We are a leading healthcare campus encompassing all fields of health: from healthcare and research to teaching and management.
Professionalism, commitment and research by professionals on the Campus are the key elements in offering patients excellent care.
We are committed to research as a tool to provide solutions to the daily challenges we face in the field of medical healthcare.
We generate, transform and transmit knowledge in all areas of the health sciences, helping to train the professionals of the future.
We are defined by our vocation for communication. We invite you to share everything that happens at Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, and our doors are always open.
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Our mission is to restore the health of all critical or potentially critical hospital patients using advanced monitoring and support systems. Our work with patients is carried out both within the Intensive Care Unit and outside it, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. We have the knowledge and technical means to treat the most complex patients.
The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) treats 1,200 of the most complex critical patients every year. Additionally, the Department supports other serious patients not in the ICU but who require assessment from specialists in intensive care medicine.
The Intensive Care Medicine Department leads many hospital programmes, such as: Code Sepsis, care for cardiorespiratory disease and the ECMO programme, and collaborates actively in the Organ Donation and Transplant Programme.
We also bring together different professional groups (doctors, nurses, administrative staff, orderlies, cleaning staff, etc.), resulting in a multidisciplinary department in which teamwork is essential. Our goal is to humanise the ICU to make it an environment in which professionals, families and patients are comfortable.
The Intensive Care Medicine Department has its own research group at the VHIR Research Institute, in the area of Infectious Diseases: the SODIR Research Group (Shock, Organic Dysfunction and Resuscitation).
The SODIR has 2 areas of research:
SODIR has created a Clinical Research Unit to take part in clinical trials sponsored by the industry, and supports competitive research projects. The Unit is made up of nurses and doctors dedicated exclusively to clinical research, and currently has 11 active clinical trials.
Teaching activity at the Intensive Care Medicine Department encompasses the teaching of undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing training of professionals in treating critical patients. We have been accredited to train 3 residents in intensive medicine annually. We organise several yearly courses, such as: Ventilung, Ecolung, ECMObarna and SedUCI.
The Paediatrics Department at the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital integrates several sections and units of specific paediatric areas.
We provide assistance from birth to adolescence. As an integrated center at the Vall de Hebrón University Hospital, we facilitate the transfer of child patients to adults within the same hospital.
Vall de Hebrón Children's Hospital is one of the centers with the most capacity to solve complex pediatric processes in Catalonia and Spain.
The Vall d'Hebron University Hospital's Paediatric Department includes various sections and units from specific paediatric areas (paediatric subspecialities):
The Paediatric Department staff includes 52 specialist paediatric doctors to help provide the care, teaching and research the department is responsible for. It also has the necessary nursing and administrative staff, as well as assistants who help with our research and social work and much else. The 60 paediatric residents in their specific areas receive training and take part in care during their time in the various units within the department.
We provide care for all types of paediatric patients, from infants to adolescents, with acute and chronic paediatric diseases corresponding to the areas mentioned above. You can find more information about each specific section and unit on their respective web pages.
There are 60 paediatrics residents at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, totalling 15 per year. In recent years, Vall d'Hebron Paediatrics has consolidated its position as the number 1 destination for new resident doctors, and obtained the best results of all hospitals in Spain in the 2017 medical exams.
The Paediatric Department is responsible for significant teaching activity as part of the Autonomous University of Barcelona medical degree, with a paediatrician professor, three professors certified by the Spanish National Agency for the Evaluation of Quality and Accreditation (ANECA) and a professor accredited for advanced research by the Agency for the Quality of the University System of Catalonia (AQU), together with six associate medical professors.
The Paediatric Department also teaches Masters courses in paediatric subspecialities: Paediatric endocrinology, infectious and immunodeficiency diseases, paediatric neurology and paediatric pneumology and allergology.
The Paediatric Department's research is among the most important on the Vall d’Hebron campus, with specific lines that are listed in the individual descriptions of the Sections and Units concerned.
The Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department offers comprehensive. multidisciplinary treatment for patients, with the aim of achieving the highest level of autonomy, functional capacity and quality of life, using therapeutic measures and technical support aimed at correcting or minimising the disability diagnosed.
