Valentí Fuster is the Director of the Cardiology Unit at prestigious Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and the President of the National Centre for Cardiovascular Research in Madrid. He received an honorary degree from the UIC in 2010. The wide scope of Dr. Fuster’s research work covers many areas related to the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease. He has published more than 700 articles on coronary conditions, atherosclerosis and thrombosis. On a general level, he has a keen interest in promoting the diffusion of science in Spain.

Fuster will make the trip from New York to Barcelona expressly to present the degrees to the first 65 students of Medicine to graduate from the UIC. The degree programme began in the 2008-2009 academic year, making the UIC the first private university in Catalonia to offer a Degree in Medicine.

The curriculum of the UIC’s Degree in Medicine was designed within the framework of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). It is particularly geared toward student learning through the use of active educational methodologies such as small study groups, the case-study method, problem-based learning and intensive use of simulation laboratories. The programme also places strong emphasis on information and communication technologies. Dr. Albert Balaguer, the current Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, described the aim of the new degree programme. He said, “It will help train doctors with hearts as well as minds, who have an exceptionally high level of technical training as well as an awareness that the focus of their work is their patients, people that need them”.

Patient-Centred Medicine

The Degree in Medicine curriculum allows students to come into contact with patients within a few weeks of beginning the programme. Students will have the opportunity to gain early, firsthand experience of the healthcare system as interns in the accredited institutions that collaborate with the university: two university hospitals (the Althaia Hospital Network in Manresa and the Hospital Asil de Granollers Foundation) and two associated hospitals (Hospital General de Catalunya and Quirón Hospital in Barcelona).

The ultimate goal of the Degree in Medicine is to ensure that students acquire a solid grounding in the basic sciences while they gradually acquire instrumental and transferable skills. Ethics in clinical decision making, clinical management and accompanying patients within the healthcare system are among the other key elements of this degree.