ICS is the most important national healthcare provider in biomedical research

The Catalan Institute of Health (ICS) is the leading healthcare provider in the Spain regarding the quantity and the quality of the scientific articles that have been published. In 2014, researchers from the seven research centers linked to ICS published 3.835 articles in indexed scientific journals, which means, more than any other healthcare institution in Catalonia and Spain; this makes a total amount of 14,381.23 impact factor points: a marker of quality based on the frequency which a journal’s articles are cited in scientific publications.

The research institutes which are part of the hospitals and primary healthcare facilities of the institutions are VHIR, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) that manages the research carried out at Bellvitge and Viladecans’ Hospitals, Health Sciences Research Institute of the “German Trias I Pujol” Foundation (IGTP), Biomedical Research Institute of Lleida (IRBLleida), Pere Virgili Institute (IISPV): management of research at Hospital l’Hospital Joan XXIII in Tarragona and Verge de la Cinta Hospital in Tortosa, Girona Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBGI), Primary Care Research Institute Jordi Gol (IDIAP Jordi Gol), Four of these institutes (VHIR, IDIBELL, IGTP AND IRBLleida) are accredited as biomedical research institutes by the Institute of Health Carlos III.

These centers currently have 1,148 ongoing research and competitive projects and 2,467 clinical trials that reached 91 million of euros during 2014. The institutes filed 40 patent applications last year and signed 94 contracts for research and development.

The main research lines of the centers linked to ICS, among others, are: neuroscience, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, infectious pathology and transplant, inflammatory, chronic and degenerative diseases, respiratory diseases, epidemiology and public health.

Research is, together with teaching, a basic foundation to improve health care assistance that users at ICS are receiving. This public organization supports research that can be useful to improve people’s health. In order to achieve this aim in the most efficient way, the institutes linked to ICS are cooperating closely with each other as well as with other institutions of the health care system of Catalonia and Spain and with the main centers of biomedical research worldwide.

Annual Report 2014

This is a piece of data highlighted in the ICS Annual Report 2014, In this publication we can see compiled the following: the health care activity developed in the organization centers, the morbidity of the population in primary health care, the prevalence of the most important chronic illnesses, according to sex and age, the qualitative outcomes of primary healthcare activity, the most difficult and common pathologies assisted in hospitals, data of tertiary care procedures and complex ones, waiting lists for the fourteen guarantee procedures, analysis of hospital case material.

Apart from making the most important strategic projects public, ICS also presents the most relevant news about financial management, innovation and assistance improvements, quality, research, teaching, professionals, citizens, corporate social responsibility, presence of ICS on the Internet and new equipment. As a new feature, a separate section is devoted in this edition to information systems.