d·HEALTH Barcelona now a University of Barcelona Masters degree

The Design Health Barcelona (d·HEALTH Barcelona) program, promoted by Biocat to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in the biomedical arena, is now an accredited masters degree offered through the University of Barcelona (UB). This means d·HEALTH Barcelona is part of the official catalog of degrees offered by the UB, which aim to apply the skills and competences acquired through previous studies to professional practice and allow students to specialize or re-orient their careers.

With the d·HEALTH Barcelona Master, inspired by the University of Stanford biodesign program, fellows experience a clinical immersion at top hospitals in Barcelona to detect unmet clinical needs “in situ”, which are then used to design new products or services that they develop throughout the course. Each team spends two months at one of the main hospitals in the city, like Hospital Clínic, Sant Joan de Déu or Institut Guttmann.

The d·Health Barcelona Master is one of only four biodesign programs in Europe that follow the Stanford model. Over the course of the 9-month program, fellows work in small, multidisciplinary teams and experience a whole innovation cycle, from identifying needs in hospitals through designing and prototyping a feasible solution, to searching for funding. At the same time, they also gain knowledge in medicine and business development, as well as skills in areas like design thinking and creative leadership, through classes and workshops given by more than 50 global experts from Stanford, Kaos Pilot –the Danish training program that has become a global benchmark for its disruptive methodology- and MIT, among others.

Now d·HEALTH Barcelona graduates will receive a Masters degree from the University of Barcelona, which is the only university in Spain among the top 200 on the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), better known as the Shanghai ranking. The UB is the main public university in Catalonia in terms of number of students and training offered, and the main university research center in Spain and one of the most important in Europe, both in number of research programs and in excellence achieved in this field.

Last spots open for third edition

d·HEALTH Barcelona is an initiative of Biocat, with support from Sanofi, and collaboration from the University of Barcelona, Barcelona Science Park and Danish school KaosPilot. Applications are still being accepted for the third edition from candidates with undergraduate degrees or PhDs in engineering, design and business who are interested in entrepreneuring in the health sector. Admissions requirements are available on the d·HEALTH website.