The UAB and the UB highlight the importance of inter-university collaboration in the healthcare field

This meeting brought together professionals linked to health institutions where the UB and the UAB teach their students in the field of health sciences. The activity is part of the collaboration agreement between Catalonia's two leading universities when it comes to training health care professionals: the UAB and the UB prepare, in the main hospitals of the country, 60% of future doctors graduated from Catalonia's public universities. In September 2023, the two universities signed an agreement to join forces and work together in the teaching of future health care professionals.

Rector Guardia said: "This second edition of the meeting is decisive for analysing the presence of the most advanced technologies in the healthcare field; state-of-the-art technologies that go far beyond AI and are already revolutionising the reality of hospitals. The UB-UAB inter-university coordination in this field demonstrates the importance of advancing in collaboration among universities". Rector Lafuente thanked the deans of the faculties of both universities for facilitating the agreement to work together in health sciences and said: "Thanks to the collaboration between the two leading universities in the field of health, if the country needs to increase the number of people with degrees in medicine, we are ready to take a step forward and respond to the needs of society".

Two main topics

The programme of the day included two lectures on key topics for the development of the present and future health sector. Firstly, a conference entitled "White-Coated Artificial Intelligence: ally or substitute?", in which Aura Hernandez, Deputy Director of Gender and Secondary School Relations at the UAB School of Engineering, and Jorge Bernal, professor at the UAB Department of Computer Science and researcher at the Computer Vision Centre, reflected on what artificial intelligence actually is and what role it can play in the career development of health professionals. The conference was moderated by Ricardo Casaroli, assistant for the coordination with the UB network of health institutions.

This was followed by a round table discussion entitled “Mental health in the population: the role of medical schools” moderated by Salvador Navarro, dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the UAB. Mireia Forner, coordinator of Health Psychology at the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, and Josep Maria Haro, director of Teaching, Research and Innovation at the Sant Joan de Déu Health Park, spoke about the stigma that still accompanies mental health problems, and the importance of working on emotional education from childhood and buffering factors such as social contact. Narcís Cardoner, director of the Psychiatry Service of the Hospital de Santa Creu i Sant Pau, pointed out the importance of integrating the concept of mental health in a transversal way in the curriculum of health science students. And Antoni Trilla, dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the UB, reflected on the problems medical students have with stress, since they seem to assume emotional exhaustion as “a part of normality”.

Nearly 700 graduates per year

The UB Faculty of Medicine, the oldest in Catalonia, and the UAB Faculty of Medicine have trained the vast majority of the country's doctors, and are always at the top of the list of medical schools in Spain and in international rankings. The faculties of medicine and health sciences of the UAB and the UB produce around 680 graduates each year, i.e. more than 60% of the medical graduates in the Catalan public university system (a total of 1,100 places are offered for medical studies in Catalonia).

The UB and the UAB are known for linking their training and research activities in health sciences to the main health institutions of the surrounding area. At present, the UB has five university hospitals and twelve associated hospitals and centres, while the UAB has five university hospitals (and five hospital teaching units, including the one on the Bellaterra campus) and six associated hospitals. These include the most important university hospitals in the country: Bellvitge, Clínic, Sant Joan de Déu, Mutua de Terrassa, Moisés Broggi, Vall d'Hebron, Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Germans Trias, and Parc Taulí. Recently, in April, the Mataró Hospital was officially designated as a university hospital thanks to the agreement signed between the Maresme Health Consortium, the Ministry for Health, and the UAB.

Together, the university hospitals of the UB and the UAB are in charge of the healthcare of a population of almost four million. These hospitals are at the same time centres of reference for highly complex procedures provided to patients from all over Catalonia and Spain. They are also leading institutions in Spain in biomedical research.

Thanks to the collaboration agreement between the two universities, in addition to the two meetings organised, in 2024 the first edition of the UAB & UB Med Summer School took place, a summer school that brings together students from third to sixth year of the degree in Medicine from both universities.

The agreement includes, in addition to joint training activities such as this summer school, the exchange of internships in hospitals and health centres for students in the sixth year of the degree in Medicine. Each year, both centres will offer a certain number of places for this exchange and those who wish to apply must follow a selection process. In this way, students, in addition to having as possible internship destinations the hospitals and healthcare centers of the university where they are enrolled, also have the option of requesting an internship at the other institution that may be more appropriate for their specialised professional career. There are also plans to launch new joint optional subjects with teaching staff from both faculties.