"http://www.comb.cat/" Barcelona’s Medical Board has awarded five Vall d’Hebron professionals with its 2014 Professional Excellence Award: Dr. Fernando Azpiroz, head of the Physiology and Pathophysiology of the Digestive Tract Group of the Vall d’Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR), Dr. Francesc Bosch, head of VHIR’s Experimental Hematology Group, Dr. Josep Àngel Bosch, Internal Medecine expert, and member of the Systemic Diseases Group, Dr. Manuel Matas, specialist in Angilology and Vascular and General surgery, and Dr. Marius Morlans, retired Nephrology specialist. The professional association has also recognized the work carried out by the Cardiology Unit in Vall d’Hebron’s Universitary Hospital, headed by Dr. David García Dorado, head of VHIR’s Cardiovascular Diseases Group.Two of VHIR’s group heads have been awardedDr. Fernando Azpiroz graduated in Medicine and Surgery in 1977, from Universidad de Valladolid. 9 years later he got his PhD from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and in 2011 he was appointed Professor in Medicine by the Science and Education Ministry. His first experience in Vall d’Hebron was in 1986, as an associated researcher at the Digestive Tract Research Unit. Before he had been doing his residence in Hospital Clínico San Carlos in Madrid, and had also worked for three years as a researcher in Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minnesota. Nowadays he leads the hospital’s Digestive Unit, and also VHIR’s research group, composed by over 25 professionals. They are doing first line research in fields such as: abdominal distension, microbiota, or irritable bowel syndrome, among others. Dr. Francesc Bosch graduated in Medicine and Surgery from Universitat de Barcelona in 1988. After finishing his residence in Hematology at Barcelona’s Hospital Clínic, he got his PhD in 1997 also from Universitat de Barcelona. His studies about cyclin D1 overexposure in lymphoproliferative syndromes lead him to take a 2 year postdoctoral position at Columbia University, New York. He returned to Barcelona in the year 2000, and 9 years later he was announced Head of the hemathology Unit of Vall d’Hebron, and Head of the Experimental Hematology research Group. The group is formed by over 20 professionals, and leads three research lines: chronic lymphatic leukemia, lymphoproliferative syndromes and myelodysplastic syndromes.