Vall d’Hebron assumes the rotating presidency of the European University Hospital Alliance (EUHA)

The European University Hospital Alliance (EUHA) was founded in 2017 with a commitment to share its experience in health, research and education. Each of the members is a leading university hospital within their country with a capacity of over 1.000 beds. They are national reference centers and, as a whole, cover 100% of the existing European Reference Networks (ERNs). In addition, all members of the Alliance have institutes of excellence in research and are associated with a university. Research, education and innovation and knowledge transfer occupy a central place in their present and future strategy.

Dr. Albert Salazar, manager of Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, will be president of this important alliance of European hospitals from June 10th. The term of office is rotating among all members of the alliance. This is the second time that Vall d’Hebron University Hospital leads the alliance. As Dr. Albert Salazar says, "this alliance reaffirms Vall d'Hebron's commitment to establishing synergies with the most important centers in Europe in order to improve patient care and the development of our professionals."

Among the goals of his presidency over the next six months, Dr. Albert Salazar emphasizes that it is essential "that we all think together how post-Covid hospitals should be and implement our strategic plan". In this sense, Dr. Albert Salazar affirms that "the alliance has a great opportunity to bring knowledge and leadership to the younger generations". One of the instruments available to the alliance to achieve these goals is the Healthcare Transformation Academy, led by five EUHA members under the coordination of Vall d’Hebron. It is a project aimed to establish an educational platform to train professionals for future health needs and help implement the European Commission’s lifelong learning vision. The strategic lines of this Healthcare Transformation Academy must be, as explained by Dr. Albert Salazar, “clinical governance, value-based health care, learning through simulation, translational and clinical research, innovation in public procurement and the commitment to platforms such as the EU Patient-cEntric clinicAl tRial pLatforms (EU-PEARL), a public-private partnership created by Vall d'Hebron to design the clinical trial platforms of the future. In addition, we need to move forward to become smart hospitals, with the aim to digitally transform the way we operate”.

The European Alliance of University Hospitals is a strategic alliance of 9 hospitals founded in 2017 promoted by Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm. Besides to these two centers, they are part of the EUHA: the Assistance Publique - Hòpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) (France), the Charité Universitatsmedizin in Berlin (Germany), the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam (Netherlands), Ospedale San Raffaele in Milan (Italy), King's Health Partners in London (UK), UZ Leuven in Leuven (Belgium) and AKH Wien & MedUni Wien in Vienna (Austria).