The first neurology departments in Catalan hospitals and the significance of Barcelona's node of hospitals offering neurological care

Type of article: ORIGINAL

AUTHOR

A. Arboix
Cerebrovascular Disease Unit. Department of Neurology. Capio-Hospital Universitari del Sagrat Cor. Universitat de Barcelona. Barcelona. Spain.

ABSTRACT

Introduction. We completed a literature review to analyse the early history of neurology in Catalan hospitals.

Development. The method consisted of analysing and studying minutes from the meetings of the Catalan Society of Neurology since 1973; consulting original historical sources in Barcelona’s Library of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands; and performing a directed search based on personal historical sources and the doctoral thesis written by Marta Gloria Fàbregas (Història de la Neurologia a Catalunya. De l’any 1882 a l’any 1949. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 1992). The review confirms that the first hospital neurology programme took shape at Hospital de la Santa Creu (1882). In the first half of the 20th century, neurology departments were founded in a group of tertiary hospitals that we will call the Barcelona node of hospitals offering neurological care. The first hospitals were Hospital Clínic, Hospital del Sagrat Cor, Institut Neurològic Municipal, and Hospital del Mar, and the node later expanded to include other hospitals in Barcelona (Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron and Hospital de la Creu Roja) and referral hospitals in Catalonia. At present, 54 Catalan hospitals have neurology specialists on staff.

Conclusions. Barcelona’s hospitals offering neurological care played a pioneering role in developing and solidifying neurology as a new specialty in the field of medicine.

KEYWORDS

Hospital de la Santa Creu, Hospital Clínic, Hospital del Sagrat Cor, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona hospitals offering neurological care, history of neurological societies.

Neurosciences and History 2013;1(3):114-118