We like a challenge
COMPARTIR Magazine. July 2020
Dr. Yolanda Meije, Head of the Internal Medicine Service and the Unit of Infectious Diseases at the Hospital de in Barcelona.
Barcelona Hospital Internal Medicine service
A great example of healthcare research
Dr Yolanda Meije, a specialist in infectious diseases, is head of the Internal Medicine Service which is vital to Barcelona Hospital, not only because of its healthcare role, but also its extensive research activities.
Daniel Romaní
The Internal Medicine Service (‘Servei de Medicina Interna’, or ‘SMI’) is essential to Barcelona Hospital which handles more than 32,000 patients every year. It mainly deals with the patients being treated by the service itself but it handles consultations from other specialists too. It also carries out daily examinations of the positive cultures of samples from hospitalised patients in order to optimise appropriate antibiotic treatment from immediately after a positive result is obtained which ensures no patient is left untreated.
It also has a programme for making sure the handling of antibiotics is efficient in controlling the environment of the hospital and improve patient safety whilst it is also involved in the VINCAT Nosocomial Infection Control Programme of Catalonia, which allows it to compare itself with its neighbouring hospitals.
I think that over the years, the Internal Medicine Service (SMI) at Barcelona Hospital has become a service with a very high level of human and professional qualites. It is a service that is very clear about the fact that patients come first and where we love what we do which is essential. Dr Martínez Montauti, the head of the service for all these years, always told us to research our patients’ diagnoses in depth, always to maintain our medical curiosity and if anything didn’t strike us as quite right, to keep examining until we got to the bottom of it. As a service we like a challenge, complex diagnoses and enjoy teamwork and a job well done. I also think there has been an evolution towards subspecialisation with areas of expertise being developed within the team. That is something that I think benefits doctor and patient. The more we play a lead role in our own areas of knowledge, the more we can offer to our patients and the hospital.
What distinguishes the Internal Medicine Service at Barcelona Hospital from other hospitals?
It is hard to compare because we don’t know exactly how other centres work and in my case, having worked at three hospitals that are leading national institutions and also in the USA, I would stick where I am. You do the same honest kind of medicine that I have seen at many public institutions with the added value of forming part of a co-operative, where management decisions are taken jointly with the users. We also don’t suffer the saturation that you see in public healthcare. We can perform our diagnoses quickly, have a powerful infrastructure in place and are lucky enough to work with other professionals to deliver diagnostic tests in under 24 hours.
You also take part at conventions.
As knowledge is always being refreshed in the world of medicine, you have to keep up to date in order to offer patients the best possible opportunities. Which is why the SMI team attends conventions about areas connected with internal medicine. It’s important to share information with other professionals and other centres and to take part in teamwork to improve how we handle our patients. Every year we attend a number of conventions relating to our areas of knowledge such as the National Internal Medicine Convention, the National and European Infectious Diseases Conventions and other national gatherings connected with medical pathology in pregnancy, cardiac insufficiency, thromboembolic disease and others.
What do you think is the main difficulty in your work?
Dr. Yolanda Meije, Head of the Internal Medicine Service and the Unit of Infectious Diseases at the Hospital de in Barcelona.
Barcelona Hospital Internal Medicine service
A great example of healthcare research
Dr Yolanda Meije, a specialist in infectious diseases, is head of the Internal Medicine Service which is vital to Barcelona Hospital, not only because of its healthcare role, but also its extensive research activities.
Daniel Romaní
The Internal Medicine Service (‘Servei de Medicina Interna’, or ‘SMI’) is essential to Barcelona Hospital which handles more than 32,000 patients every year. It mainly deals with the patients being treated by the service itself but it handles consultations from other specialists too. It also carries out daily examinations of the positive cultures of samples from hospitalised patients in order to optimise appropriate antibiotic treatment from immediately after a positive result is obtained which ensures no patient is left untreated.
