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.
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 Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology Department provides individual and collective care for patients in this field. It is a public health service whose mission it is to serve the hospital community and catchment area.
The Department, which was created in 1976, has led the way in Catalonia and Spain in the organisation of systems for the epidemiological supervision of nosocomial infections, which are contracted at the hospital during the patient’s stay. It has also been a pioneer in the supervision and prevention of biological risks in healthcare staff.
It is also a national reference centre for vaccinations, and stands out for its Tobacco Cessation Unit.
The Nutrition Support Unit is made up of a multidisciplinary, multiprofessional health team, composed of doctors from different specialties, nursing graduates, nutritionist dietitians, technical dieticians, nursing assistants and administrative staff. We are also a cross-cutting unit in that we support a range of other Departments. Our work in training and education is also significant.
We give nutritional and diet support to hospitalised patients across all clinical departments at the Hospital, and carry out follow-up monitoring at outpatient care for those patients who need it. We also provide outpatient care for patients referred from other healthcare areas of the Hospital and primary care centres that require specialist nutritional and dietary support. Patients requiring nutritional support are treated at the Horta Primary Care Centre.
The Medical Physics and Radiation Protection Department is made up of graduates in physics who have qualified as specialists in hospital radiophysics and senior technicians in radiotherapy and/or radiodiagnosis. The professional activity of the members of the department comprises three main aspects: clinical care, research and teaching.
The Medical Physics and Radiation Protection Department has accreditation from the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council to carry out radiation protection tasks throughout the hospital. The department is firmly committed to quality and safety, and it has obtained ISO 9001:2015 certification.
Our department offers support for all the departments at the hospital that use ionising radiation for patient treatment or diagnosis, and also for the professionals who use radionuclides in their research.
The main objective of the Pharmacy Department is the safe and efficient use of medication with the utmost excellence. Our Department supports care activity and is recognised as a collaborating centre of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), thanks to our role in preventing medication errors.
Our Department offers a consolidated portfolio of services, and we have a pharmaceutical team that monitors all registered prescriptions and pharmaceutical treatments.
Pharmacy Service Report 2025.pdf
At the Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery and Transplant Unit, we dedicate ourselves to hepatic (liver), pancreatic and biliary surgery, as well as cancer surgery. This mainly involves surgery related to the surgical and onco-surgical treatment of tumours or liver metastases, liver and bowel transplants in children and adults, and intestinal transplants. Our Children’s Liver Transplant Programme is the only one of its kind in Catalonia, and one of just five in Spain. Our excellent results make us a national leader.
The Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery and Transplant Unit is organised into two sections: one section devoted mainly to liver surgery and liver and intestine transplants, and another aimed at pancreatic surgery and advanced laparoscopic surgery.
In the Clinical Biochemistry Department, we analyse millions of tests a year to meet our goal of generating useful information for the prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and monitoring of diseases.
The Clinical Biochemistry Department is organised into Knowledge Areas which not only ensures more complex tests can be carried out, both now and in the future, but also that physicians from specialist areas can provide more specific expertise in the Core Laboratory.
We coordinate the pre-test, information systems, test quality, primary care and bedside testing areas.
The core of this teaching unit is provided by the General and Digestive Surgery Department, with participation from Anaesthesia, Radiodiagnosis, Thoracic Surgery and Vascular Surgery.
Training itinerary for General Surgery and Digestive System
The Microbiology and Parasitology team comprises professionals, most of whom are university lecturers, who have achieved a high level of professional excellence and are committed to quality and innovation whilst being at the cutting edge of diagnostic techniques and who are leaders in relevant aspects of clinical microbiology. If you train in our teaching unit, you will have the chance to work in some of the leading clinical laboratories in the country, both in terms of the number of samples we work with and the latest generation technology we use.
Microbiology training itinerary
The Microbiology Unit is led by the Microbiology Department with participation from Paediatrics, Intensive Care, Infectious Diseases and Primary Care.
During the Teaching Unit rotation, residents spend time in different areas belonging to different units, such as Urine Cultures, Genital Infections, Blood Cultures, Parasitic Stool Testing, Epidemiology, Mycobacterium, Serology, Food and Environmental Microbiology and Virology.
In terms of healthcare activities, you will work with both adult and paediatric patients with HIV and infectious diseases, and in different hospital departments, such as Intensive Care Medicine at the General Hospital, or the Paediatric Infectious Diseases Department, in addition to primary care.
We focus on the microbiological aspects of infectious diseases in order to improve patient health. Research in our field is centred around epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance, sexually transmitted diseases, respiratory viruses, viruses and fungal infections in immunodeficient patients, cystic fibrosis, food-borne illnesses, tuberculosis, and international health.
Several educational institutions are involved with the Preventive Medicine and Public Health Teaching Unit programme, such as the Experimental and Health Sciences Department at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), which runs a Master’s programme in public health. Vall d'Hebron University Hospital also works with the Department of Health of the Generalitat of Catalonia to provide training in specialised centres and primary care units and medical centres (CAP) in Barcelona. This focuses on public health research centres and administrative services. The Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology Department at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital was founded in 1976 and was the first of its kind to be created in Catalonia, and the second in Spain.
