Dra. Berta Díaz Feijoo: “We want to help empower women in the treatment of gynaecological diseases”

We are leaders in many areas and for many diseases: oncology, endometriosis, ultrasound scans in the treatment of pelvic pain… In the Service, we are clearly committed to innovation and we are also a very balanced team.  Women’s health is our priority.  

We are 40 professionals from different disciplines and with different specialities.  We treat the diseases of the female reproductive system that do not occur during pregnancy.  We have over 63,000 visits to our outpatient clinic and perform 1,100 surgeries each year. We have three main areas of work—which correspond to three sections—benign gynaecology, oncological gynaecology and human reproduction. 

We are a referral service for many diseases at a national level, but we are also strengthening our collaboration and networking with the hospitals in the C-17 Healthcare Network (Mollet, Granollers, Sant Celoni, Vic and Campdevànol). 

I have been the new head of the Gynaecology Service for 3 months.  I'm very excited about this! And we have to thank Dr. Francisco Carmona for the work he has done to make the Service number 8 in the world and number 1 in Spain – that’s what the rankings say.  This is only possible thanks to the hard work carried out by the whole team. 

We want to continue to be leaders.  We want to focus on women’s gynaecological health and apply and promote medicine from a woman’s perspective.  In order to do this, we want to listen to our patients, to get to know them better, and involve them in their decisions during their illness.  

One of our priorities in this new phase of the Service is to empower and care for our professionals.  We want them to develop further as professionals and to feel comfortable working here. 

Robotic surgery is one of our priorities.  We want to do more robot-assisted surgery and to do it better.  Here we treat highly complex patients and, at the same time, we want to invest in the innovation of new surgical techniques.  We are already leaders, but there is still room for improvement.   

The future of surgery involves robot-assisted surgery, which means the hospital needs to have more robots.  Today, we have to share the robots we have with other specialities—and that’s logical—but in 5 years’ time, I’m sure there will be more of them. In 5 years, I hope that most surgeries we perform today using laparoscopy can be carried out using robots.   

Well, clearly because robot-assisted surgery is extremely beneficial for patient recovery, and also for the surgical professionals.  

And it allows us surgeons to have 3D vision and excellent precision. In other words, for every 7 cm we move outside the console, it only moves 1 cm inside the patient’s body. 

When someone asks me what I do for a living, I always give the same answer.  “I’m a surgeon”. For me, being in the operating theatre is relaxing. It allows me to concentre a lot on what I do and, what’s more, it’s been my vocation since I was a child.  

I’m aware that now I have to focus on managing the Service, but I operate one or two days a week and have patient appointments/see patients one day a week.   

Nowadays, the patients’ quality of life is taken into account far more.  Women demand much more personalized care, less paternalistic…  Are there more cases of cancer than before? No, but we use more conservative treatments to save the ovaries, for example.  

In recent years, gynaecological health has improved significantly thanks to new technological advances and greater social awareness.  Diagnostic techniques and treatment have evolved, allowing for earlier and less invasive detection of diseases such as cervical cancer and fertility problems.  In addition, access to information on reproductive health has increased, promoting better education and the prevention of gynaecological diseases.  

The link between care and teaching.  It’s a hospital that has the Faculty at its heart, and that is noticeable, and you can feel it: knowledge, innovation and teaching.  We are very keen to transmit knowledge, to train other students.  Other hospitals do not have such an integrated view of care and teaching.  

When I go into a room or a patient comes into my consulting room, I always introduce myself by saying, “I am Dr. Díaz Feijoo”. I remember how one day, after a complex 8-hour surgery, I went out to explain to the relatives how the surgery had gone.  After I had spent a few minutes explaining the situation, they asked, "and when will the doctor come?"…  There is still a long way to go. 

Yes, above all, I helped in the robot-assisted surgery for the removal of the organ. It is a very interesting professional challenge that cannot be done without clear leadership of the project and an incredible team.  

These surgeries form part of a research project for patients with Rokitansky syndrome (females born with no uterus but with ovaries and fallopian tubes). We will perform the third transplant before Christmas. The patient has already been chosen and we have carried out the pre-transplant ovarian stimulation. These surgeries can only be performed in pioneering hospitals such as this one. Everything is on track! 

Yes. In fact, we are finishing work on a new laboratory with pioneering technology that will allow for spectacular systematization and an increase in the number of fertilization processes. We’ll open this laboratory after the summer, and we’re really looking forward to it! 

Indeed, women are having children later for various social, financial and cultural reasons.  It’s a fact that the age at which women are having their first child is being pushed back. Advances in reproductive health also allow women to plan their motherhood better, thanks to fertility treatments.  All this has led to an increase in sterility problems.  We have greatly increased our activity in this area and have gone from 800 cycles to 1,200 in a few years, and this number will rise further thanks to the new in vitro fertilization laboratory.  

We want to help empower women in the treatment of gynaecological diseases. Women are more aware of their gynaecological health these days. This awareness has increased due to several factors, such as the greater availability of information and public awareness campaigns on the importance of regular gynaecological check-ups.  This has also been influenced by health education in schools and access to health professionals who promote prevention and the early diagnosis of diseases.