It also has a programme for making sure the handling of antibiotics is efficient in controlling the environment of the hospital and improve patient safety whilst it is also involved in the VINCAT Nosocomial Infection Control Programme of Catalonia, which allows it to compare itself with its neighbouring hospitals.
THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE MEDICAL SPECIALISM
Dr Yolanda Meije, a specialist in infectious diseases, is the current Head of Barcelona Hospital’s SMI Infectious pathology. ‘’It is the area of expertise that I trained in, a subject that always fascinated me from when I first started studying medicine. My aim every day is for my patients to benefit from the knowledge I have built up over the course of my professional career,” says Dr Meije.
Yolanda Meije is completely committed to her profession and her specialism, internal medicine. “William Osler, the guru of internal medicine in North America and throughout the world, predicted as early as 1897 that this would be the most all encompassing medical specialism of the 20th century, the most sought after and most gratifying and I think he was right. It is true that it is hard to know everything about everything but I also believe that we need to have a complete understanding of the patient and if you know what you are looking for it is easier to understand it. This is particularly the case with our globalised modern life that gives us access, not only to all the scientific literature and publications, but also allows us to link up with any specialist anywhere in the world to discuss a patient’s case.”
The main task of the Internal Medicine Service is healthcare. However, given the nature of this prestigious Barcelona institution, the clinical research conducted by the SMI focuses very much on measuring clinical outcomes and their analysis and improvement as far as is possible. “We are involved in a number of multicentre projects with other hospitals, mostly with Bellvitge and Vall d’Hebron nearby, and the 12 de Octubre Hospital in Madrid. The areas we are currently looking at are pneumonia acquired in the community, infectious endocarditis and infections in patients with biological therapies. Meanwhile, we have a range of our own research projects addressing bacteriaemia caused by enterobacters and travellers’ diarrhoea.”
Dr Yolanda Meije, a specialist in infectious diseases, is the current Head of Barcelona Hospital’s SMI Infectious pathology. ‘’It is the area of expertise that I trained in, a subject that always fascinated me from when I first started studying medicine. My aim every day is for my patients to benefit from the knowledge I have built up over the course of my professional career,” says Dr Meije.
Yolanda Meije is completely committed to her profession and her specialism, internal medicine. “William Osler, the guru of internal medicine in North America and throughout the world, predicted as early as 1897 that this would be the most all encompassing medical specialism of the 20th century, the most sought after and most gratifying and I think he was right. It is true that it is hard to know everything about everything but I also believe that we need to have a complete understanding of the patient and if you know what you are looking for it is easier to understand it. This is particularly the case with our globalised modern life that gives us access, not only to all the scientific literature and publications, but also allows us to link up with any specialist anywhere in the world to discuss a patient’s case.”
The main task of the Internal Medicine Service is healthcare. However, given the nature of this prestigious Barcelona institution, the clinical research conducted by the SMI focuses very much on measuring clinical outcomes and their analysis and improvement as far as is possible. “We are involved in a number of multicentre projects with other hospitals, mostly with Bellvitge and Vall d’Hebron nearby, and the 12 de Octubre Hospital in Madrid. The areas we are currently looking at are pneumonia acquired in the community, infectious endocarditis and infections in patients with biological therapies. Meanwhile, we have a range of our own research projects addressing bacteriaemia caused by enterobacters and travellers’ diarrhoea.”
TRAVEL UNIT
The Barcelona Hospital dedicates considerable effort to caring for travellers hence the creation the Travel Clinic, a service which informs travellers of the measures they need to take in order to prevent health problems while they are abroad. It also advises patients with chronic conditions or those currently undergoing treatment on important issues such as adapting their medication to changes in time zone, information about hygiene, what to do in the event of injury and how to prepare a first aid kit depending on the country they plan to visit.
