Patient portal
In line with the transparency policy at the SJD Barcelona Children Hospital, data regarding the center's activity is freely available to the public.
A look back at 2025
In the name of transparency, we make our data from the last five years public: data regarding our yearly activities, our work as a healthcare and research facility, and also other areas of interest.
Year Milestones
The year 2025 has unfolded against a challenging backdrop from both a political and budgetary perspective. The Spanish Government’s budget extension has placed the system under financial strain. For these reasons, SJD Barcelona has implemented the SER strategy, which prioritises Sustainability, Effectiveness and Relevance.
SJD Barcelona has developed an efficiency plan, which includes initiatives proposed by staff to streamline the pressure on healthcare services and improve internal organisation. During 2025, the plan was rolled out across more than 40 departments.
As part of the Únicas SJD project, a plan to prioritise actions was drawn up in 2025 to establish us as a centre of excellence in rare diseases. Key initiatives include the programme for undiagnosed patients, the regional coordination office and the adaptation of professional roles to address the current challenges posed by rare diseases.
In October 2025, the First Únicas Hackathon on undiagnosed rare diseases took place in Murcia. This was the first hackathon in the field of genetics in Spain and Latin America, and it has enabled the diagnosis of 6 out of 12 patients with highly complex conditions, as well as the creation of a network of 140 experts from 62 institutions and 14 countries.
In 2025, the second edition of Únicas Talks took place, a forum for raising awareness and discussing technical and institutional aspects of rare diseases. This edition focused on the need to speed up diagnoses, to develop new therapies, and on the importance of data sharing and networking.
SJD Barcelona and FEDER, with the support of Alexion, launched "El viaje de Nica" campaign in May 2025 to raise awareness of rare diseases and raise funds to increase the number of paediatric patients with rare diseases who can access the advanced genetic diagnosis programme, which is not covered by the National Health Service.
The partnership between the Instituto Catalán de Oncología (ICO) and SJD Barcelona has enabled the launch of the joint unit for the clinical and psychosocial follow-up of cancer survivors, with 62 patients having been referred to the unit in this first year.
SJD Barcelona has joined the Beat Childhood Cancer (BCC) consortium, which specialises in the development of clinical trials for paediatric cancer. Until now, the BCC comprised more than 40 hospitals in the US and Canada. The hospital will act as the European sponsor for the consortium’s studies.
The AYRA project, led by the SJD’s Environmental Health Unit, has been launched. It is developing a system to monitor air quality in the homes of paediatric patients receiving home hospitalisation care, as part of the SJD at Home programme. Preliminary results from 12 homes reveal high levels of humidity and airborne particles.
The Sports Medicine Unit, run in partnership with Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, has moved to Tuset Street, a more central location in the city of Barcelona. The Unit has expanded its floor space into a newly created area, with refurbished facilities.
In 2025, work began on the joint research laboratory of the Josep Carreras Institute and SJD Barcelona. Specialising in paediatric haematological oncology, it is the first laboratory at this prestigious institute to focus specifically on leukaemia in children and adolescents.
The SJD Barcelona 3D Unit obtained ISO 13485 accreditation for medical devices in 2025, making it the first hospital in Catalonia to do so. Its clinical activity has reached 300 surgical planning studies across ten specialities.
During 2025, the PTA has consolidated its role as a platform for the manufacture and development of advanced therapies, expanding its operational, regulatory and R&D capabilities. As a result, 17 batches of CARTARI001 have been produced, of which 15 have been administered to patients. With regard to therapies for solid tumours, the PTA has produced CAR-T cells for an exceptional paediatric case of Ewing’s sarcoma, and progress has been made in validating the CART-ARI008 product for a paediatric clinical trial targeting diffuse pons glioma.
Twenty years ago, the Hospital Amic approach was launched with the aim of establishing care centred on the needs of children and their families, promoting a hospital experience that was as positive, humane and welcoming as possible. This initiative led to significant advances, such as ensuring that patients were always accompanied in any healthcare setting, adapting spaces to their needs, promoting a pain-free hospital environment, facilitating play as part of the care experience – thanks to the valuable contribution of volunteers – and ensuring the continuity of schooling during hospitalisation.
SJD Barcelona has become the first hospital in Spain to obtain the international Global Hospital Rating certification, achieving the highest five-star rating. Developed by Statista and Newsweek magazine, the system assesses five key aspects of healthcare quality: medical care, speed and punctuality of treatment, patient experience and safety, the level of digitalisation, and attractiveness to healthcare professionals.