Ours is a transversal department, meaning we collaborate with many other medical and surgical departments at the Hospital. Our ability to provide support in all healthcare areas guarantees coordinated care for patients throughout their stay. We are a reference centre in Catalonia for various highly complex processes (spinal cord injury, acquired brain damage, spina bifida, burns) and we also engage in teaching and research.
At the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department, we collaborate directly with various other medical and surgical departments at the hospital and share multidisciplinary patient care units. We are involved in virtually all units that deal with rare illnesses.
At our Department, in addition to doctors specialising in physical medicine and rehabilitation, we also have physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, auxiliary technicians in nursing care, monitors and administrative staff. Teamwork is the defining feature of our specialty. Our multidisciplinary rehabilitation team also includes specialised nursing staff, an orthopaedic technician and a social health worker.
Our cross-cutting department consists of two main areas of care, community and tertiary: we assist patients in our catchment area but also those from elsewhere who need highly specialised care. We work in an acute hospital where increasingly complex cases are handled, and we aim to adapt to ensure hospital stays are as short as possible.
At the Neurorehabilitation Day Hospital, patients who have a neurological disability and need comprehensive rehabilitation treatment can receive it in a single place, and, if they do not require nursing care, they can sleep at home.
Our Department works in three main areas: Osteoarticular, Neurorehabilitation and Specific Pathologies.
Officially accredited as a CSUR centre of reference (Reference centres, departments and units), the Spinal Cord Injury Unit is a reference centre in Catalonia and the rest of Spain for the treatment of people who have suffered spinal cord injuries. We offer comprehensive care in cases of acute and subacute spinal cord injuries. We offer physiotherapy, occupational therapy, sphincter re-education, infiltration treatment with botulinum toxin, risk assessment of injuries caused by a blow or by diseases, assessment of support for sitting independently.
Neurological rehabilitation. We offer comprehensive, intensive care, where required, to patients with strokes, cranial traumatism or acquired brain damage in general. We offer treatments involving physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, swallowing disorders and neuropsychology. At the Day Hospital, we provide neurorehabilitation (physiotherapy, occupational therapy, swallowing disorders and neurorehabilitation). We apply rehabilitation techniques using virtual reality, and offer infiltration treatments using botulinum toxin.
At the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, we provide life support treatment. We treat patients who, when an organ fails, require specific treatment to replace that organ’s function. We are a leading reference ICU for congenital heart disease, solid organ transplants, neurocritical patients, burns and spinal cord injuries.
Our mission as a paediatric ICU is to take care of children's health, through effective, efficient and quality health care in the treatment of diseases.
More specifically, our objectives are:
To achieve these goals and treat children with specific illnesses and different physiological conditions, a highly qualified team and innovative technology are essential for us to adapt to the reality of each specific case.
Paediatric Intensive Care professionals require specific training. All our staff are highly qualified to recognise signs of serious conditions and the complications that might go with them, as well as being able to decide the correct doses for treatments. The combined expertise of our team is the key behind the prestige the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit enjoys internationally.
The Paediatric ICU is open to families. Not only do the parents and children accompany their baby, but so do the brothers and sisters through the Siblings Project, a pioneering project that began in 2014 at the request of a child who wanted to see his brother who had been admitted.
Both families and patients can benefit from the Sol Solet Programme, where we organise an ICU outing to sunbathe as a family. Nothing is left to chance on these outings.
Our Paediatric ICU came to life in 1968, and was the first in Spain. Nowadays, it is a specialised area where we have the most innovative technologies to allow us to apply advanced therapies for children who need specific life support treatment.
The Paediatrics Teaching Unit has extensive experience in training specialists. There are a total of 60 Paediatrics residents at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, 15 per year. Over the last few years, Paediatrics at Vall d’Hebron has been the first choice for new residents, and in the 2017 exam session achieved the best results of any Spanish hospital. In addition to this, we receive residents from hospitals all over the world.
Pediatric training itineraries
Over the last few years, paediatrics at Vall d’Hebron has been residents’ first choice, and in the 2017 exam session achieved the best results of any Spanish hospital.
The Department has a Paediatrics Teaching Subcommittee, comprising twelve tutors and twenty residents overseeing the practical application of the training and its integration into healthcare activities. Thanks to the involvement of these professionals, we can ensure supervised completion of the training programme objectives.
