Speaker details

Biography

Carla Sousa Pontes is a medical oncologist and senior healthcare executive based in Portugal, currently serving as Chief Medical Officer and Head of Longevity at CUF, the country’s leading private healthcare group. With nearly 30 years of experience across clinical practice, health system leadership and policy, she works to advance the shift from disease-oriented models to integrated approaches that promote lifelong health, functional capacity and health system sustainability. Her work is grounded in a population health perspective and aligned with the global healthy ageing agenda. At CUF, she leads the development of an integrated longevity strategy, including the design and implementation of Portugal’s first Longevity Unit and the scale-up of this model across more than 40 hospitals, clinics and healthcare units. The approach aims to embed prevention, personalized care, risk stratification and long-term outcomes into service delivery and organizational governance. Her areas of focus include healthy ageing, chronic disease prevention, brain health, women’s health and workforce sustainability, with particular interest in the governance implications of demographic change and longer life courses. She has collaborated with WHO/Europe and European institutions on health policy and health system transformation initiatives. She is a member of the recently established WHO Europe Ageing is Living Leadership Group, where she has been designated as Prevention for Lifelong Health Leader, contributing to the development of new policy and governance approaches to support healthier and longer lives across the life course. She is also a Catalyst at the Stanford Center on Longevity, contributing to international discussions on the New Map of Life and the future of health systems in ageing societies. Carla is the author of two books and several articles in the fields of health policy, chronic diseases and ageing. She also coordinated the Health Policy Studies Centre at the Portuguese Catholic University, further strengthening the link between academic research, health policy and healthcare transformation.