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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The Institute for Diagnostic Imaging uses the most advanced techniques, and contributes to generalising the application of this type of diagnostics to improve care and the quality of image-based explorations and diagnoses.
The Institute for Diagnostic Imaging (IDI) is a state-owned company that is affiliated with Catsalut, and has one of its centres at the Vall d'Hebron Hospital. IDI manages, administers and executes image diagnostic services and nuclear medicine services.
At our hospital, we conduct explorations using: magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, nuclear medicine, PET-CT, angiography, ultrasound, mammography, densitometry, conventional radiology, and orthopantomography, among others. This centre is also charged with helping with technological innovation projects, developing research and promoting teaching, thus contributing to scientific and social progress.
IDI and Vall d'Hebron are committed to innovation. In this context, we have PET-CT equipment that allows us to analyse molecular aspects of diseases such as cancer and neurological or cardiovascular disorders. This equipment, which can carry out between 4,000 and 5,000 tests a year, also offers the possibility of introducing new radiopharmaceuticals that improve the management of diseases with a specific molecular profile.
General Hospital
Traumatology Unit
Maternity and Children's Hospital
The Digestive System Department caters for patients with digestive diseases with an emphasis on technical and human excellence.
The mission of our Department is to improve the quality of life of patients with digestive diseases, through the development of knowledge (research), and the transmission of knowledge and values (training).
The activity of the Department includes:
Hospitalisation Ward: this offers care services to the population in the surrounding SAP Mountain area and serves as a reference unit in Catalonia for the referral of patients with hard-to-diagnose/treat patients from hospitals in the Barcelona province (Mollet Hospital, Granollers Hospital, Calella Hospital, San Rafael Hospital, Vic General Hospital) or from level three hospitals from other parts of Catalonia (such as Arnau de Vilanova Hospital, in Lleida, or Josep Trueta Hospital, in Girona). It has 24 beds for hospitalisation for patients admitted with digestive diseases.
Outpatient Clinic: care and follow-up of the most complex outpatients from each area, from Monday to Friday.
Accident and Emergency: care by a Digestive System specialist available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Crohn’s Colitis Unit: provides social healthcare and control of patients with inflammatory bowel disease, both face-to-face and digitally. It is part of a comprehensive care plan for patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, with a particular focus on the changes they may undergo biologically, psychologically and socially. Its role as coordinating centre of the National Network of Crohn’s Colitis Care Units is directed by two medical specialists, a nurse and a research coordinator.
Motility Unit: helps patients with digestive disorders via a functional hospitalisation unit and the Functional Test Laboratory, where diagnostic tests and treatments are performed for patients with digestive conditions. This Unit enjoys a high level of national and international prestige and conducts studies of intestinal function both in terms of motility and malabsorption. This unit is part of the European Centre for Gastrointestinal Motility.
Bleed Unit: this Unit deals with patients with severe digestive haemorrhaging and has 4 semi critical beds for the treatment and diagnosis of acute (high, low or hidden) digestive bleeding. Admission is indicated in cases of severe digestive haemorrhage requiring continuous monitoring and which may therefore not be treated on a conventional ward. Direct patient care is the responsibility of the medical staff assigned to the Bleed Unit and they coordinate the participation of the rest of the team necessary who come from the following units: Digestive Endoscopy Unit, Anaesthesia Department, A&E Department, Surgery Department, Diagnostic Imaging Unit and Interventional Angioradiology Unit.
The Pancreatic Unit: addresses a high number of patients with acute pancreatitis, recurrent pancreatitis and chronic pancreatitis (200 patients), as well as patients with adult cystic fibrosis (160 patients) and patients suffering from pancreatic cystic lesions.
The Digestive System Department’s teaching activity includes a degree at the UAB and the training of specialists in the Digestive System as part of the medical residents programme. The Department also participates in continuing education programmes for internal and external residents from the European Training Centre of the European Board of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
The Digestive System Department carries out significant research as part of the Physiology and Digestive Physiopathology Research Group of the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute, and as part of the Gastrointestinal Inflammation and Neurogastroenterology Division of CIBERehd. We are also recognised by the Catalan Government’s AGAUR programme.
