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.
Patients are the centre and the core of our system. We are professionals committed to quality care and our organizational structure breaks down the traditional boundaries between departments and professional groups, with an exclusive model of knowledge areas.
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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 Adult Comprehensive Obesity Treatment Unit (UTIO) at the Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron is a multidisciplinary unit specialized in the comprehensive management of this disease.
The UTIO is coordinated by the Department of Endocrinology and Nutrition, but it brings together multiple specialties: endocrinology, nursing, nutrition, rehabilitation, physiotherapy, psychology, psychiatry, and endocrine surgery. Its aim is to provide personalized, evidence-based, and patient-centered care to improve the health and well-being of people living with obesity. In addition, the unit is accredited by the SEEDO and the EASO as a Center of Excellence in obesity management.
The physiology and homeostasis of body weight are complex, multifactorial in nature, and still far from being fully understood. In fact, referring to “obesity” in the singular is now considered outdated, instead, we speak of “obesities” and the need to properly phenotype patients in order to provide a personalized approach.
Obesities represent a heterogeneous group of multifactorial, neuroendocrine diseases of complex etiology, characterized by an imbalance in the regulation of appetite and metabolism, resulting in the accumulation and dysfunction of adipose tissue, with a negative impact on an individual’s health.
We work with an innovative model: we are a unit focused on a specific health condition, bringing together all the services required for a comprehensive and integrated approach. This model, pioneering in Spain, has been the basis for its adaptation within the Catalan Health Institute (ICS); in other words, the UTIO model has been implemented across ICS, Primary Care centers, and other hospitals.
At the UTIO, a comprehensive assessment is carried out to identify the obesity phenotype and define an individualized therapeutic plan. It is designed as a high-resolution consultation; therefore, PREMs and PROMs are collected through the El Meu Vall d’Hebron app.
A distinctive model
The UTIO stands out for:
Shared decision-making is important because it represents a paradigm shift in the treatment of chronic diseases, placing the patient at the center and defining new therapeutic goals—focused on achieving patients’ own objectives beyond clinical health outcomes. The main goal is the humanization of the healthcare system.
Diagnostic tests include:
In selected cases, targeted genetic studies are performed for the diagnosis of genetic obesity.
In addition, the unit has:
In addition, the Unit incorporates a program from the ICS, the PADEICS Obesity program. It is an initiative that promotes a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to obesity, with the aim of fostering coordinated, integrated care between Primary Care and hospitals, based on key pillars: comprehensive, transversal, community-based, and patient-centered.
The project establishes a new patient-centered model applicable across all stages of life: pediatrics, transition to adult care, adulthood, and family-based approaches. This model is developed in a continuous and transversal way between hospital care and Primary Care.
The UTIO carries out an intensive teaching activity and contributes to the training of professionals in the field of obesity:
At the Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron, the medical specialty of Endocrinology and Nutrition encompasses the study and treatment of diseases of the endocrine glands, metabolism, and all aspects related to nutritional status.
Research activity is a fundamental pillar of the UTIO and is carried out in collaboration with the Vall d'Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR).
Clinical research
Basic research
Clinical trials
The UTIO is one of the most active centers in obesity clinical trials, positioning itself as a national leader in several of them:
The Unit participates in high-impact international studies, with publications in journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet, as a result of its involvement in the early development of new molecules.
Diabetes and metabolism
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