Organization - Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology Service

The Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology Service carries out three basic types of healthcare activity:

• Adult Vaccination Center (CVAC). This service offers specific and properly designated vaccination to all patients who visit the Hospital and who are in a situation that makes them more vulnerable to certain infectious diseases for which vaccines are available. Sometimes this situation requires a complex vaccination program, given the treatment that some patients may undergo. For this reason, the activity focuses on the vaccination of all those people who have a high risk of acquiring any of these communicable diseases. Similarly, the Service targets patients who have a higher risk of complications (splenectomized patients; immunosuppressed patients or patients undergoing immunosuppressive therapy or treatment with biologic drugs, and patients with a chronic disease).
  
  The scope of action extends to those situations in which otherwise healthy people who have been in contact with a communicable disease require preventive intervention (chemoprophylaxis or vaccine). The Service also aims to be a reference point to help resolve more complex situations and to be able to deal with difficulties in carrying out an epidemiological control (outbreaks or other adverse events).
  
  Between 2014 and 2017, 20,600 visits were received at the Adult Vaccination Center and 48,800 vaccines were administered.

• Cancer Prevention Programs (PDPC):
  
  The Program for the Prevention of Breast Cancer. This program works to decrease breast cancer mortality by detecting early-stage cancers. The specific objectives of the PDPCM are the following:
  • Ensure access to and use of the screening program every two years for all women between the ages of 50 and 69.
  • Increase breast cancer survival after five years by 10%.
  • Reduce breast cancer mortality by 10%.

The PDP for colon cancer is aimed at men and women aged 50 to 69. The screening test is an immunological fecal occult blood test (PSOFi), with a single stool sample collected by the participant. The test is delivered to the Pharmacy Offices (OF), along with an instruction leaflet. The test is performed biennially. The test of choice for the investigation of positive cases in PSOFi is colonoscopy with analgesia or anesthesia. Colonoscopy is performed in the Endoscopy Unit of the Hospital Clínic, Gastroenterology Service, ICMDiM.