A Region at the medical forefront: “There is extraordinary potential to attract talent” | The truth

There were Pedro Guillén, founder of the Cemtro clinic and a reference in Spain in sports traumatology; Santiago Moreno, head of Infectious Diseases of Ramón y Cajal and one of the country's leading experts on HIV; and Damián García Olmo, head of the Department of Surgery at the Jiménez Díaz Foundation and pioneer in cell therapy. Also the oncologist Cristóbal Belda, until two months ago director of the Carlos III Health Institute, the main biohealth research organization in this country. The list of luxury participants was completed by Pedro Luis Ripoll, traumatologist at the Ruber Internacional Hospital and director of the Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology service at Quironsalud in Murcia; and Raúl Sánchez Pérez, a pediatric cardiac surgeon from La Paz specialized in congenital heart diseases.

There was a lot of talent at the colloquium, but also in the audience that listened: doctors, academics and researchers who carry out their work daily in the Region and who moved to Madrid so as not to miss this unique meeting that is part of an initiative with which LA VERDAD wants to “project the talent of the Region outside our borders,” highlighted the newspaper's director, Alberto Aguirre de Cárcer.

«The Murcian scientific level, both inside and outside the Region, is extraordinary. Our presence in the highest areas of medicine, be it cardiac surgery, traumatology, oncology or infectious diseases, is far above our population weight,” Cristóbal Belda stressed. The Region also has “exceptional conditions to attract” and retain excellence.

But this meeting of medical and scientific 'intelligence' did not swim in complacency. There is much to do so that the talent of so many professionals is translated into a more modern, thriving and advanced Region. To begin with, we must get rid of complexes, warned traumatologist Pedro Luis Ripoll: «Our big problem is low self-esteem. The Murcian is a specialist in self-flagellation. Our external image is contaminated by the low self-esteem we have of ourselves. The economy, the social dynamics, depend a lot on the state of mind of those who inhabit the territories, and ours is low, very low, sometimes unjustifiably so. To this, Ripoll added another problem: «Our capacity for influence cannot be similar to that of Catalonia, Andalusia or other communities that start from a much higher GDP. Our pressure capacity is limited.

“A good image”

The head of Infectiosas del Ramón y Cajal, Santiago Moreno, sees, despite everything, the glass as half full: «We are beginning to become aware that Murcia is expanding. “The country has a good image of us, perhaps because we are tenacious and hard-working, very much in the culture of effort.”

Damián García Olmo, a pioneer in the clinical use of stem cells for the treatment of fistulas, was optimistic: «I don't think the Region has too many problems attracting talent. Murcia is a welcoming city, historically and culturally. Many people would like to live there. But you can always do something better: for example, increase funding [destinada a la ciencia], although in this our region is getting better and better. For a society to prosper and retain talent, it must start from the foundations. That is, for education. «I always tell politicians to invest in training. If you give me training, if I see that you cover my aspirations, I will stay at home. If not, I will leave,” summarized Pedro Guillén, dean of illustrious Murcians in Madrid.

But, in any case, retaining talent does not mean keeping the best within the geographical limits of the Region throughout their training period and professional career. On the contrary. This would only lead to inbreeding and impoverishment. “It is very important that talent comes out” so that it flourishes, said Cristóbal Belda. “Today, it is impossible or very difficult for someone to be able to excel in something if they have not gone outside to acquire knowledge and skills, and to learn how work is done in other places,” he reflected. The key lies in “planning the return.” Belda elaborated on this approach: “Planning for talent retention” involves, first of all, “promoting that people go to train in the best centers in the world.” But you have to be clear about “what you want them to go for”, and this is related to “the not only scientific, but also industrial and business context” of the Region. When that researcher returns, we must “offer him the conditions so that he can maintain the level of productivity” that he has achieved abroad. «All of us have gone out and published in 'Nature', 'Science' or 'Cell'; We have done spectacular work, and on your return what they ask you is that you do the same thing that you have managed to do at Stanford on the El Palmar road (where the Health campus, La Arrixaca and the Murcian Institute for Biosanitary Research are located ).

A commitment to science and research is needed, but with objectives and a clear strategy. «To retain talent you have to export it abroad, train it well, bring it back and offer the right conditions. And all this requires a temporal projection, to determine what we want our R&D&IA fabric to be over the next 30 years,” continued the former director of Carlos III.