Care by a Digestive System specialist is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
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 General Hospital Accident and Emergency Department handles emergencies for all medical and surgical specialties for adults, regardless of the severity. We have doctors specialising in internal medicine and intensive care medicine, oncology and haematology, and surgical specialties, as well as doctors on call 24 hours a day.
The General Hospital Accident and Emergency department is made up of:
We also have an Observation Ward with 55 beds that has been converted into a hospitalisation unit where patients who have been treated wait until they are transferred to a different hospitalisation ward or another centre. There is also a Short-Term Unit with 16 beds for short-stay patients who are to be hospitalised for less than 4 days.
Accident and Emergency provides care in cases of Code Stroke, Code Heart Attack and Code Sepsis, among others, in coordination with the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to provide immediate care in case of emergencies. We also work in close collaboration with Transplant Coordination.
Vall d'Hebron University Hospital is one of the most active centres in organ and tissue donation, and that is why it is home to multidisciplinary teams who guarantee a high level of health protection, both for the donor and the recipient. One final highlight of the A&E portfolio at the General Hospital is the Diagnostic Imaging Department, with CT scan and ultrasounds available 24 hours a day, and interventional angiology.
The Ophthalmology Department at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital offers integrated care to all those with conditions that affect eyes and eye attachments. We act as a national reference in various ophthalmological pathologies, attending patients from both Catalonia and the rest of Spain. This care work is complemented by important teaching and research activity, which allows us to remain at the forefront of our specialty.
The aim of the Ophthalmology Department is to put all the material and human resources at our disposal into improving the eye health and quality of life of our patients.
The Ophthalmology Department's activity is conducted at various locations, depending on the different care activities, all of which are coordinated and directed by Dr José García-Arumí, Head of Department:
In turn, the Department's care work is structured into different sections, corresponding to each of the ophthalmology sub-specialties. In order to be able to offer more specialised care, in the context of a tertiary level hospital, we have a large team of professionals who are experts in the different sub-specialties:
All the above sections interact with other departments or units at Vall d'Hebron Hospital in order to coordinate and agree on diagnostic and therapeutic decisions for patients who present pathologies involving different medical specialties. This is the case of the multi-disciplinary committees (Tumour Committee, Transplant Committee...), direct contact with other care services in specific cases (maxillofacial surgery, traumatology, plastic surgery, neurology, paediatric specialties, etc.), close contact with services involved in diagnostic (microbiology, pathological anatomy) or therapeutic (Blood and Tissue Bank) tasks and the participation of a doctor specialised in internal medicine in the tasks of diagnosis and treatment of ocular inflammatory processes (Dr Antonio Segura).
The Ophthalmology Department is a Teaching Unit of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). The academic chair is Dr José García-Arumí, Head of the Ophthalmology Department. In turn, several members of the Department are professors (Dr Tirso Alonso Alonso), associate professors or interns at the UAB.
The teaching activity of the Ophthalmology Department includes:
The protocolisation of clinical measures, patient follow-up and collecting the corresponding data has led to the publication of various works in high-prestige national and international journals and the participation in clinical trials and research studies on the most recent therapeutic techniques in the different sub-specialties.
The basic research group in Ophthalmology, made up of an interdisciplinary team of clinicians and basic researchers, focuses its activity on research into new therapies for the treatment of the main neurodegenerative diseases of the retina (such as diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa), ocular surface pathologies (dry eye syndrome, herpes keratitis and neurotrophic ulcers) and the repercussions at eye level of different systemic treatments.
The projects currently being conducted deal with studying different therapeutic strategies, such as cell therapy using stem cells, gene therapy for the expression of curative genes and pharmacological therapies with antiangiogenic factors and antioxidants. These research projects mainly involve basic research, conducted at the Ophthalmology Laboratory located at Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), as well as the development of preclinical trials, using animal models for experimentation, which are conducted at the VHIR Animal Facility. All these products have led to multiple presentations and publications in high-impact journals.
The Neurology Department treats neurological patients, both in primary care centres and at our renowned hospital centre. We have a specialist stroke area (strokes with cerebral blood flow disorders) to treat patients in the acute phase.
The Neurology Department at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital is made up of five specialised units: the Neurovascular Unit, the Dementia Unit, the Epilepsy Unit, the Neuromuscular Unit and the Cephalea and Neurological Pain Unit.
