The Professional Excellence Awards 2024, organized each year by the Medical Association of Barcelona (Col·legi Oficial de Metges de Barcelona), were presented yesterday at the AXA Auditorium in Barcelona. Of the 55 winners, three were professionals from the Clínic Barcelona. Dr. Pere Ginès Gibert won the Biomedical Research Award, Dr. Isabel Vilaseca González won the Hospital Care Award, and Dr. Pedro Castro Rebollo won the Medical Education Award.
Dr. Pere Ginès, Biomedical Research Award
Dr. Pere Ginès is a hepatologist and currently senior consultant in the Hepatology Service at the Hospital Clínic Barcelona and professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Barcelona. He has been director of the Master's Degree course in Research into Liver Diseases at the University of Barcelona for 15 years. In the field of research, his studies on cirrhosis of the liver and the early diagnosis of liver fibrosis in the general population as a method for screening liver diseases stand out. He is head of the IDIBAPS “Chronic liver diseases: molecular mechanisms and clinical consequences” research group. He coordinates various research projects on liver diseases at European level, funded by the European Commission. He has received several national and international awards and is an international opinion leader on liver diseases, especially cirrhosis of the liver.
Dr. Isabel Vilaseca, Hospital Care Award
Dr. Isabel Vilaseca is an otorhinolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon and currently holds the position of director of the Surgical Area of the Clínic. Over the course of her career, she has focused on the diagnosis and treatment of pharyngeal and laryngeal pathology, with particular emphasis on head and neck tumours. She leads the AGAUR Head Neck Clínic consolidated Research Group and is a member of the IDIBAPS “Translational genomics and targeted therapies in solid tumours” group. She holds a PhD in Medicine and is a professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Barcelona. She was a professor of the Master’s Degree course in Advanced Medical Competencies in Sleep Disorders and is currently a professor of the Master’s Degree course in Health Management. She is also president of the Catalan Society of Otorhinolaryngology and a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Laryngological Society.
Dr. Pedro Castro, Medical Education Award
Dr. Pedro Castro is currently Head of Section at the Hospital Clínic’s Intensive Care Unit. Since 2005, he has been a teaching collaborator at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Barcelona and, since 2022, has been an associate professor. He coordinates module 1 of the Master’s Degree course in Critical Care and Emergency Medicine at the University of Barcelona. Dr. Castro is an instructor for the American Society of Intensive Care Medicine in FCCS, FDM, FCCS Tropical Medicine, MCCR and CCU courses, as well as a EuSim simulation instructor. His research interests are critically ill patients, especially those who are immunosuppressed, and also those who have sepsis or multi-organ dysfunction syndrome, and those with imported infectious diseases, including patients who require a high level of isolation, and COVID-19. He is a researcher in 10 national and international competitive research projects, the author of over 200 articles in indexed biomedical journals and has written over 40 chapters in books.
