• Find people
• Intranet

News

04/05/2020 - Covid-19

Hospital del Mar and Macaco join forces to promote research into COVID-19

Today, the Barcelona-born singer Macaco is presenting his new song, Sanadoras Voluntades, a tribute to the work being done by health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The song and its video clip are the result of the combined efforts of the singer, the producers Nebraska and Playtime Movies, Hospital del Mar, the Friends of Hospital del Mar Foundation and the illustrator Lola Vendetta. The project was created to thank healers. "Our applause is not enough for this group of people who reject the label of heroes and simply demand protection and safety to be able to carry out their work", explains Dani Macaco, who performed and composed the song, along with Thomas Tirtha Rundquist, as well as directing the video, together with Bernat Saumell.

This humanitarian initiative was supported by Hospital del Mar, one of the Catalan centres involved in treating COVID-19 patients, and by the Friends of Hospital del Mar Foundation. All the proceeds from playing the song and video clip on digital platforms, as well as the copyright, will be given to a research project at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) in the field of COVID-19 research and treatment. The particular project is led by Dr. Robert Güerri, coordinator of the COVID-19 units at Hospital del Mar and a researcher in the IMIM's Infectious and Antimicrobial Pathology Research Group, which combines the care of patients hospitalised for this disease with research into new ways of treating COVID-19. Also participating in the study is Dr. Judith Marín, a consultant in the Intensive Care Medicine Service at the Hospital del Mar and also an IMIM researcher, and Dr. Natalia Garcia Giralt, from the IMIM's Musculoskeletal Research Group. As Dr. Güerri explains, "initiatives like Macaco's give us a big boost and, above all, help us keep moving forward with a project that we have been working on since the beginning of the infection and that we believe can help a lot of people.

Videoclip Sanadoras Voluntades by Macaco

Early prognostic markers

This study will look for biomarkers in blood that can be used as an effective clinical tool for the assessment and early diagnosis of the appearance of respiratory complications in newly hospitalised patients diagnosed with COVID-19 infection. Its development will allow doctors to identify patients at increased risk of respiratory deterioration and enable them to make decisions about the most effective treatment in each case, in an advanced way, thus improving the patient's prognosis and recovery. To do this, blood samples will be taken from 200 patients who have overcome the disease and have suffered varying degrees of severity during its course. They will be analysed using transcriptomics techniques (which allow the whole of a cell's RNA to be analysed). The researchers hope to have a model within a year.

Anyone interested in collaborating with the campaign #siempreadelante can also do this through the Friends of Hospital del Mar webpage and through the campaign at migranodearena.com. 

Image of the campaign #SempreEndavant #SiempreAdelante #AlwaysAhead

More news