Other notable projects
Curing and caring
- Development of the Únicas SJD project: During 2025, Únicas SJD has made progress in the care of chronic patients with the establishment of the COPC committee, the design of new nursing roles, coordination with the local healthcare network and the development of telemedicine, with an initial success story in SJD at Home. It has also defined the Programme for Patients without a Diagnosis, acquired the necessary data infrastructure and obtained approval for the SJD Advanced Therapies Programme.
- Care for special education students: During the 2024–2025 academic year, a team made up of 10 nurses, 1 nursing assistant and 1 physiotherapist provided support to 31 special education centres, caring for a total of 1,765 students.
- Care for mental health patients in the Emergency Department: A new care model for mental health patients has been implemented in the Emergency Department, involving multidisciplinary teams that accompany patients at all times.
- New mother-and-baby HDOM programme: Launched as a pilot in 2025, it consists of postpartum home hospitalisation for low-risk mothers and babies. The programme allows the mother and her baby to be discharged home 12 hours after delivery, with home visits by the midwife until final discharge and connection with primary care.
- Surgical treatment of a case of hyperinsulinism: Ching-han was diagnosed with hyperinsulinism, a rare disease that causes recurrent hypoglycaemia and can lead to seizures or neurological sequelae if not treated appropriately. She was successfully treated at SJD Barcelona.
- Implantation of an extravascular defibrillator in a paediatric patient: SJD Barcelona has successfully carried out the first implantation in Spain of an extravascular defibrillator in a paediatric patient. This state-of-the-art device represents a pioneering technological advance in the treatment of severe arrhythmias in children and adolescents.
- New gene therapy for a child under two years of age with an ultra-rare disease: For the first time in Spain, an experimental gene therapy has been administered for hereditary spastic paraplegia type 50 (SPG50), a very rare neurodegenerative genetic disease (with around 100 cases worldwide).
- Pioneering procedure to stop blindness: A multidisciplinary team at SJD Barcelona has managed to stop blindness in a girl by grafting a nerve from her leg. For the first time in Spain, the sural nerve has been used in a paediatric patient to connect a nerve located behind the ear to the cornea and restore its sensitivity.
- Reconstruction of the pulmonary artery: A cardiac surgery team at SJD Barcelona has successfully operated on a 10-year-old boy who had a severe congenital heart defect that prevented him from walking and had put his life at risk.
Knowledge
- Launch of the eKardio Bootcamp programme: In 2025, the eKardio Bootcamp project was launched. It is an innovative learning programme based on clinical simulation and gamification, designed to train professionals in paediatric cardiology and haemodynamic management of critically ill patients.
- Continuing education for hospital staff: The 2025 annual training plan includes 501 training activities planned for hospital staff. Its main objectives are to update and expand scientific and technical knowledge in order to meet the needs of highly specialised care, excellence in treatment and care, and improvements in the patient experience.
- Alliance for research into rare paediatric diseases: SJD Barcelona has established an alliance with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center to research rare diseases in paediatrics, with the aim of promoting paediatric and biomedical research, placing particular emphasis on rare diseases.
- New Faros reports on sleep disorders and emotional well-being: The Faros programme, developed by the Escola de Salut, has maintained its commitment for another year to disseminating high-quality content and promoting comprehensive health in childhood and adolescence.
- First edition of Impact4kids: This is a project acceleration programme that provides intensive support over six months through training sessions and personalised mentoring. In its first edition, 74 start-ups participated (52% from Europe and 48% from the USA), and six projects were selected.
- Creation of two new spin-offs: As part of the 2024–2027 Strategic Plan of SJD Barcelona’s Innovation Unit, two new spin-offs were created in 2025. Gate2Brain obtained Orphan Drug Designation from the FDA and the EMA for its G2B-002 therapy for brain and central nervous system tumours, while CEBIOTEX obtained Orphan Drug Designation from the EMA and funding to launch two clinical studies.
Solidarity and fundraising
- Twinning with Lunsar Hospital: Saint John of God Catholic Hospital in Lunsar has received a visit from several professionals from SJD Barcelona, who have followed up on the twinning projects and provided support and supervision to the hospital’s residents, nurses and paediatricians. They have also evaluated and established a new five-year strategic cooperation plan.
- Launch of the El Viaje de Nica campaign: In May 2025, SJD Barcelona and FEDER, with the support of Alexion, launched the “El Viaje de Nica” campaign to raise awareness of rare diseases and raise funds to improve paediatric patients’ access to the advanced genetic diagnosis programme, which is not covered by the National Health System.
