Rheumatology

We are a clinical unit that aims to offer high-quality, cross-cutting care and teaching, as well as developing research excellence in the area of musculoskeletal and connective tissue diseases. We have extensive experience in training specialists in rheumatology. We guarantee rigorous, high-quality training in all the professional care, research and teaching skills in our area.

The training programme includes residents in the Rheumatology research group’s lines of research, so that they receive general training in research methodology, conventional and new areas of research, such as precision medicine, as well as evidence-based precision medicine, evidence-based medicine and research based on healthcare outcomes.  Furthermore, our residents have the chance to undertake training periods in internationally renowned centres in both Europe and the United States.

Experience in research allows us to offer students a high-quality doctoral programme to carry out a thesis project and become a Doctor of Medicine. We also offer the opportunity to actively collaborate on research projects assessed by national and European public research bodies, and to co-author the resulting papers.

Why do your residency at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital?

• Because we cover all specialisations in the area of Rheumatology, for adult and paediatric patients.
• Because we have a Rheumatology hospitalisation floor, where you can see and treat the most serious and complex cases. We also have a day hospital for outpatients under treatment with selective immunosuppressants administered via parenteral injections.
• Because we are a highly cohesive team, made up of doctors, nurses, psychologists, physiotherapists, biologists, bioinformaticians, engineers and mathematicians.
• Because you can learn about rheumatic pathologies at all stages of life, from early childhood to senescence and even during pregnancy, given that we have a unit dedicated to pregnancy in patients affected by chronic inflammatory and systemic autoimmune diseases. Because the Paediatric Rheumatology Unit is a leading centre in Spain for juvenile idiopathic arthritis and other systemic and musculoskeletal diseases.
• Because we offer highly specialised care to patients with chronic inflammatory arthritis, and treatments with selective immunosuppressants, specifically for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and spondyloarthropathies.
• Because we care for a large number of patients with systemic autoimmune diseases, especially systemic lupus erythematosus, inflammatory myopathies and cancer patients treated with immunotherapy. 
• Because you will be able to see patients with metabolic bone pathologies, collaborate with the Pneumology Department to control transplant patients with secondary osteoporosis and with the AIS Nord Fracture Coordination Unit (UCF).
• Because you can conduct activities associated with the Ultrasound rooms (diagnosis and intervention) and Capillaroscopy, as well as other highly specialised techniques, such as ultrasound-guided synovial biopsy or saliva gland, vascular and lung ultrasounds. In our department there are professionals who are professors in the Spanish Rheumatology Society’s Ultrasound School, for both adult and paediatric patients. 
• Because we are the leading department for patients with central sensitisation syndromes, more specifically for patients with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. In addition, we offer specialised, multi-disciplinary care to patients, so you can acquire the knowledge required for quality care provision.
• Because we work in a multi-disciplinary way with multiple services from various medical and surgical specialities (Paediatrics, Dermatology, Oncology, Pneumology, Nephrology, Internal Medicine, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology, Anaesthesia, etc.)  and in close collaboration with the departments of Immunology, Pharmacy and Clinical Pharmacology and Radiodiagnosis, among others. The multi-disciplinary work in all of these areas provides patients with better quality care.
• Because the unit's accessible and committed teaching enables continuous close assessment of residents, maximising their skills and providing support for designing their future careers.
• Because we have extensive experience of training rheumatology and paediatric residents from other teaching units, as well as residents from abroad.
• Because we are interested in providing high-quality training and we give our residents every facility for doing training courses, as well as attending national and international congresses. We also stimulate and support the preparation of presentations and papers at leading conferences, and encourage residents to acquire oral and written communication skills.
• Because we encourage stays abroad during the residency, at centres such as the Giannina Gaslini Institute in Genoa, Italy; Inselspital Bern Hospital in Bern, Switzerland; the NHS Trust Rheumatology Department in London, UK; and the Division of Clinical Rheumatology and Immunology in Birmingham, USA.