Dr. Josep Vaqué, researcher of the Epidemiology and Public Health group at Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research (VHIR) and consultant physician of the same service at the hospital, has received the Semmelweis prize by the "http://www.sempsph.com/" Spanish society of preventive medicine, public health and hygiene. The organization has awarded him for his study on the prevalence of hospital-acquired infections in Spain and for his commitment with the development and consolidation of the scientific society. He has coordinated since 1990 this annual study that is carried out in nearly 260 Spanish hospitals to determine the impact of the nosocomial infections in each centre. During the award ceremony, hosted last Friday at the Spanish Department of Health, Social Policy and Equality, Dr. Vaqué assured that “the EPINE study has become a very useful tool for the management of the hospitals, to improve the quality in the health care, and to ease the training of the staff in terms of surveillance, prevention and the control of nosocomial infections”.According to the latest results of the EPINE study, the 5.6% of the inpatients in 2014 got infected in the hospital, compared with the 8.5% in 1990. For Dr. Vaqué, these results show that “hospitals offer every year more security and quality in the control of nosocomial infections, which are still a common problem”.