20/12/2010

On December 16, Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) held a Board of Trustees to close 2010, chaired by the Hon. Ms. Marina Geli, and the presence of its trustees, such as the Institut Català de la Salut (ICS), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) or Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, among other representatives from different scientific and health institutions. During the Board, Dr. Comella, VHIR’s director, presented a report which showed an evolution of the main indicators of its activity since 2003 until today. The data highlights the major change in the number of publications and impact factor in the past seven years, from 271 publications and an impact factor of 900.45 in 2003 to 654 and an impact factor of 3067.787 provisional dated on December 2010. It also gave information on the significant increase in the Institute's presence in the media, increasing impacts from 765 in 2009 to 1382 dated December 2010, and in particular the impacts of growth in the great media, which in one year improved from 45% to 65%. Also deserves attention the clinical trials, which have grown this year 33% to reach the 639 actives. With regard to economic data, VHIR increased its revenues in spite of the bad economical situation on a global scale, from 38.5 million euros in 2009 to 39.3 dated December. All of these data have been achieved with a minimum of new staff, a fact that underscores the importance of hard and brilliant work of workers from the Institute.The Regional Minister Geli, who left the Board since the government is changing soon, wanted to emphasize the great moment of Vall d'Hebron in general and research in particular, and encouraged attendees to continue working to preserve the lead and go one step further. All this work in recent years and the excellent results mean "Vall d’Hebron plays now in the first global division", he said, and therefore should be able to establish "partnerships with some of the major hospitals in the world".