This Teaching Unit comprises different healthcare departments and units, including the Paediatrics, Nephrology, Neonatology, Paediatric Oncology and Haematology, Intensive Care, Neurology, Endocrinology, Infectious Diseases, Allergies, Cardiology, Respiratory Medicine, Gastroenterology, and A&E Departments.
It is vital for residents to train in research methodology as this is necessary to take part in and develop research projects. From the second year onwards, we invite residents to carry out research work, and a minimum number of papers and publications is required in addition to their full cooperation in sessions within the Department.
Why specialise at Vall d’Hebron?
Intensive care medicine is the speciality that cares for critically-ill patients, those who are in a life-threatening condition and who are susceptible to recovery. This provides us with a wide-ranging perspective of all kinds of patients and pathologies and makes us one of the most cross-cutting specialities in our current health system. In addition to the General Hospital's Intensive Care Unit, the Intensive Care Medicine Teaching Unit includes the Traumatology ICU, the Cardiac Surgery Post-operative Unit and the General and Traumatology Semi-critical areas.
Our Intensive Care Medicine is a leading service for pathologies such as lung transplants, ECMO, neurocritical care, spinal cord injuries, oncohematology patients, burns and pregnancies, among others. This differentiates us from other centres, as we have access to nearly all critical pathologies, and are consequently able to provide excellent training.
Intensive Care Training Itinerary
The intensive care medicine resident doctors undertake training in various areas: emergencies, medical specialities, surgery and, mainly, high-acuity areas, such as the General Intensive Care Unit and the Traumatology and Burns.
Its caring activities are characterised by a constant presence in high-acuity areas, as well as hospital duty shifts throughout the residency. Residents are therefore familiarised with intensive care medicine and acquire the ability to address the problems of critical patients and carry out necessary therapies from the first day of their residencies. They learn the basics of haemodynamics, mechanical ventilation, extracorporeal treatment, the pharmacological management of vasoactive drugs and antibiotics, among other things. Furthermore, they are an essential part of the cardiorespiratory arrest emergency and care team.
The acquisition of the speciality's specific skills is complemented by training in cross-cutting abilities, such as communication, teamwork and leadership, which allows residents to progressively acquire autonomy, always under the supervision of the appropriate specialists.
We are a teaching unit with various research groups, including the Respiratory Pathology, Sepsis, Haemodynamics, Infections, Neurocritical Patients, Renal Medicine, Polytrauma and Burns Group. In the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), we are represented by the SODIR (Shock, Organic Dysfunction and Resuscitation) Group, which is very active in a wide range of projects and clinical trials. Furthermore, we are part of the UNINN (Neurotraumatology and Neurosurgery Research Unit) and with the Plastic Surgery and Burns group, which are worldwide pioneers in achieving the first full-face transplant and the treatment of burns with enzymatic debridement.
The Department promotes and facilitates the presentation of communications in congresses concerning the speciality and the drafting of articles for the sector's most influential journals, activities which lay the foundations for developing the doctoral theses of their members.
The residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation allows you to gain experience of clinical practice in rehabilitation; an area where all aspects of the specialisation are considered, from orthopaedics, neurology, spinal cord injuries, infant rehabilitation, amputations, lymphoedema, pelvic floor and speech therapy; to pulmonary rehabilitation and community-based treatment for back pain and burns.
We are an active research centre with a high number of publications, at the same time as participating in several national and international programmes. We have also received awards at different conferences in the specialisation.
The Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation teaching programme includes key aspects for research, such as training in clinical epidemiology and clinical research methodology. In addition, our residents undertake research competence courses to complement their practical work.
The Paediatric nursing specialist training programme uses a cross-cutting approach to competencies related to communication, care and resource management, teaching and research, and a targeted approach to advanced surgery competencies in the different areas of paediatric practice.
Training itinerary Pediatric nursing
Paediatric nursing specialists provide independent nursing care to babies, children and adolescents at all levels, as well as dealing with disease prevention and rehabilitation. They work as part of a multidisciplinary team and in collaboration with specialist nursing staff from other areas.
Why Vall d’Hebron?
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