This morning, the Institut Català de la Salut (ICS) Research Awards have been delivered in Lleida during the celebration of the 9th Conference of Research at the ICS, which has focused on respiratory diseases. Three professionals from Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) have been awarded.

Researchers Arturo Evangelista, from Vall d'Hebron Hospital Campus and Xavier-Matias-Guiu from Hospital de Bellvitge and the Hospital Arnau de Vilanova, won ex aequo the Award for a Research Career in ICS Hospitals.

Carmen Fuentelsaz from Hospital Vall d'Hebron, received the Award for Research Career in Nursing, awarded this year for the first time, and Silvia Bielsa, from the Arnau de Vilanova, the Young Researcher Award.On the other hand, were awarded prizes for the best posters in the areas of basic research- which has been awarded to a study by Dr. María Jesús Cruz, of the Pneumology Service of the Hospital Vall d'Hebron-, translational and clinical and epidemiological research. During the 9th ICS Conference of Research, Dr. Antoni Roman, head of the Pneumology Service of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital and principal investigator of the Pulmonology Research Group at Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), participated as a speaker talking about the pulmonary circulation in the 'Symposium on chronic hypoxemia beyond the lung "Awarded "ex aequo" to Research Career at ICS HospitalsArturo Evangelista Masip (63 years) is head of the Department of Cardiac Imaging at the University Hospital Vall d'Hebron. In this centre he is also the director of the Unit of Familiar Heart Diseases of the Cardiology Service and Director of the Multidisciplinary Unit on Marfan Syndrome. In the field of research, Evangelista is principal investigator of the Cardiovascular Diseases Research Group at Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR). He has published over 200 articles in indexed journals and is the author of forty books or teaching documents. His research focuses on the study of Marfan syndrome and aortic pathology. In 1987 he received the National Award for Cardiovascular Research, awarded by the Spanish Society of Cardiology. He has also received several awards for conference papers.

In the educational field, Evangelista is an associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Professor in the Master of Familiar Heart Diseases of the Complutense University of Madrid. He is also an honorary professor at the University of Córdoba (Argentina).

Awarded in Research Career in NursingCarmen Fuentelsaz Gallego (62 years) is a nurse at the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital since 1976. After performing healthcare activity, in 1994 began to dedicate herself entirely to research. She is currently Head of the Research Group on Health Care of Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR). In 2013 she received her PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health with a thesis on the prevalence and impact of urinary incontinence in adult women, adolescents and athletes, who won one of the special awards for doctorate from the University Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid. She has taught at the University of Barcelona and the University of the Balearic Islands, among other centres.

Her research focuses on the study of care for postpartum, care for complex chronic patients and cancer patients, the approach of pain, patient safety, working conditions of nurses and scientific methodology in the field of nursing care, among other topics. She is known for having led the validation of the scale Emina, for the assessment of the risk of developing pressure sores, and the ICUB97 questionnaire to evaluate the life of informal carers of dependent persons. She is the author of 70 scientific papers published on indexed journals and co-author of new monographs.

Fuentelsaz presided over scientific committees of congresses and symposia organized by various institutions, and has received numerous national and international distinctions.

Posters

During the ICS Research Conference where also awarede three posters, in the categories of basic research, translational and clinical, and epidemiology research.

The winning poster in the area of basic research has been "Efecto de la exposición a partículas dièsel en un murino de asma por soja", by Dr. María Jesús Cruz, head of the http://bit.ly/2rDtfKS Pneumology Research Group at VHIR.