The Aula Magna of the House of Culture of Girona hosted the presentation of the project "Girona Health LivingLab" of the Girona Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBGI), with the presence of about 70 people. The event, led by Tomàs Molina, head of Meteorology at Televisió de Catalunya, served to publicize the importance of the health information collected from 2,577 volunteers aged 16 years and older from the counties of Girona. This information contains exhaustive details on various indicators and biomarkers of their state of health, and opens the door to multiple investigations on the health of the population.
The Deputy Delegate for European Programs of the Diputació de Girona, Míriam Lanero, began the event by explaining the Project for territorial specialization and competitiveness (PECT) "Girona, healthy region", which is part of the operation "Girona Health LivingLab" led by the IDIBGI.
The PECT project "Girona, healthy region" consists of two more operations that dress it, led respectively by Dipsalut and the Fundació Salut Empordà. On the one hand, Pau Batlle, coordinator of the Dipsalut Observatory, spoke about the creation of the Observatory of social and health inequalities. On the other hand, Pere Plaja, director of Innovation, Research and Development of the Fundació Salut Empordà, presented the operation that created the "Health and Social Pol of the Alt Empordà".
Then, Dr. Marga Nadal, director of IDIBGI, introduced the operation "Girona Health LivingLab", thanking the work done to the research teams, the institutions involved, and the volunteers to participate in the project.
To detail the relevant aspects of the project, the researchers who led the project intervened and emphasized the great usefulness of the population data collected in this study.
Josep Puig, a researcher in medical imaging, showed a collection of magnetic resonance images, which are being analyzed by the research team. This analysis could help to better understand the health of the population and contribute to improve health policies and clinical practices.
In the intervention of Rafael Ramos, head of the Vascular Health research group, the first results of the study that have been extracted from his team were shown. Specifically regarding vascular health, Ramos showed the data collected during the project where they can detect asymptomatic atherosclerosis in different parts of the body, highlighting that they aim to prevent its progress and consequences.
Another example of project results was presented by Josep Garre, researcher in the field of aging, where the repercussions of lifestyle changes caused by confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of the population of the Girona area were analyzed. The results have allowed the identification of risk factors for affective disorders in situations of confinement.
Finally, it was the turn of the researcher Anna Motger, representative of the Nutrition, Eumetabolism and Health group of the IDIBGI led by José Manuel Fernández-Real, who is very active in the development of the project. Motger explained the importance of conducting research with a gender perspective in health, i.e., taking into account the biological differences between men and women, which makes it possible to develop more personalized and appropriate treatments for each person. The researcher gave as an example her research, which analyzes the metabolism of tryptophan. This is an essential component for the synthesis of serotonin, known as the neurotransmitter of happiness, and its relationship with the mental health of women and men, where differences have already begun to be detected.
The event ended with Tomàs Molina's talk "The weather in 2030, how will it affect our health?". Focusing on the future, the head of Meteorology of Televisió de Catalunya, approached the public some characteristics of how the weather could be in the coming years. An important factor that affects the health and welfare of people.
The Project was presented in the call for Specialization and Territorial Competitiveness Projects (PECT) framed in the RIS3Cat and the ERDF Operational Program of Catalonia 2014-2020 and is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union in the framework of the ERDF Operational Program of Catalonia 2014-2020 with a grant of 710,188.8€ and by the Diputació de Girona with a grant of 355,094.4€.
