Ana Martinez Viejo (Spain), 16 February: Better protecting citizens’ health and achieving high-level research space are some of the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the need to build stronger EU foundations for health according to experts and specialists from the sector in the region Spanish Galicia. The idea that you can’t wait any longer is a general one. One of the people defending it in this way is of course the scientific director of the Galicia Sur Institute for Health Research, José Ramón Fernández Lorenzo, who insists every time he gets a chance that attention should be taken advantage of and maintained. Sensitivity to the science behind the current coronavirus fight. Fernandez Lorenzo, a self-confessed European, recounted in a conversation with Effie, believes that this conviction of the community about the importance of good scientific production could not fade at any moment: “We must continue to insist, because, otherwise, the Science is always excluded.” For this reason, it enthusiastically welcomes the existence of the Conference for the Future of Europe (CoFoE), an initiative of European institutions that brings together 108 MEPs, 108 national parliamentarians and nearly 800 citizens from across the European Union to reflect, debate and present ideas on the future of the Community Block. Institutes such as the Galician Institute headed by Fernández Lorenzo, although not everyone knows this, play a key role for a better future, which he himself explains from a twofold point of view, because on the one hand there is the creation of knowledge, the other, the ‘additional’, which is not More and nothing less than validating all this research in clinical application, “in practical application”. Instituto Galicia Sur, established in 2008, is a multidisciplinary research space based at the Alvaro Conquero Hospital in Vigo that includes up to fifty research groups and distributes eight areas, two cross-sectional groups and six topics, which range from oncology to rheumatology, medicine Pediatric, respiratory disease, rare cardiovascular disease. Promoting translated research and innovation, and thus ensuring the effective application of the results of the studies conducted in terms of benefits to the health of citizens, is in short the main task. The research to be offered by the IIS-GS must be internationally competitive, thus being a center of reference and technical excellence that promotes the transfer of results into clinical practice and into the world of science and business. Eva Poveda, a Galician Health Service Researcher (SIRGAS) working at IIS Galicia Sur, sees the ongoing interdisciplinary work of “collaboration” as “very relevant”, not only within this institution, but among all EU member states . He encourages this: “Let us create synergies at the European level to meet the significant health challenges we face and to be able to respond to them and, ultimately, improve the health and clinical follow-up of all European citizens.” The pandemic that is not over has shown how important this coordination is and how important the EU-wide response to risks is, as well as making it clear that investing in strong health systems and staff training is mandatory. Standardized training for health workers This last aspect, the standardized training of health workers, is the main claim of Galician doctor Tato Vázquez Lima, who heads the Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine (SIMES) and coordinates emergencies at the O Hospital. Salnés, in Pontevedra. “The idea of ​​a European health union seems very interesting to me. A European health system where we can share data, provide standardized health care and standardize the training of professionals according to European directives sounds great to us, no, yet,” he notes emphatically. He emphasizes his field, which is the field Which he knows very well, because “emergency and emergency training is standardized throughout Europe, with the exception of Spain.” He notes that “these professionals were essential in this epidemic,” a crisis, in his opinion, “that was not the politics of the European Union member states.” Only homogeneous, coherent and regulated.” Neither in the procurement of vaccines, nor in closing borders, nor with measures to reach countries, nor with detection tests at airports, nor with the use of health resources in neighboring or neighboring countries when he was there in his own. It was a union, complains “That is why when everything is in one, it would seem to me a very good idea. If we want to sell a rhetoric that sounds too good and then do nothing, the only thing we will achieve is that those of us convince Europeans like me, because every time we see this far away,” Vásquez Lima reflects. He points out that there are a lot of “unilateral measures”, “not completely coordinated”, even in the purchase of the protective materials themselves. That there are “many problems to solve” to do things right in order to improve both this problem and the resilience of European health systems Strengthening EU-wide coordination in the face of cross-border threats, redoubling vigilance, and committing to scientific analysis and guidance before a crisis like the one The current and during it are steps that, in his opinion, are as necessary as they are urgent. He recommends “If nations unite, the power will be greater.” In his show, Viso transcends the small infectious agent that the world is still under control. He mentions an aging population, and cardiovascular disease. bloody There are many studies that are “killing more and more people” and, for example, childhood obesity, with very worrying data on overweight in Europe. This is one of his main fights, both from his job and on the TV shows he regularly attends. “Parents do not have guidelines to teach their children a healthy life,” he asserts. It is for this reason that he, like his colleagues, calls for a more united, stronger and healthier Europe. EFE am / mb / ig (photo) (video) (podcast) (infographic) (This report is part of the “CoFoE, Closer to Your Area” series, #TheFutureIsYours, #ElFuturoEsTuyo, EFE Agency project funded with the support of the European Parliament. Information is a responsibility Its author alone. Parliament is not responsible for any use that may be used)