- Cuida’m programme: In 2025, the Cuida’m programme treated a total of 16 young patients, 7 of whom had congenital heart disease and the remaining 9 had various conditions, such as scoliosis, Hirschsprung’s disease, bone deformities and cleft palate, among others. This year, 12 different donors contributed to the programme. SJD Barcelona also continues to benefit from the involvement of the Infancia Solidaria Foundation.
- Private donations continue to be an essential pillar for the development of the centre: Excluding contributions allocated to the construction of the Únicas building, our donors contributed €12.7 million, which was allocated both to research projects (€4.4 million) and to care programmes (€8.3 million), the latter including social assistance and humanisation programmes.
People
- Attracting and retaining talent: In 2025, SJD Barcelona continued to focus on recruiting and retaining professionals, both through direct promotional activities and by participating in professional recruitment fairs.
- Leadership development: In 2025, the Hospital launched the SJD Leadership Master’s Programme, aimed at middle managers and lasting 230 hours, to promote a management style based on knowledge, humanism and commitment.
- Internal communication and corporate culture: SJD Barcelona’s 2024–2026 Internal Communication and Culture Plan continued to be implemented throughout 2025 through initiatives such as Coffee with Management sessions, the Management Conference, the annual presentation by the Managing Director to all staff, and the presentation of the Nursing Directorate’s Strategic Plan.
- Professional well-being: In addition to the improvements included in the EstarBé programme, a workplace climate and psychosocial risk survey was conducted in 2025, accompanied by a creative, multichannel internal campaign aimed at explaining that participating in the survey and sharing opinions helps drive improvements for all employees.
Infrastructure and technology
- Construction of the Únicas SJD building: Construction work on the building that will house the Centre for Precision Medicine, intended to provide comprehensive care for rare genetic diseases, began in August 2024.
- Improvements to the Urgell building: To meet space requirements, a building in central Barcelona (at 143 Urgell Street) was leased to bring together all of SJD’s private healthcare activity and provide space for activities that do not need to be located within SJD Barcelona.
- ISO 9001:2015 certification for the Bioengineering and Electromedicine Unit: The Unit has undertaken an integration process that enables a more holistic and strategic approach to medical equipment management, adopting a comprehensive approach to optimise resources, anticipate problems and provide a safer, more efficient service aligned with international standards. This strategy has been consolidated with the achievement of ISO 9001:2015 certification.
- Achievement of ISO 50001 certification: At the end of December, the Hospital obtained ISO 50001 certification, which focuses on efficient energy management.
- Improving energy efficiency: In line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to fulfil its commitment to sustainability and internal efficiency, various initiatives in renewable energy and energy efficiency were carried out during 2025.
- Development of the electronic health record: The most significant actions carried out in 2025 included configuring electronic patient referrals with hospitals in the Southern Barcelona Metropolitan Region and adapting the CMBD records for emergency care, day hospital and outpatient care.
- Deployment of an AI ecosystem: In October 2025, SJD Barcelona presented its institutional policy on the use of artificial intelligence (AI), with the aim of establishing principles and procedures to ensure ethical and safe use aligned with the values of the SJD Order.
- New platform for the Contact Centre and improvements to the Patient Portal: In 2025, the migration to a new telephone switchboard platform was completed, enabling real-time monitoring of service quality and Contact Centre activity. In addition, the new Patient Portal has reduced administrative tasks, such as appointment rescheduling and report requests, and improved the organisation of clinical work.
Organisation
- E=MC², a collaborative quality model for excellence in care: This model (Excellence = Method, Knowledge and Client) maintained its momentum throughout 2025, consolidating its three-pronged approach: improving operations, standardising care practices based on the best available evidence and safe practices, and integrating users (patients and families) at all levels to optimise the care experience.
- Promoting permanent participation groups: The SJD Family Council, made up of 23 families, maintained regular activity throughout 2025 through monthly sessions addressing issues such as improving nursing care in paediatric inpatient units, promoting SJD culture, and the development of the Patient Portal and e-Consultation.
- International alliances: During 2025, SJD Barcelona expanded its international alliances by signing an agreement with United Healthcare and establishing collaborations with two Chinese hospitals for patient referrals, training and research. In the Middle East, it signed a commitment with the Burjeel Cancer Institute, while in Europe it joined the Patrons Of The World paediatric solidarity network.
- Strategic reshaping of the Data and Digital Strategy Directorate: The department has embarked on a new phase marked by a profound reshaping of its role, structure and strategic priorities. The aim is to establish a more organic directorate aligned with the institutional strategy, structured around four pillars: a value-driven approach, caring for people, aligning decisions and positioning the Hospital.
Related links
The SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital in figures. See our data on healthcare activity, research, teaching, charity, personnel and economic resources.