New Chair in Professional Medical Responsibility and Legal Medicine

The UAB, the Medical Association of Barcelona (CoMB), Grup Med and the Sham insurance company have come together to create the new chair with the aim of promoting teaching, research and training in the field of medical responsibility and professional safe practices.

05/06/2018

Rector of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) Margarita Arboix; President of the Medical Association of Barcelona (CoMB) Jaume Padrós; Delegate Counsel of Grup Med, Albert Lluch; and General Director of the insurance company Sham (Société Hospitalière d’Assurances Mutuelles) Dominique Godet, recently signed a collaboration agreement to create the first Chair in Professional Medical Responsibility and Legal Medicine. This is a pioneering initiative created with the objective to promote teaching, research and training in the field of medical responsibility and professional safe practices.

The new chair is affiliated to the UAB (Department of Psychiatry and Legal Medicine) and will be located in the teaching unit of the Vall d’Hebron Hospital and the main offices of the CoMB. The chair will be directed by Dr Josep Arimany, currently in charge of Praxis Unit at CoMB and first director of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Catalonia.

The main objective of the chair is to promote four basic pillars. Teaching at different levels, from undergraduate programmes to postgraduate diplomas and master's degrees in healthcare risk management. Research, with accessibility to national and international aids and grants for PhD students writing their thesis on professional medical responsibility and/or legal medicine and for specific research groups. Knowledge transfer and dissemination of research results at conferences, workshops and scientific publications. And finally, international projection, by building relationships and fostering exchanges between universities and research centres from different countries.

The chair was created thanks to the synergies among the academic and professional sectors and the insurance company, and represents the completion of the work and experience of the CoMB's Praxis Unit in the research into professional medical responsibility and clinical safety, as well as the culture of healthcare risk management shared with Sham. It also is founded with the clear goal of becoming an international leader in this field. "The knowledge produced will be essential for the medical profession, given that all improvements generated in clinical safety add to the quality in healthcare,” Dr Josep Arimany affirms.

The new chair also demonstrates the joint effort made by CoMB, Grup Med and Sham in disseminating the culture of risk management with the aim of reducing the number of medical accidents and improving patient safety.

_{In the photo, from left to right: Antoni Bulbena, Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Legal Medicine, UAB; Josep Arimany, Director of Praxis at CoMB; Jaume Padrós, President of CoMB; Margarita Arboix, Rector of the UAB; Pierre-Yves Antier, CEO at Sham Spain; Albert Lluch, Delegate Counsel of Grup Med, and Fréderic Fuz, Director of International Risk Management at Sham.}