A “delocalized” science

Raúl Sánchez Pérez, from Caravaca, a leader in pediatric surgery for congenital heart diseases in Spain, also believes that it is necessary to clarify what we are referring to when we talk about the need to retain talent: “I don't like the expression 'brain drain'.” . Science is delocalized, it moves quickly. You can't catch people. Young people breathe very freely. You have to let them out, and they will come back or they won't. What we do have to generate is an environment that encourages return. “You have to create a breeding ground, have the power of attraction, and people will come alone.”

In this sense, there is a lot to improve: «Many times we are only technically, but we do not have the capacity to manage groups. There are leaders who generate deserts around them. Today's medicine is team medicine. We don't know how to manage human resources. Young people know more English, but they are more lost than us in social skills. “We have to train in that aspect.”

Sánchez Pérez also warned of other risks. «I love my region very much, but there is a problem in the communities: they are stuck in their farmhouse. In La Paz, 60% of the patients we operate on are from outside Madrid, and we sometimes see the difficulties they have in leaving their communities,” he lamented. “If there are 10 cases of heart disease in Spain, it is logical that they should be operated on in one or two hospitals,” he explained. This will be a guarantee of quality. The center of everything “must be the patient.”

Faced with these risks of inbreeding, which represent a limitation, the surgeon from Caravaca defended the need for Murcia “to be connected to the outside.” Pedro Luis Ripoll agrees with this, for whom it is necessary to understand that “talent is cared for by traveling, exchanging, getting to know one another.” “We have to integrate, we have to collaborate, we have to add different initiatives that are in the world,” he summarized.

Investment and planning

All experts agree that the Region, like the rest of Spain, needs more investment in science. «We must create working conditions, infrastructure, provide financial resources. We do not have enough investment in talent to make the country attractive,” warned Santiago Moreno. But it's not just about having more funds. It is important to define what to invest in, and for what. “We must take on projects in which we can strategically compete and contribute,” said Pedro Luis Ripoll.

For Cristóbal Belda, this planning exercise must be a priority and, in this sense, the Murcian Institute for Biosanitary Research (IMIB) is not on the wrong track. «It is one of the centers with the greatest definition of its scientific strategy. That is important, because if we are able to focus on those two or three things in which we consider we can be highly competitive, success is guaranteed. The IMIB “has had exceptional growth and has been able to combine the university with the patients' own needs and research in the hospital.” But “there is one element that is missing, and that is industrial translation.” During his three-year period at the head of Carlos III, Belda has tried to guide Spanish biomedical science in this direction. «This is the real impulse that not only the IMIB, but all centers, must develop: the connection with the local industry. Science, without industrial and business translation, is a loss of opportunity” for a region that can aspire to become “one of the great technological centers of Europe”, because it has “chemical and agri-food industries”, a powerful university and ” great hospitals. Also in the Region is “one of the CDMOs [un centro de desarrollo y fabricación para la industria farmacéutica] more important”.

The future of healthcare

This first colloquium of the LA VERDAD Talent Region initiative was held with the sponsorship of the Region of Murcia, Hozono Global, Cajamar, Bodegas Juan Gil, Grupo Orenes and Agrupal. The participants addressed, along with the projection of the Region, the state of the health system. For traumatologist Pedro Guillén, the MIR training system “is one of the best things that has happened to Spain.” Raúl Sánchez and Santiago Moreno agreed in their defense of the public health model, and Pedro Luis Ripoll warned of the impact that the entry of large investment funds is having on private medicine. They are all united by the same objective: to put their talent at the service of excellent healthcare and science.

Pedreño: «It is an honor to have great professionals»

The Minister of Health, Juan José Pedreño, stressed that it is a “pride” for the Region to have “leading professionals” who practice medicine both in the community and outside it. Pedreño went to the Vocento headquarters in Madrid accompanied by Isabel Ayala, managing director of the Murcian Health Service (SMS), and Fuensanta Martínez, director of the Foundation for Biosanitary Training and Research (FFIS). The event coincided with the celebration of the ABC Forum, which had the president of the Community as a guest. At the end, Fernando López Miras was able to greet the participants in the LA VERDAD colloquium.