Dra. Yolanda Meije
“We like a challenge”
The head of the Barcelona Hospital Internal Medicine Service has a degree in Medicine and Surgery, specialising in internal medicine and infectious diseases. As well as her medical and surgical degree, she also has a Master’s in infectious diseases. She has worked and conducted research at the 12 de Octubre, Ramón y Cajal and Vall d’Hebron Hospitals. She was also a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, USA, and an aid worker in Cameroon. Her teaching and scientific activities have been in the area of infectious pathology. She is an expert in mycobacteria, infection in patients undergoing immunosuppressant treatment, fungal infection and endocarditis.
What areas do you think have evolved at the Barcelona Hospital Internal Medicine Service?
The Barcelona Hospital dedicates considerable effort to caring for travellers hence the creation the Travel Clinic, a service which informs travellers of the measures they need to take in order to prevent health problems while they are abroad. It also advises patients with chronic conditions or those currently undergoing treatment on important issues such as adapting their medication to changes in time zone, information about hygiene, what to do in the event of injury and how to prepare a first aid kit depending on the country they plan to visit.
Dra. Yolanda Meije
“We like a challenge”
The head of the Barcelona Hospital Internal Medicine Service has a degree in Medicine and Surgery, specialising in internal medicine and infectious diseases. As well as her medical and surgical degree, she also has a Master’s in infectious diseases. She has worked and conducted research at the 12 de Octubre, Ramón y Cajal and Vall d’Hebron Hospitals. She was also a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, USA, and an aid worker in Cameroon. Her teaching and scientific activities have been in the area of infectious pathology. She is an expert in mycobacteria, infection in patients undergoing immunosuppressant treatment, fungal infection and endocarditis.
What areas do you think have evolved at the Barcelona Hospital Internal Medicine Service?
I think that over the years, the Internal Medicine Service (SMI) at Barcelona Hospital has become a service with a very high level of human and professional qualites. It is a service that is very clear about the fact that patients come first and where we love what we do which is essential. Dr Martínez Montauti, the head of the service for all these years, always told us to research our patients’ diagnoses in depth, always to maintain our medical curiosity and if anything didn’t strike us as quite right, to keep examining until we got to the bottom of it. As a service we like a challenge, complex diagnoses and enjoy teamwork and a job well done. I also think there has been an evolution towards subspecialisation with areas of expertise being developed within the team. That is something that I think benefits doctor and patient. The more we play a lead role in our own areas of knowledge, the more we can offer to our patients and the hospital.
What distinguishes the Internal Medicine Service at Barcelona Hospital from other hospitals?
It is hard to compare because we don’t know exactly how other centres work and in my case, having worked at three hospitals that are leading national institutions and also in the USA, I would stick where I am. You do the same honest kind of medicine that I have seen at many public institutions with the added value of forming part of a co-operative, where management decisions are taken jointly with the users. We also don’t suffer the saturation that you see in public healthcare. We can perform our diagnoses quickly, have a powerful infrastructure in place and are lucky enough to work with other professionals to deliver diagnostic tests in under 24 hours.
You also take part at conventions.
What would you highlight from the conventions you have attended recently and those you plan to attend?
As knowledge is always being refreshed in the world of medicine, you have to keep up to date in order to offer patients the best possible opportunities. Which is why the SMI team attends conventions about areas connected with internal medicine. It’s important to share information with other professionals and other centres and to take part in teamwork to improve how we handle our patients. Every year we attend a number of conventions relating to our areas of knowledge such as the National Internal Medicine Convention, the National and European Infectious Diseases Conventions and other national gatherings connected with medical pathology in pregnancy, cardiac insufficiency, thromboembolic disease and others.
What do you think is the main difficulty in your work?
When a patient doesn’t improve, or dies. Those are the hardest moments in professional practice because you are aware of the limitations of scientific knowledge and how much we still have to learn. In medicine, we have all lived through things that we will never forget. It’s important to remember that in such cases our obligation is to be there at the patient’s side in the final stage of life. However, the times when patients are cured or get better make up for that. I have always believed that everything we have given to medicine, it has given us back with interest. As a profession, it is a real vocation.