained from the University of Coimbra (2017). She graduated in both Economics (2006) and Nursing (1998) and has a post-graduate diploma in Management and Organization of Primary Health Care (2008) and an MSc in Health Economics (2010). She has also taken specific courses in health economic evaluation at the University of Oxford and University of York.
Patricia also works as the Coordinator of the Access Management Regional Unit at the Central Regional Health Administration where she is is responsible for overseeing the compliance of targeted response times for surgeries and consultations of 12 NHS hospitals in Portugal. She also supervises private healthcare providers with agreements for surgical treatment within the Portuguese NHS and is responsible for the validation of reimbursement which involves over 20 million euros annually.
Patricia is also part of the board and a researcher at the Centre for Health Studies and Research of the University of Coimbra (CEISUC) and has collaborated with the Portuguese Observatory on Health Systems (OPSS).