Grants awarded for two projects in the High Pyrenees and Aran to study the suitability of the Infarction Code and the feasibility of screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm in this region

A project to study the suitability of the Infarction Code and another to assess the feasibility of screening abodminal aortic aneurysm to prevent future cardiovascular events have been the winners of the first edition of the call for Biomedical Research Projects, High Pyrenees and Aran modality of the Institute of Biomedical Research of Lleida (IRBLleida), funded by the Diputació de Lleida. Today, 22 November, the two grants were awarded at a ceremony in Tremp.

The grants are aimed at professionals with healthcare training and/or healthcare activity who work in the Alt Pirineu and Aran healthcare region before and while they receive the grant. The aim of this aid is to introduce these professionals to research in order to promote biomedical research that reaches and adapts to the idiosyncrasies of the region. The grants, which will last one year, are endowed with €5,000.

The first grant project is entitled 'Evaluation and rethinking of the reperfusion strategy in STEMI in the High Pyrenees and Aran' and aims to assess whether the coronary reperfusion treatment performed in stroke codes in remote rural areas such as the High Pyrenees is the most appropriate, according to the recommendations of current European guidelines. "The Upper Pyrenees health region has a special reality and uniqueness: a low population spread over small rural areas in a large territorial extension with less access to services and poor communications. It is 18% of the Catalan territory, but only 1% of the population. In this sense, there is a need for differentiated strategies for territories that are different," explained the project's researcher, Montserrat Navarra Llorens.

The second project awarded with the title 'Efficacy and feasibility of abdominal aortic aneurysm screening from Primary Care' will evaluate the feasibility of abodminal aortic aneurysm screening, an abdominal ultrasound that uses sound waves to see the inside of the abdominal region. "It is hoped that the results will justify the incorporation of this healthcare practice on a routine basis and as an improvement in public health," said the project's researcher, Pablo Antonio Surribas Camps.

At the award ceremony, held today in Tremp, the manager of the Upper Pyrenees and Aran Health Region, Miquel Abrantes Lluch, said that these types of grants "encourage participation in research by professionals in the Pyrenees and show that although it may seem a remote area, research can be carried out with the same quality as in the big cities". In this sense, he recalled that "from the Upper Pyrenees and Aran Health Region we are committed to access in search of healthcare professionals working in the region because it is a good way of attracting and retaining talent".

For his part, the director of the Institute of Biomedical Research of Lleida (IRBLleida), Diego Arango del Corro, explained "the importance of research in the health environment because they know first hand where the needs are" and how the IRBLleida wants to "extend the scope of research to bring out new research initiatives and promote these local activities.