The Consorci Institut D'Investigacions Biomediques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS) is a public research centre dedicated to translational research in the field of biomedicine. Its mission is to integrate state of the art basic research and quality clinical research. Founded in 1996, IDIBAPS is formed by the Catalan Ministry of Economy and Knowledge (DEC), the University of Barcelona's Faculty of Medicine (UB), the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona (HCB) and the Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques de Barcelona of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (IIBB-CSIC). As such HCPB can be considered a third party of IDIBAPS. The institution is very active in scientific research. The number of publications has shown a constant growth. In 2012 there were 1.026 original publications in high impact factor scientific magazines, many of which were collaborative studies in which different institutional teams joined their investigative efforts. The global impact factor for the journals where the abovementioned articles appeared was 5,334 IF points, showing a yearly progression of 13,24%. Of these publications, close to 60% are in the first quartile of impact in their field.
Moreover, IDIBAPS has a strong track record working in European projects and has a dedicated European Projects Office. This office managed 29 projects in FP5 (one as coordinators), 42 projects in FP6 (eleven as coordinators) and 101 projects in FP7 (twenty-nine as coordinators).
HCPB (www.hospitalclinic.org) is a university tertiary hospital that employs about 4,000 professionals with a long reputation of excellence in care provision, training and research at national and international level. HCPB has been consolidating a dual model, both as a Community Hospital, serving the population in the area of reference and as a Tertiary Hi-tech centre developing leading-edge research in several lines at national and international levels. During the last decade, HCPB has developed an ambitious program for chronic patient management promoting both care coordination and use of ICT to support integrated care services in the entire area of 540,000 inhabitants. Besides, the institution is leading different EU projects involving Systems Biology approaches and deployment of ICT for health.
Barcelona Virtual Health Practice (BVHP) is the name of the strategic alliance between the Barcelona Digital technology centre and HCPB.
The purpose of this strategic, long-term initiative is technology transfer in clinical practice and healthcare in order to become an international benchmark in health technologies. It is oriented at transforming the health and healthcare model for chronic patients, based on improving the provision of healthcare services and making them more efficient based on the use of digital technologies at all times during the care of a chronic patient. The ultimate purpose of BVHP is to increase the contact between healthcare providers and the patient, increase the quality of diagnoses in terms of health and sustainability, and reduce physical visits.
Regarding research programmes, the benchmark ICT technology centre and the Hospital Clínic will coordinate with each other to take advantage of the financing opportunities that may result from the new European framework programme, Horizon 2020, RIS3CAT and EIT-Health innovation initiatives. They will participate jointly as partners on preparing proposals and on the subsequent execution of projects (if awarded) that are aligned with the objectives of the BVHP.
Regarding innovation projects, the BVHP has initially identified the following:
- Mechanisms for promoting the early and advanced diagnoses of patients through clinical decision support systems at primary care centres, pharmacy offices, and specialised care centres.
- Support for rehabilitation therapies through the optimum distribution of medical devices at the homes of patients.
- Support for patients who take various types of medicines, thereby ensuring that the medicines are taken correctly (on time, in the correct order, and in the correct quantity) and improving adherence to treatments.
- Support for home care programmes after patient discharge through new methods and technologies.
- Programmes for the virtual continuous learning of both technical and non-technical skills for health professionals by using different heterogeneous sources and technologies at the same time.
- 2.0 primary care team for the optimisation of resources, for collaborating on and sharing knowledge with specialised care, and for patient emancipation.
- Monitoring of patients by the Emergency Care Department to support clinical control and to help in the decision-making of the medical team.
- Advanced remote home care for preventing illnesses, promoting healthy skills, and promoting the physical and social autonomy of the elderly.