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SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital

Passeig Sant Joan de Déu, 2, 08950 Esplugues de Llobregat

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A patient with a nurse at Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, Barcelona

Únicas: Care for rare diseases

‘Únicas’ is the name given to a range of transformative projects in the field of rare diseases, all of which are based on collaboration.

Únicas was founded in response to the need to support the large number of patients with rare or undiagnosed conditions. Rare diseases are conditions that affect fewer than 5 people per 10,000 inhabitants, but collectively affect millions of patients worldwide. According to data from Orphanet and the Spanish Federation for Rare Diseases (FEDER), there are more than 7,000 such conditions, the majority of which are genetic in origin (80 per cent), and in 75 per cent of cases, symptoms appear in childhood, making them a priority public health issue. Globally, they affect around 400 million people, of whom approximately 3 million live in Spain.

Diagnosis remains one of the major challenges: despite advances in genomic medicine and mass sequencing technologies, nearly 50 per cent of patients are unable to obtain a definitive diagnosis. This delay, which can last between 4 and 10 years, has a significant impact on the quality of life of those affected and their families, who face uncertainty and limited access to treatment.

Furthermore, 95 per cent of rare diseases lack a specific treatment, which highlights the urgent need to promote more efficient research and care strategies.

Rare diseases at the hospital

21,116

patients with rare diseases who have been treated.

14.2
%

of our patients have rare diseases.

+
1,400

rare diseases treated.

Data from 2024.

Únicas SJD: the hospital’s transformative strategy

In recent years, SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital —the centre with the highest volume of paediatric care for rare diseases in Spain and one of the largest in Europe— has developed a care model to address the growing challenges that these conditions pose on a daily basis for patients, families and the healthcare system as a whole.

In line with this, a significant effort has been made to achieve excellence by obtaining accreditations at European, national and regional levels.

Furthermore, in 2022, Casa de Sofía was opened – the first intermediate care centre for paediatric patients with rare diseases and complex chronic conditions.

Determined to continue making progress towards establishing ourselves as a centre of excellence in rare diseases, the Hospital is developing the ‘Únicas’ strategy in 2024. This comprises a portfolio of transformative projects aimed at ensuring patients receive comprehensive, integrated and highly accessible care, incorporating telemedicine and digital transformation tools. It focuses on reducing the time taken to reach a diagnosis and on facilitating access to advanced and emerging therapies that can improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

Genetics consultation with Dídac Casas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKE57_FIv3Y

Objectives of Únicas SJD

  • To implement a comprehensive and integrated healthcare model across the region.
  • To increase the provision of remote care to improve accessibility.
  • To expand the use of telemonitoring for patients with rare diseases.
  • To increase the diagnosis rate and reduce waiting times.
  • To develop, produce and administer new, advanced and emerging therapies.
  • Use data and artificial intelligence to drive forward diagnostics and new therapies.
  • Ensure that the development of the established objectives addresses the real needs of patients and their families, through their direct involvement or by incorporating their views from the design, development and evaluation stages onwards.
Pirámide de organización de la estrategia Únicas SJD
360° care model

Únicas is working on the design and implementation of a comprehensive care model that is integrated with the rest of the region’s hospitals and health centres, with a view to providing high-quality care that meets patients’ actual needs.

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Telemedicine and remote care

Únicas promotes equitable and sustainable healthcare by combining face-to-face and remote care to provide personalised healthcare services tailored to patients and their families.

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Precision diagnosis

Únicas focuses on increasing the diagnosis rate and reducing waiting times by maximising efficiency in the early and specific identification of conditions. This results in faster and more personalised clinical decisions through the use of advanced technologies.

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Advanced and emerging therapies

Únicas is committed to accelerating translational research, promoting technology transfer, ensuring quality and safety in manufacturing processes, and facilitating equitable access for patients to cutting-edge treatments.

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Data and Artificial Intelligence

Únicas promotes the use of data analysis and artificial intelligence with the aim of significantly improving diagnostic accuracy and accelerating the development of new personalised therapies.

