On June 13, 2007, The meeting entitled “The research in the field of in vitro diagnostics in Catalonia” organized by the Catalan Association for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (ACCLC) with the collaboration of the Catalan Studies Institute, was held in Barcelona on June 13th 2008. The aim of the meeting was to debate on the present state and the prospects of the research related to clinical laboratory sciences done in Catalonia by universities, in vitro diagnostics industry and clinical laboratories.

It should be taken into account that in Catalonia the autonomous government, the so-called Generalitat, holds the healthcare administration, but the Spanish government manages most of the scientific research budget.

Speakers first presented their point of view on the subject according to their personal experience. These were then discussed by all the attendees of the meeting and followed by a general discussion.

Pras. Francesca Canalias (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), Montserrat Portús-Vinyeta (Unity of Parasitology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitat de Barcelona) and Joan-Lluís Vives-Corrons (Department of Medicine, Universitat de Barcelona) were the speakers from the Universities. The speakers from the industry were Àngels Díez-Abad (Biokit, S.A.), Adolfo Gallego-Gutiérrez, (RAL, S.A.), and F.-Javier Gella-Tomás (BioSystems, S.A.). Finally, the speakers representing the clinical laboratories were Vicenç Ausina-Ruiz (Microbiology Laboratory, Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona), and Jorge Ordóñez-Llanos (Biochemistry Department, Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona). In addition, Montserrat Vendrell-Rius participated on behalf of the BioRegió of Catalonia, a foundation founded by the Generalitat of Catalonia and the City Council of Barcelona. Xavier Fuentes-Arderiu (Clinical Laboratory, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge, l'Hospitalet de Llobregat) coordinated and chaired the meeting.

At the end of the general discussion, participants were invited to reflect "at home" on the debate and to send their comments to the chairman. The following conclusions may be derived the thoughts that emerged from the debate and from the individual comments received a posteriori:

- Most Catalan clinical laboratories experience difficulties in performing research and development activities because of the lack of resources and of the daily workload.

- The Catalan and the Spanish Healthcare Administrations are funding major infrastructures devoted to the biomedical research (the so called "scientific parks") but provide little help to research groups working on in vitro diagnostics in clinical laboratories or in the universities.

- The in vitro diagnostics industry usually establishes joint ventures with clinical laboratories to validate their products, but not for the development of new ones. These types of joint ventures are more frequently established with university departments.

- The in vitro diagnostics industry should have more scientific contact with clinical laboratories in order to establish lines of research to resolve real healthcare needs.

- The in vitro diagnostics industry seldom recruits qualified researchers.

- Presently, clinical laboratories belonging to university hospitals have the possibility of including in their staff a full time researcher recognized by the Spanish National Health System.

- Universities, industry and clinical laboratories should have periodical meetings to share ideas and projects, to optimize human and economic resources, and to achieve better research in the field of in vitro diagnostics.

The following colleagues provided the a posteriori comments contributing to above conclusions: M. Alsina-Donadeu (Hospital Mútua de Terrassa), M. Basart-Arrut (Hospital de Santa Coloma de Gramenet), M.À. Bosch-Ferrer (Consorci Laboratori Intercomarcal), V. Esteban-Perlas (Dade Behring, S.A.), J. Miró-Balagué (Hospital de Viladecans), C. Muñoz Batet (Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau de Barcelona), A. Padró-Miquel (Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge), M. Portús-Vinyeta (Universitat de Barcelona) and J. Trafí-Prats (Dade Behring, S.A.).