What will the d·Health Barcelona Part Time program clinical immersion be like?
<p>Parc Taulí, Vall d’Hebron, Bellvitge and Germans Trias i Pujol hospitals opened their doors to tell us how the clinical immersion will run in each of the participating units, what the students will get to see and what their relationship with the professionals and patients there will be like.</p>
The d·Health Barcelona Part Time training program will kick off in March. This six-month talent program from Biocat aims to train a new generation of entrepreneurs and innovators in the healthcare arena.
One of the most attractive aspects of the program is the opportunity to do a two-week clinical immersion at four different benchmark hospitals in Catalonia. This immersion allows participants to identify unmet clinical needs and later look for potential technological solutions to resolve them.
The participating centers are: Hospital Universitari Parc Taulí – Oncology Unit, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron – Rehabilitation Unit, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge – Neurology Unit, Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol – Nephrology Unit.
We asked the head of the participating unit at each of the four hospitals how they will run the clinical immersion, what the students will get to see and what kind of relationship they will have with the professionals and patients there.
Hospital Universitari Parc Taulí: young, positive, innovative team
At Hospital Universitari Parc Taulí, the students will be part of the Oncology Unit focusing on the Digestive Tumors section. Dr. Miquel Àngel Seguí, head of the Oncology Unit, leads a “young, positive, innovative team” that participants will sit in on meetings with to see how they decide on and apply the various treatments depending on each patient’s condition.
According to Dr. Seguí, the clinical immersion will also give them the chance to understand the daily workings of the hospital and take part in clinical activities. “There are many patients with a wide variety of pathologies in this unit, who can contribute a lot of information to the students to help them detect unmet medical needs.”
Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron: diversity of specializations and following patients from beginning to end
Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron will welcome the students into its Rehabilitation Unit. Dr. Judith Sánchez-Raya, head of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Unit at the hospital, explains that the participants will be part of the patients’ journey at every stage, from admission through treatment. Plus, they will carry out various day-to-day activities with the rest of the team and get to know the different specializations within the Unit, which include physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy.
Vall d’Hebron Head of Innovation Anna Sala also advised candidates to “observe and ask patients, families and professionals questions during the clinical immersion. And to organize focus groups and do interviews and surveys to get the most out of the experience.”
Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge: personalized patient care bedside
The clinical immersion at Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge will take place in the Stroke Unit, where the future health innovators will be part of the day-to-day operations at the hospital and accompany healthcare professionals in their morning meetings, one of the most important of the day, where they follow up on and update patient status.
For Unit Head Dr. Pere Cardona, what matters most is that “students become part of the team and understand how the department works, with all its specializations.” Plus, he explained that the students will get the chance to accompany the surgeons, learn about the surgical processes and do rounds with physicians and nurses.
Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol: two-way interaction with the team and patients
At Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, the students will join the dialysis team and see patients getting hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis, and learn about all the patient and prevention programs.
Dr. Jordi Bover, head of the Nephrology Unit, leads a team where communication and relationships are “very important”. That’s why he hopes it won’t only be the students doing the learning. Plus, to identify unmet medical needs, he advises the candidates to “interact with all the staff and the patients,” as their discoveries could be applied in other areas of the hospital.
The training program, inspired by the Stanford University biodesign methodology, receives support from the Catalan Ministry of Health, EIT Health and Tech Barcelona and is focused on students, researchers or professionals with training in the health and life sciences, engineering, business or design