The President of the Government of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès, today awarded the Josep Trueta medals and plaques to outstanding professionals and organisations in the field of healthcare. The ceremony has been held at the Palau de la Generalitat. Among the awarded names, there is also Bellvitge University Hospital (HUB), which received a plaque in recognition of its task as a highest complexity reference centre for 2 million people. At the same event, Dr Mònica Povedano, head of section of the Neurology Service of the HUB, received one of the personal medals Josep Trueta.
The awards were given to 15 people and organisations for their significant contributions to the progress and improvement of healthcare.
President Aragonès congratulated the awarded and stressed that they are "a benchmark and an example of vocation and commitment". He also expressed his gratitude and that of the entire Catalan government and society "to all the professionals who work selflessly for our country's public system".
The event was also attended by the Catalan Minister of Health, Manel Balcells, who highlighted "the great value of our professionals who, especially in tough times, such as the ones we have had to live through, place all their expertise and human value at the disposal of the system and the citizens".
In the same vein, Manel Balcells pointed out that the awards highlight the work of entities that "contribute to the quality of the healthcare system, from clinical practice, training or research. Entities (some of them with huge experience) oriented towards improving patient excellence, and others innovating with the design of alternative systems or taking care of the professionals themselves," he remarked. In the communication of the award, the Government stresses that Bellvitge Hospital, which last year celebrated its fiftieth birthday, is a highest complexity reference centre and the public, university and research hospital for 2 million people in the southern area of Catalonia.
Among other merits, it is worth highlighting that it integrates in its projects the focus on improving the patient experience and networking with primary care and surrounding hospitals, its focus on personalised medicine, and the fact that it has the best genetic diagnosis and imaging tools for cancer and minority diseases. It also highlights the fact that it will incorporate a new High Precision Diagnostic Centre with the first PET/MRI in the Spanish healthcare network, and that it forms part of the Bellvitge Biomedical Cluster, a project for the future integrating several institutions, which will take a great step forward in digital health, personalised medicine and work with data.
Award to Mònica Povedano
As for Dr Mònica Povedano Panadès (a specialist in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and other neuromuscular and degenerative motor neurone diseases), the award’s communication highlights her professional career, her extensive teaching and scientific work, her role as a leading researcher for Spain in the European ALS Research Consortium.
It also highlights the prize awarded to Dr Povedano by the Spanish Society of Neurology in the scientific category in neuromuscular diseases, as well as her role as an international disseminator of ALS, among other merits.
Dr Povedano also made a brief speech on behalf of all the award winners. She highlighted the vocation of networking between devices and between professionals from different fields and specialties, as one of the main defining features of the Catalan Health System, appreciable in the profile and career of the people and organisations awarded with the medals and plaques Josep Trueta. Find here the complete list of the awarded organisations and professionals.