In an increasingly globalized world, collaboration between different fields and specialities is more and more necessary. It is essential to transfer the results of scientific and technological research and development between diverse disciplines to tackle the new challenges we face. This transfer occurs between medicine and astrophysics, as was shown by César Velasco Muñoz, deputy director of the Hospital Clínico Universitario Lozano Blesa in Zaragoza, and an expert in Ebola who was invited by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) and gave a talk to IAC personnel.
In his talked entitled “La Salud Global, un nuevo reto. Experiencias de un médico epidemiólogo”, he talked about fundamental aspects of research in vaccines, the control of epidemics, and the new challenges facing the international community. Basing his talk on the Ebola epidemic which broke out in 2014 in West Africa, he analyzed the factors required to control, impede, and monitor an outbreak. He described the phases of the research into the development of effective vaccines for infectious diseases, and gave detailed information about the experimental vaccines against the Ebola virus. He will also give a talk tomorrow about the latter theme in the Museum of Science and the Cosmos of Museums of Tenerife.
After a brief run through the most outstanding scientific advances in this field, César Velasco shared his experience as an expert in preventative medicine in the fight against infectious diseases. He also discussed the basic factors in the development of team research, using as an example the professional careers of epidemiologists, and specialists in Public Health, and of “population doctors” in our own environment. He surveyed the organizations, both national and international working in Global Health, which determine the agenda in health and the objectives of sustainable development. He explained that this will be a challenge not only for the medical community, but also for society as a whole, because it needs collaboration and coordination between a large number of actors, institutions and international organizations specializing in a wide range of fields, in order to tackle and solve health problems which may affect the whole of the planet. Finally, he talked about research, innovation and knowledge transfer in the field of health, picking out the capacity of institutions which carry out and popularize research who, apart from keeping the public informed about their latest results, take outreach into account as an integral part of their scientific work, and try to improve their surroundings and the value which society places on their research.
Cesar Velasco Muñoz is a doctor specializing in preventative medicine and public health. He carries out research at the Institute of Global Health in Barcelona, in the ISGlobal (at the Hospital Clínic, Barcelona) and in the Group of Experts in vaccination against Ebola at SAGE, an organization belonging to the World Health Organization. He collaborates with the European Centre for the Prevention and Control of Diseases, in the subject of health and migration. He is the author of publications and articles in the field of Public Health, which includes the health of migrants, vaccines and HIV among other fields. His present job is as Deputy Director of the University Clinical Hospital of Zaragoza. He is confounder of Sisamat CSR, a social project which works for quality of social corporate responsibility. In 2016 he was recognized by Forbes as the young European younger than 30 most influential in the field of health and Science.
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