We offer patients all the latest neurology resources, such as emergency neurological care by our expert on-call neurologists. We are home to super-specialist neurology units. We are responsible for quality in the neurological care provided, not only in the hospital, but throughout the entire health area where we are a reference centre.
We have links to the Faculty of Medicine at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and we are responsible for covering undergraduate and postgraduate neurological studies. The Department is accredited for teaching neurology, and we train resident medical interns specialising in neurology. We are a very active department in pursuing clinical and experimental research with a clear translational vocation to apply knowledge from basic research to the prevention and treatment of real clinical cases.
The Integrated Adolescent and Adult Congenital Heart Disease Unit (UCCAA) at Vall d'Hebron - Sant Pau is a part of the Cardiology Department, and its mission is to provide multidisciplinary care for adolescent and adult patients living with a congenital heart disease, as well as teaching and carrying out research in this field.
The Adolescent and Adult Congenital Heart Disease Unit (UCCAA) was set up at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital more than 40 years ago, and we have been providing paediatric care for congenital heart diseases ever since. This Unit is the result of a collaboration agreement between our Hospital and the University Hospital of Santa Creu i Sant Pau, to bring together the effort, resources and experience of these two leading hospitals in the treatment of this disease.
Outpatient visits to the UCCAA Unit take place in the Outpatient Clinic of the Maternity and Children's Hospital, next to the Paediatric Cardiology Department, meaning we can group outpatient care for cardiology of congenital heart disease in a single area. This means that we can share work stations, databases and tools (the ECO 3D) and it makes the transfer and continuity of treatment simple, from paediatric age to adulthood, for what is a congenital and life-threatening disease.
Patients who require admission are directed to the General Hospital, and stay in the cardiology ward. Depending on their clinical circumstances, some of these adult patients with congenital heart disease must be admitted onto special wards:
In parallel with these services, there is also a clinic for reproductive counselling for women with congenital heart disease. This clinic is a part of the Adolescent and Adult Congenital Heart Disease Unit (UCCAA), carried out jointly with the Gynaecology Department at the Outpatient Clinic of the Maternity and Children's Hospital. There, a cardiologist and a gynaecologist/angiologist, experts in congenital heart disease, work together to analyse the patient depending on their individual clinical and heart disease condition and explore their chances of conceiving children. Their mission is to inform, evaluate and offer sexual health planning, discussing the reproductive possibilities of the patients living with congenital heart disease.
Since its creation, our Department has enjoyed significant quantitative and qualitative growth in the areas of patient care, teaching and research. Cancer is an increasingly common illness; we offer high-quality care linked to clinical and translational research, applying the knowledge of basic research to the prevention and treatment of clinical cases. This means we can see patients from outside our catchment area who can participate in clinical trials. We are a reference centre in all areas of clinical oncology.
These diseases are complex to diagnose and treat, making a multidisciplinary approach essential. That is why our Department works to incorporate a range of professional techniques and contributions to tackle all aspects of care and integrate them into the care process. This means we can improve the care process and ensure quality. Examples of this are our genetic counselling and high-risk illness prevention clinics.
In accordance with the analysis and forecasts included in the latest version of the Catalan Health Plan and the Oncology Master Plan, we must bring forward priority actions in the field of oncological disease in Catalonia. Vall d'Hebron University Hospital is especially equipped to offer a comprehensive Oncology Care Plan, with different services all working in coordination. This is possible thanks to our specialised departments such as Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Clinical Haematology, surgical specialties, medical specialties, Pathological Anatomy, Image Diagnostics and Primary Care. Our professional expertise and ability to work in collaboration are the key to fulfilling this mission.
This is why care for people suffering from oncology is structured into processes in place for all operations, with appropriate timing based on a holistic vision of the care process. At our Department, we incorporate everything these patients need in terms of prevention, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.
We base this oncological care on three central pillars: our staff, equipment and clinical research. On the one hand, we guarantee the excellence of our staff through internal training programmes in the field of hospital care, as well as establishing collaboration and training exchanges with other renowned, prestigious centres. On the other hand, we offer the latest equipment and carry out clinical, translational and basic research.
We are working to incorporate primary care into the network of oncology treatment at the Hospital, as we believe holistic care in oncology requires incorporation and coordination of all the different healthcare areas involved in treating patients.