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Patient-Centred Care

Únicas guarantees a person-centred approach by ensuring that all projects undertaken as part of the strategy are fully aligned with the real and priority needs of patients and their families, thereby guaranteeing a person-centred approach.

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Únicas SJD’s Strategy: cross-cutting projects

To raise awareness of rare diseases, SJD Barcelona aims to highlight the plight of patients with rare and undiagnosed conditions by organising various events under the ‘Únicas’ umbrella, such as ‘Únicas Talks’ and ‘Únicas Hackathon’.

Únicas Talks

SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital and the “la Caixa” Foundation are joining forces to create a unique forum for dissemination and debate – the Únicas Talks – to discuss the latest advances, perspectives and trends in patient-centred clinical management, as well as progress in the diagnosis and development of treatments for rare diseases.

Únicas Hackathon

The Únicas Hackathon is the first Ibero-American event of its kind, bringing together 140 specialists from 62 institutions across 14 different countries to tackle the challenge of arriving at the highest number of diagnoses from a selection of 12 cases. Following extensive preparatory work, experts in medical genetics, clinical laboratory genetics, bioinformatics, data science and other related fields worked intensively for 48 hours, fostering direct collaboration amongst themselves.

This inaugural edition took place in Murcia on 6 and 7 October 2025.

Leadership and management team

  • Encarna Guillén Navarro, Head of the Genetics Department and Strategic Director at Únicas SJD
  • Carmen Santamaria Guasch, management director at Únicas SJD
  • Ylenia Caro Palomo, management assistant at Únicas SJD
  • Elena López Fernández, coordinating support nurse in the 360° Model, Telemedicine and Remote Care department
  • Núria Campmany Juan, support project manager in the field of Diagnostics

Únicas SJD Building – Centre for Precision Medicine

Únicas also lends its name to the Centre for Precision Medicine at SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital. This facility, situated 200 metres from the hospital, will bring together the most advanced research, diagnostic and treatment facilities and will be equipped with the most innovative technology. The Únicas Building will be one of the three largest centres of its kind in the world and will continue to care for the more than 30,000 children and adolescents from all the autonomous communities suffering from rare diseases, with the aim of advancing diagnosis and treatment.

Rendering of the Únicas SJD building façade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EuCqxHrCwQ

Red Únicas España – Ministry of Health

Únicas also lends its name to other major projects that are driving progress in the care model, diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases.

In 2022, with funding from the Carlos III Institute, Impact3 was founded, a project whose main objective is to connect a network of six Spanish hospitals to create a federated database containing clinical and genomic information, to be used with analytical tools that will speed up diagnosis across the country.

Following on from this initial project, in 2023 the Red Únicas network was created, spearheaded by the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital and the Spanish Federation for Rare Diseases (FEDER), led by the Ministry of Health and funded by Next Generation funds under the cutting-edge health PERTE programme. Its aim is to create an ecosystem of partnerships — currently comprising 30 hospitals — to provide a coordinated response to patients with rare diseases throughout their entire care pathway.

The network’s first milestone is the creation of a data platform for patients with rare diseases across Spain, enabling progress towards a network-based model of personalised care.

Objectives of the Únicas Network

  • Let the data travel, not the patients: To treat paediatric patients with rare diseases at any node within the Únicas network as if they were at the centre of excellence for their condition, regardless of where they live.
  • Network-Based Personalised Care Model: To implement, across all nodes of the Únicas network, the common tools, processes and protocols that enable a new network-based model.
  • To complement the current CSUR network in areas such as the patient’s perspective and the care provided by non-CSUR professionals:
    • Únicas 360: focused on healthcare professionals and on enabling them to share information with one another.
    • Únicas Channel: focused on the patient and the needs of families and carers.
  • To provide a holistic, longitudinal view of the patient throughout the entire care process.

UNICAS Ambassadors at the Ministry of Social Justice:

  • Roser Francisco Bordas 
  • Encarna Guillén Navarro

UNICAS Holistic Team at SJD:

  • Hernán Elías Lew 
  • Yolima Cossío Gil