12/03/2021 - General information
The head of Addictions Process at the Hospital del Mar Institute of Neuropsychiatry and Addictions (INAD) and coordinator of the Addictions research group at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute has been recognised for her contribution to addictions research in Europe. Dr. Marta Torrens has be honoured with the EUFAS EAR 2020 Award, presented by theEuropean Federation of Addiction Societies and the journal European Addiction Research. This award recognises the work of the head of the INAD Addiction Process in terms of European research into addictions. The award has been presented since 2016 to figures who are outstanding in the field of addiction research. The awarding committee considered that the work of Dr. Torrens, with more than 200 high quality articles published in international journals, has made a substantial contribution to the advancement of translational research in this field, and has been instrumental in the introduction of various tools and scales for diagnosing and assessing dual pathology
21/03/2021 - General information
March 21st is World Down Syndrome Day and we are joining in by launching the "21 reasons to collaborate with science" campaign. The goal is to promote clinical research into people with Down's syndrome, to encourage them to get involved in the clinical studies that are currently being carried out and, in this way, to help improve the health and quality of life of these people. Through the 21 reasons campaign, the team of Dr. Rafael de la Torre, director of the Neurosciences research programme at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, wants to raise awareness and encourage people with Down syndrome to get involved in the studies they are conducting. According to Dr. de la Torre, "The therapeutic approach to these people, given their genetic features, has been quite specific, and the more knowledge we have, the more we will be able to adjust the therapy to their needs. Certain medical practices should also be studied in individuals with this syndrome."
21/03/2021 - General information
Down syndrome (DS) is the most common chromosomal abnormality in children leading to lifelong intellectual disability. Over one million people in the EU and US have DS, and its prevalence has increased in the last ten years. Thanks to significant advances in medical and social care, the life expectancy of individuals with DS has increased greatly, so that many of them reach even the age of 60-70. DS causes lifelong cognitive dysfunction, which results in important negative consequences for these individuals, their families and society. Despite the heavier social burden and the greater medical needs linked to this intellectual disability, there isn't an approved therapy for DS-related cognitive dysfunction yet. Furthermore, though there are specific cognitive screening tests designed for individuals with DS, no official guidelines have been developed to assess their cognitive deficits or their impact on quality of life of DS individuals and their families.
02/02/2021 - Covid-19
The effects of the lockdown decreed to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of elderly people in pre-dementia stages were protracted during the de-escalation phase. This is highlighted by a study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, led by researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and doctors from Hospital del Mar, as well as researchers from the CIBER on the Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBEROBN) and the CIBER on Fragility and Healthy Ageing (CIBERFES). The work was carried out in collaboration with the Barcelona βeta Brain Research Center (BBRC). The study involved monitoring sixteen people, between 60 and 80 years old, who are participants in the PIENSA study on the prevention of cognitive deterioration in the stages prior to the onset of dementia. None of them suffered COVID-19. Their activity was exhaustively monitored on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis for two months, which made it possible to compare their progression before, during and after lockdown.
17/12/2020 - Covid-19
The lockdown declared on 13th March to halt the spread of COVID-19 had a particular impact on people with cognitive impairment, as revealed by a study published in the journal Frontiers in Neurology, carried out by doctors from the Neurology Service at Hospital del Mar and researchers from the Neurofunctionality and Language Research Group in the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM-Hospital del Mar). Six out of every ten patients analysed suffered a worsening of their pre-pandemic condition, according to their caregivers. The study followed 60 patients from the Neurology Service, with an average age of 75, together with their caregivers. A telephone survey was used to assess the functional and neuropsychiatric changes suffered by the patients, in addition to the extra workload put on the caregivers due to the restrictions caused by the pandemic. Their adaptation to lockdown and the safety measures implemented, possible changes in their place of residence, the medical support they received, falls, interruption of cognitive stimulation programmes, and the loss of daily routines were analysed.
03/12/2020 - General information
The Catalonian Antidoping Laboratory first obtained the ISO17025 accreditation 20 years ago, in November 2000. The laboratory has been accredited as an anti-doping laboratory since 1985 and is one of 30 laboratories in the world accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The ISO17025 accreditation of all analytical procedures applied in doping controls was a prerequisite for maintaining doping accreditation from 2001 onwards. ISO17025 is an internationally recognised quality standard designed to guarantee the technical competence of testing laboratories, in other words, to ensure that laboratories deliver accurate, reliable results. In Spain, ISO17025 accreditation is awarded by ENAC (Entidad Nacional de Acreditación), a Spanish Government body.
Més informació "The Catalonian Antidoping Laboratory celebrates 20 years of ISO17025 accreditation."
2/12/2020 - Press release
The article published in the journal World Psychiatry and endorsed by the informal scientific network of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), and including the United States National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), validates and corroborates the approach to the dual diagnosis implemented at Hospital del Mar for patients being treated for addiction to a substance of abuse who, in addition, suffer another psychiatric pathology. Dual diagnosis is a major health problem that causes, according to the article, an increased number of emergencies in healthcare centres, as well as more psychiatric hospitalisations, a higher risk of relapse into drug use and premature death, including suicide. This has individual and social repercussions, as well as consequences for healthcare systems, and means that a multidisciplinary and comprehensive approach is required. Nevertheless, as the authors of the paper point out, there is a generalised lack of preparedness to deal with this situation.
01/12/2020 - Press release
The public-private consortium formed by the biotech company Connecta Therapeutics, the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) has received a grant for 1,970,520 Euro from the Spanish National Innovation Agency to develop an innovative treatment for fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common form of hereditary intellectual disability. The grant comes from the 2019 "Collaboration Challenges" call for projects of the National R&D&I Programme geared towards societal challenges. The call received 420 applications, 158 of which will be funded.
27/11/2020 - Covid-19
The MAPBM (Maturity Assessment Model for Patient Blood Management) project is a useful tool that helps hospitals evaluate and develop their programmes for managing the blood of each patient (better known as PBM or patient blood management). This has been highlighted in an article published in the journal Blood Transfusion, led by doctors from Hospital del Mar and researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM). PBM programmes are a set of therapeutic strategies, based on scientific evidence, aimed at improving the patient's condition prior to the surgical procedure, with particular focus on anaemia, minimising bleeding during surgery, and preventing or avoiding blood over-transfusion. They also have a direct impact by reducing the use of hospital blood reserves.
23/11/2020 - Institutional news
The BAPP (Bioanalysis, Proteomics and Pharmacology), a collaborative centre from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and the UPF, has obtained the TECNIO accreditation for the period 2020-2023. This seal, which the centre had already obtained in previous editions, is awarded by the Government of Catalonia through ACCIÓN. It identifies and raises the profile of centres with high scientific and technical capacities that are considered to be developers of differential technologies and which are leaders when it comes to transferring their knowledge and technologies to industry. The BAPP is a multidisciplinary centre specialising in research and service activities in four sectors: pharmacology, neurosciences, peptide chemistry, and bioanalysis. Its main focus is the development of new drugs for human and veterinary use. It comprises the Integrated Pharmacology and Systems Neuroscience (Farmacologia Integrada i Neurociència de Sistemes; FINS) research group of the IMIM-Hospital del Mar, on the one hand, and the Proteomics and Protein Chemistry research group from the UPF on the other.
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