As mentioned previously, research is one of the key pillars of our Department, and we are present at the most prestigious international forums where future research and oncological care are discussed. We participate in Cancer Core Europe, the largest cancer platform in Europe, where our Department is one of just seven European departments present.
We have a biomedical research centre made up of scientists and doctors who work together to link basic science with clinical research: the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO). Our main purpose is to promote and develop excellence in research into oncological diseases.
The VHIO also works to increase our contribution to the development of new therapies that improve the treatment of cancer. Its goals also include modelling scientific practices in the clinic for the benefit of oncology patients, excellence in scientific research in the fields of basic, translational and clinical research, and scientific cooperation between national and international cancer research institutions. By promoting all activities related to cancer research, we contribute to improving the quality of life of our patients.
The Clinical Neurophysiology Department deals with the medical specialty covering the set of techniques for the study and evaluation of the physiological and pathological functions of the central, peripheral and autonomic nervous system. It is based on the direct or indirect recording of bioelectrical and neurobiological phenomena.
Our Department has a long tradition of applying diagnostic techniques in the various fields of neurophysiology, and we provide services to patients from a large number of medical and surgical specialties, such as neurology, neurosurgery, traumatology, rehabilitation, pneumology, paediatrics, internal medicine, ENT, intensive care medicine, ophthalmology, urology and family medicine, etc.
The incorporation of new diagnostic techniques, ever greater complexity and advances in the area of knowledge have all furthered the Department’s specialisation in a range of areas of knowledge:
The main objectives of this Department are:
The mission of the Neurosurgery Department is to guarantee excellence in care, education and research, with an international outlook. We have a particular focus on the needs and preferences of patients with diseases of the nervous system that require surgical treatment.
At the Neurosurgery Department, we apply the most advanced technologies and a multidisciplinary approach in a context that allows us to train neurosurgeons with strong ethical and moral values. All this, as part of the public health system that is accessible to all citizens.
Our Department is divided into three physically separate care sections located in three areas of the Vall d'Hebron hospital complex: the General Hospital, the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital and the Maternity and Children's Hospital. Finally, the Neurotraumatology and Neurosurgery Research Unit, which integrates all of the Department’s translational research, complements these three care sections, applying the knowledge garnered from basic research to the prevention and treatment of clinical cases.
The General Hospital is home to most of the Neurosurgery Department’s activity, housing most of its human resources, patients, beds and financial resources. The team is made up of a chief clinician, seven specialist doctors and a Head of Department. Three of the doctors share their activities with the Maternity and Children's Hospital, and form the main group of physicians devoted to paediatric neurosurgery. The other doctors also collaborate on neuropaediatric care, both with emergency care and low-prevalence pathologies, in which our Department is super-specialized. Adult patients are admitted here who have had cranioencephalic trauma and a programmed pathology of the rachis (spine).
The care offered by the Neurosurgery Department covers three fundamental aspects: general neurosurgery (adult patients), neurotraumatology and paediatric neurosurgery. Despite this differentiation, we are a cross-cutting department that addresses the following diseases:
The educational mission of any neurosurgery department at a high-tech hospital does not end with the training of undergraduate students and specialised training, but rather we are devoted to continuing training of all doctors with links to neurosurgery.
Our Department organises several clinical sessions, as well as annual doctoral courses and different continuing education programmes aimed not only at residents and neurosurgeons in the Department, but also specialists in intensive care, anaesthesia and, in some cases, nursing staff. On the other hand, most of our sessions offer a considerable number of continuing education credits.
The training programme for residents at the Neurosurgery Department includes a general educational programme, a rotation scheme, a plan detailing the objectives and surgical skills that must be acquired, the obligation to comply with the "Resident’s Logbook" and an appropriate evaluation system.
One essential aspect that is often overlooked is the importance of the role of nursing staff in neurosurgical care. We are keenly aware of this, and for years now the neurosurgery nursing staff at the General Hospital and the Neurotraumatology ICU have been integrated in the educational activities of the Department. Also, a symposium specific to nursing is included in the International Symposium on the Monitoring of Intracranial Pressure and Cerebral Haemodynamics that is celebrated biannually. The management of this event, as well as the contents and speakers chosen, falls to the nursing staff, who have total autonomy in organising their Symposium.
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