Training itinerary for preventive medicine and public health
The Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology Department is a national leader in the creation of vaccination campaigns for at-risk patients with chronic illnesses. Residents’ training lasts four years. Residents must acquire knowledge in epidemiology and environmental and workplace health to be able to efficiently resolve problems and for public health control and cancer prevention. At the primary care level, residents spend their rotation on the monitoring and control of environmental contamination and hospital acquired infections, and notifiable diseases. The Vaccination and Epidemiology programme for communicable diseases and the Smoking Prevention programme are run in parallel.
As part of the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), we are an established research group in the field of Epidemiology and Public Health, carrying out research in the epidemiology of infections related to healthcare and their risk factors. We are lead research for the creation of new preventative vaccines. This achievement is the result of working on international multi-centre clinical trials. These include pre-pandemic and pandemic influenza vaccines such as the current seasonal flu vaccines, in addition to trials for human papillomavirus and shingles (herpes zoster) vaccines both in healthy and immunodeficient patients, and the meningococcal meningitis B vaccine. The department's involvement in preventative vaccines has led to the organization of an annual course in advances in vaccinations of recognised international prestige.
At the same time, we continue to work on the prevention of common community infections such as whooping cough, tuberculosis, chicken pox, bronchiolitis caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and shingles.
In 2015, ten research papers were published as a result of our work, and four projects were begun as a result of being awarded grants.
The Department’s research work also plays an active educational role in the Resident Medical Intern Programme at UPF, the Phoenix Project Master’s in Community Health at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), the Master’s in Public Health at UPF and UAB, the Master’s in International Health at the University of Barcelona and UAB, the Master’s in Community Health from the University School of Nursing at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, and the Vaccinology Diploma Course in Epidemiology and Public Health research (IES) diploma.
Why should I specialise at Vall d’Hebron?
The Immunology Department is responsible for diagnosis, teaching and research in Immunology at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital (HUVH) and its catchment area. The key processes it performs are: Immunology diagnostic tests and in the design of diagnostic protocols, clinical immunology outpatient clinic, specialised teaching of immunology, pre- and postgraduate, and research, development and innovation through their own projects in the fields of primary immunodeficiencies, autoimmunity and consulting in the design and execution of the research projects of other groups in the Hospital.
Immunology training itinerary
The Immunology Department is part of VH Clinical Laboratories, some of the largest in Europe with more than 16,000,000 determinations / year. It is located in new premises (2014) on the ground floor of the VH Clinical Laboratories building (approximately 400 m2). It is organised by processes under the framework of the ISO 9001 quality management system: Autoimmunity, Hypersensitivity, Cellular Immunology, Immunogenetics (HLA and disease), Immunogenetics (Study of primary immunodeficiencies), Immunoproteins, Monitoring of immunotherapy and Clinical Immunology Clinic. It actively participates in the clinical processes of the Hospital on multidisciplinary case management committees for amyloidosis, multiple myeloma, primary immunodeficiencies and complex glomerulopathies.
It also works bilaterally with other departments in the clinical processes relating to autoimmunity, allergies, reproductive immunology and cancer. The department is part of the Transversal Immunology Programme on the Vall d'Hebron Campus, which facilitates collaboration with other professionals working on immunology issues in other research groups. This enables the department to have 3 different programmes of sessions covering:
The department comprises 7 immunology specialists, 2 with a more clinical profile and 5 with a laboratory profile, as well as a molecular immunology expert. There is also one supervisor and 12 technicians.1 administrator. 1 resident per year (currently 3) and an immunology pre-doc.
There are professionals linked to the immunology department who are involved in different processes:
The Cerebrospinal Fluid Laboratory is the result of a collaboration agreement with VHIR-CEMCAT (Multiple Sclerosis Centre of Catalonia), to carry out complex care tests and implement new biomarkers in multiple sclerosis in healthcare practice (translational research). This process involves a principal researcher from the Clinical Neuroimmunology research group and a technician.
The allergy unit, in conjunction with the immunology department, is actively involved in drawing up reports interpreting the results of molecular allergy testing of patients from other centres. This added value means the department is even more useful for customers.
To improve the coordination of the paediatric primary immunodeficiency process. The Immunology Department shares a biologist with the Paediatric Infectious Pathology and Immunodeficiency Unit. This biologist takes on tasks shared between the clinic and the lab.
There is collaboration with the Translational Bioinformatics Research Group to determine the pathogenicity of gene mutations in patients with primary immunodeficiency. The complementary nature of immunological, genetic, bioinformatic and functional studies of proteins allows a personalised diagnosis of patients with primary immunodeficiency, which in turn helps find treatments that are more appropriate to the molecular pathology in question.
The Immunological Regulation and Immunotherapy Research Group provides methodological and technical support to the Department of Immunology in applied research subjects. The group leader is currently co-IP on a research project (on Family Haemophagocytic Syndrome) and this collaboration will be included as part of a resident’s thesis.
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