Back The Ministry of Health, UPF and the Barcelona Mar Health Park sign a collaboration agreement for the creation of a new bachelor’s degree in Medicine

The Ministry of Health, UPF and the Barcelona Mar Health Park sign a collaboration agreement for the creation of a new bachelor’s degree in Medicine

The signature was attended by Alba Vergés, minister of Health of the Catalan Government, Jaume Casals, UPF rector, and Joan Puigdollers, chair of the Barcelona Mar Health Park Consortium.

 

 

23.09.2020

Imatge inicial

The Ministry of Health, Pompeu Fabra University and the Barcelona Mar Health Park (PSMAR) Consortium have signed a collaboration agreement for teaching and research with the aim of creating a new bachelor’s degree in Medicine at UPF.

Today, Wednesday 23 September, a cooperation agreement for teaching and research was signed by the Ministry of Health, UPF and the Barcelona Mar Health Park Consortium. The signature, which took place at the ministerial headquarters, was attended by Alba Vergés, minister of Health of the Catalan Government, Jaume Casals, UPF rector, and Joan Puigdollers, chair of the Barcelona Mar Health Park Consortium.

Also attending on behalf of UPF were Joaquim Gea, dean of the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, and Jaume Bertranpetit, the rector’s delegate for studies in Medicine, and Jaume Badia, UPF general manager. Representing the Barcelona Mar Health Park Consortium were Olga Pané, manager, and Joan Ramon Masclans, director of teaching. On behalf of the Ministry of Health: Montserrat Gea, director general of Health Professionals, was also present.

The collaboration agreement provides for the creation of a new bachelor’s degree in Medicine taught by UPF at the PSMAR, which will gradually phase out the UAB-UPF joint bachelor’s degree which has been taught since the 2008-2009 academic year.

The new bachelor’s degree, which is scheduled to begin in the 2021-2022 academic year, will have a new curriculum that will be designed jointly by UPF and the PSMAR, and will be fully adapted to the needs of medicine today. It will mean a change in the methods and approach of teaching to train clinical professionals with solid knowledge and skills, and with a clear orientation towards medicine based biomedical research to explain the mechanisms and processes of diseases and treatments.

Therefore, the new UPF bachelor’s degree in Medicine will be clearly integrated in the spheres of biomedicine, transfer, clinics and public health, with integrated work with research groups.

Also, the clinical subjects will be adapted to include important parts of modern medicine such as cancer, infectious diseases, personalized medicine, systems medicine, telemedicine, and so on. In addition it seeks to encourage the learning of non-cognitive skills such as teamwork, critical thinking, analysis and expressive skills, conflict resolution, cooperative work, autonomy and empathy. Teaching will also be student-centred and will encourage active learning and the extensive use of clinical simulation tools.

The new bachelor’s degree, which is scheduled to begin in the 2021-2022 academic year, will have a new curriculum fully adapted to the needs of medicine today.

At the signature, the minister of Health stressed the importance of the agreement in terms of teaching and research for the health system of Catalonia, and contextualized the initiative in the necessary development of professional planning policies initiated from the start of the current legislature. “Policies we have always wanted to implement hand-in-hand with the universities, which have provided us with a great return”, Vergés underlined. The Health minister exemplified the agreement as a reflection of the Health ministry’s orientation towards initiatives that combine research and teaching, areas in which health is a key sector for growth and reinforcement. “When we speak of healthcare professionals, we must also speak of how we make them feel within organizations, what professional outlook we offer them, how they can take increasingly shared decisions with the public and patients”, she concluded.

Meanwhile, Jaume Casals said that  “the Mar Health Park, and specifically Mar Hospital, is an institution with a history of refinement and efficiency that has reached the heart of many of the citizens of Barcelona. UPF would like to resemble them in its service profile and its ambition”. And he added,  “I have always said that this hospital has helped me to be able to think about the University from the outside, which is how one should think first of all in order to grow properly within. Now we have a new opportunity. We are small, but the challenge of developing precision, preventive, personalized medicine, with greater support from the sciences of the present and of the future, is essential for a university that aims to stay, for the pride of the country, but above all to provide good service, among the top ten young universities in the world”. Finally, he thanked  “everyone who has made this day possible: the team of minister Vergés, the management of the Park and the Hospital, and the various officers and the rector of the UAB, my colleagues at UPF and all of the qualified observers that have guided us thus far”.

An alliance between UPF and Mar Hospital that helps strengthen the joint project

“Mar Hospital is about to embark on a new cycle in its historical journey serving the citizens of Barcelona. A project of profound transformation and expansion of its infrastructure, along with major technological and digital renewal. The partnership with UPF is a firm commitment to strengthening and sharing knowledge in the field of health sciences”, added Joan Puigdollers.

The joint effort by the two institutions will focus on providing a multidisciplinary vision of the academic curriculum with a significant amount of clinical practice, applying new learning and work technologies, with a focus on solving practical problems and research activity carried out at the UPF Department of Experimental and Health Sciences and the Mar Hospital Medical Research Institute (IMIM), two centres located within the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) ecosystem.

The new UPF bachelor’s degree in Medicine will be clearly integrated in the spheres of biomedicine, transfer, clinics and public health, with integrated work with research groups.

Having a project in which healthcare, teaching and research will be fully integrated will enable training the professionals of the future and help provide Mar Hospital with an enhanced ability to attract and retain talent and will lead to achieving an advanced model of healthcare, university teaching and biomedical research.

UPF’s commitment to the centre as a reference for its bachelor’s degree in Medicine will also allow enhancing collaboration strategies with the environment’s biomedical cluster and find synergies between all the institutions, research centres, universities and companies in the region they all share (Ciutat Vella and Sant Martí).

At the same time, the partnership between the two institutions will help foster a global vision of education in the health sciences, seeking synergies with the Mar Nursing School (ESIMAR) and establishing close cooperation between the University and the Bonanova Institute (health vocational training centre associated to Mar Hospital).

Vitally important for the future of the new bachelor’s degree in Medicine will be project to expand Mar Hospital. The two institutions give the utmost importance to having the best facilities to offer better training to future students. In this regard, the authorities are asked to prioritize a project which has already completed its first phase (2017) and is ready to start the second, with the executive project finished and ready to commence construction. This second phase will involve constructing a new building of 30,000 m2 accommodating 170 hospital beds, designed as a smart hospital and equipped to deal with pandemics such as covid-19. A new building for a new state-of-the-art bachelor’s degree, designed for physicians of the future and to meet people’s health needs.

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