Fundació Puigvert, a benchmark in Spain in the treatment of urogenital, renal and reproductive pathologies.

This health institution, with more than sixty years of history, specialises in men’s health through the application of the most advanced technology in its field.

The Fundació Puigvert was established in 1961 in Barcelona as a privately run, non-profit university hospital, which deals with the study and medical and surgical treatment of pathologies and dysfunctions of the male and female urinary system and the male genital apparatus.

Since its inception, the Fundació Puigvert has focused on the well-being of its patients, minimising possible complications and facilitating their recovery. To this end, it has resorted to laparoscopic and robotic surgery, which is less invasive and involves minimal postoperative pain.

The Fundació Puigvert has always sought to innovate in its field and to be a benchmark in the specialities of Urology, Nephrology, Andrology and Assisted Human Reproduction Medicine. Hence, it has been a pioneering hospital, both nationally and internationally. The facts confirm this, as the Fundació Puigvert has been the first health institution to be able to perform:

• Two oncological surgeries in Spain with a new surgical robot called Hugo (2022).
• A complete robotic kidney transplant in Europe (2015).
• A living donor kidney transplant from a donor with incompatible blood group using the immunoadsorption technique (2013).
• The birth of twins worldwide with no predisposition to hereditary colon cancer using a new genetic diagnostic technique (2012).
• A living donor kidney transplant chain in Spain involving a “Good Samaritan” (2011).
• A complete penile reconstruction in Spain with a new system that allows the patient to recover the main sexual functions (2008).
• The development of a genetic test for the diagnosis of bladder cancer from urine (2007).
• Robotic surgery with the Da Vinci robotic system in Spain (2005).
• A kidney transplant in Spain between unrelated patients (2004).
• A pioneering living donor programme in our country to promote kidney donations among friends, partners, relatives and even altruists (2002).

Being a forerunner in actions that represent an advance in the world of medicine and a great improvement for people suffering from urogenital, renal and reproductive pathologies and dysfunctions is, for the Fundació Puigvert, a source of great satisfaction and pride. And all this has been and is possible thanks to:

Extensive experience

The Fundació Puigvert Foundation has been working for and with patients with urogenital, renal and reproductive pathologies for more than half a century. For more than 60 years, half of which have been dedicated, among many other functions, to the placement of prosthetic systems. In addition, this health institution performs five types of surgery for male urinary incontinence with the latest technological advances.

This experience is demonstrated not only by its successful results, but also by its accreditations and membership of leading medical societies. In 2022, the Fundació Puigvert Foundation joined eUROGEN, the network for rare uro-recto-genital diseases and complex conditions requiring highly specialised surgery, and the European Reference Network for Rare Kidney Diseases (ERKnet). This has been possible thanks to its expertise and supra-specialisation in congenital genitourinary malformations and rare urological tumours, as well as in hereditary and glomerular renal diseases.

Great team of professionals

A hospital institution is nothing without a great team. Great medical and nursing professionals who make the Fundació Puigvert Foundation a health centre of international reference.

An example of this is the ‘Frans Debruyne Life Time Achievement Award 2022’ of the European Association of Urology (EAU) awarded to Dr. Joan Palou Redorta, director of the Urology Service of the Fundació Puigvert Foundation, in recognition of his career.

Another sign of the excellence of the professionals of the Fundació Puigvert Foundation is their participation in studies and associations of a worldwide nature. This is the case of doctors: Dr. Elisabet Ars, Head of the Molecular Biology Laboratory, and Dr. Mª Roser Torra, Head of the Hereditary Kidney Diseases Laboratory,both of whom participate in updating the guidelines of KDIGO, a global non-profit foundation dedicated to improving the care and outcomes of patients with kidney disease worldwide.

In the same way Dr. Anna Bujons, head of the Paediatric Urology Unit at Fundació Puigvert Foundation, has also been accepted and appointed as an active member of the Association of European Academic Urologists (AAEU), whose active membership is limited to a maximum of 100 members.

Technological innovation

The Puigvert Foundation is aware of the benefits that technology can bring to the clinical setting. Thanks to it, possible complications in the operating theatre are reduced and patient recovery is shorter and less painful. That is why 70% of the living donor transplants it performs are performed with robotic surgery. It has become a pioneer in the use of robots for state-of-the-art surgeries, such as Hugo, at present, or the da Vinci robotic system, at the time.

On the other hand, the Puigvert Foundation has inaugurated this year 2022 a new Advanced Dialysis Unit with greater capacity and the latest technological advances. Advances that make it possible to establish a direct line between the monitor and the dialysis machine and, through Artificial Intelligence, to create a series of predictive models on the evolution of patients, offering the possibility of predicting and designing specific advance treatments.

Partnerships and agreements to drive research

Without research there is no evolution. And the Puigvert Foundation knows this. For this reason, it is always working for and to create new lines of medical research through pacts and agreements that allow society to advance.

Among the latest agreements and alliances established, the following stand out:

• The one signed with the Catalan start-up IOMED to research uro-nephro-andrological diseases using its artificial intelligence (AI) tool.

• The agreement signed with Boston Scientific, a leading medical technology company, to collaborate in the development of innovative technology and treatments to provide new and better solutions to different urological pathologies.

History

The Puigvert Foundation is a monographic health institution specialising in the fields of Urology, Nephrology, Andrology and Assisted Human Reproduction Medicine, founded in 1961 by Professor Antoni Puigvert Gorro.

The building of the Fundació is located within the modernist enclosure of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona, with which it forms a hospital, general and university complex.

For more information about the Puigvert Foundation and what this hospital centre can do for you, please contact us!