We are the combination of four hospitals: the General Hospital, the Children’s Hospital, the Women’s Hospital and the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital. We are part of the Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus: a world-leading health park where healthcare plays a crucial role.
Below we will list the departments and units that form part of Vall d’Hebron Hospital and the main diseases that we treat. We will also make recommendations based on advice backed up by scientific evidence that has been shown to be effective in guaranteeing well-being and quality of life.
Would you like to know what your stay at Vall d'Hebron will be like? Here you will find all the information.
The commitment of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital to innovation allows us to be at the forefront of medicine, providing first class care adapted to the changing needs of each patient.
The locomotor system, also known as the musculoskeletal system, consists of a person’s bones, muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments. It is a highly structured system whose purpose is to move and support the rest of the body's structures. Rheumatology deals with disorders and diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue. It is a very wide-reaching speciality that covers almost 200 diseases.
The Vall d’Hebron University Hospital's Rheumatology Service is an adult and paediatric care service for patients with rheumatic illnesses. It serves a reference population of 450,000 inhabitants and 18 primary care centres in the AIS Nord area. We work in the hospital environment and in primary care, and outpatient activity is clearly predominant.
The care work is accompanied by a long trajectory of teaching and research activities, both clinical and basic. Basic research excellence is carried out, focusing especially on the identification of biomarkers and new therapeutic targets that enable more personalised care, within the framework of precision medicine. We also offer patients the opportunity of taking part in clinical trials.
At the Rheumatology Service, we aim to offer high-quality. specialised care to both adult and paediatric patients with musculoskeletal and systematic autoimmune diseases.
With the aim of offering this specialised care, in the context of a tertiary hospital, we have an extensive team of expert professionals in the various sub-specialities. For this reason, we are organised into units:
The care and research departments are located in various parts of Vall d’Hebron Hospital, in outpatient appointments in Primary Care Centres (CAP), where we go to attend patients in their local CAPs, and in Barcelona Scientific Park, according to the various types of activity.
We take part in committees and commissions at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and the AIS Nord Area:
In 2019 we had 21,160 total consultations, while in 2022 there were 34,387, an increase of 62.5%.
Vall d’Hebron is a leading international centre for care, research and teaching in the healthcare sector. This is accredited by the external organisations, both in Spain and abroad, who recognise us as a high-quality hospital and research centre.
Vall d’Hebron University Hospital certificates and accreditations that are led by the Rheumatology Service, along with the main representatives, are listed below:
Our research group, Rheumatology Research Group, is made up of biologists, biotechnicians, nurses, bioinformaticians, engineers and mathematicians for developing the various lines of research. We have our own highly-equipped installations, measuring 200 m2, located at the VHIR and the Barcelona Scientific Park, where we carry out cutting-edge research.
At the Rheumatology Department, we develop research excellence in various consolidated lines of research, such as precision medicine in immune-mediated diseases in adults and paediatric ages (rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, spondyloarthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis and other systemic diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjögren's syndrome or inflammatory myopathies). Other pioneering lines of research at our Department include research into musculoskeletal ultrasound and other imaging techniques, central sensitivity syndromes and metabolic bone diseases.
The results of our research are published in prestigious, high-impact journals, which consolidates our research development. We are also a reference centre for clinical trials, which are carried out in conjunction with the Clinical Research Support Unit at the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (USIC-VHIR), a platform that has a multi-disciplinary professional team with extensive experience in performing clinical trials.
The Rheumatology Department's Teaching Unit is officially authorised for the training of resident Rheumatology interns. At present, we offer two training places for residents every year. One of our priority objectives is to attract and train resident doctors in order to return the knowledge we have gained to society and to further the training of highly-qualified professionals to face the future challenges of medicine, also known as personalised or precision medicine.
At the Rheumatology Section, we carry out extensive teaching activity, both in continuous education within the department itself, and in the organisation of seminars and courses aimed at professionals from other hospitals and other medical specialities. One of our objectives is to enhance the health workshops aimed at patients. We actively participate in national and international congresses.
We are a leading national and international centre with a high number of applications for training places, especially in the areas of paediatric rheumatology, chronic inflammatory arthritis and systemic autoimmune diseases, musculoskeletal ultrasound and central sensitivity syndromes.
We give theory and practical classes in Rheumatology in the Medicine Degree course at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. We also undertake intense teaching activities in Master’s courses and other postgraduate activities.
Guia o itenerari formatiu (GUIF) - CAS - Reumatologia
Rheumatology
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