Two research grants awarded to two primary care professionals in Lleida

The Jordi Gol i Gurina Primary Care Research Foundation has awarded two PREDOC IDIAP 2020 research grants to two primary care professionals in Lleida. Specifically, to Cristina García Serrano, specialist in family and community nursing at the CAP Balaguer, and Joaquim Sol Culleré, bioinformatician and biostatistician at the central services of the Primary Care Directorate of the ICS in Lleida. Their research focuses on inflammatory bowel disease and morbidity and mortality associated with ageing, respectively.

The PREDOC IDIAP 2020 grants are pre-doctoral scholarships awarded by the Foundation as part of the 21st ICS Scholarship for research training and doctoral studies in primary care. These grants arise from the desire to increase the number of professionals with the capacity to produce, interpret and use scientific knowledge applicable to primary care.

Cristina García has obtained the grant in its economic modality, endowed with 9,015 euros, for the project 'Determination of vaccination and immunisation in subjects with inflammatory bowel disease, after an informative intervention for professionals'. García leads this project together with the primary care nurses Pepi Estaño and Glòria Mirada, and in collaboration with the Lleida Search Support Unit and the IDIAP Jordi Gol Foundation.

This is a study carried out in Catalonia in adult patients diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease and whose main objective is to determine the correct vaccination and immunisation of this type of patient. Inflammatory bowel disease and Crohn's disease are highly disabling chronic diseases that cause a significant alteration of the immune system and a predisposition to infectious diseases, which is why vaccination among this group is of vital importance.

For his part, Joaquim Sol Culleré has obtained the PREDOC IDIAP 2020 grant in the SIDIAP modality - which consists of the transfer of data from the computer system for the development of primary care - for the project 'Development of dynamic metabolic models for the prediction and flexible treatment of morbimortality associated with ageing'. This grant is the result of a research project led by Marta Ortega Bravo (Primary Care Support Unit of Lleida - IDIAP Jordi Gol) and Mariona Jové Font (University of Lleida - Institute of Biomedical Research IRBLleida), in collaboration with EURECAT, both researchers at IRBLleida.

The project aims to develop artificial intelligence models based on clinical data with the capacity to estimate, with greater precision, the risk of mortality and age-related diseases. Based on an exhaustive study of metabolism, the aim is to achieve better prevention to help in clinical decision-making and in the application of personalised therapies.