The University of Navarra and the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation have signed an agreement partnership agreement so that students of Medicine and other health areas can carry out academic internships at the high school Medical Center that the Foundation has just opened in Madrid. This is the first European center specialized in the comprehensive treatment of patients with intellectual disabilities of genetic origin. In addition to medical care, the center has a space at training and knowledge dissemination and has planned to set up a biobank in the future. Its goal is that physicians, staff healthcare, families, caregivers and the patients themselves have a training space in which specialist professionals impart knowledge on important issues that affect them.

"For our students it will be a unique opportunity to put on internship the model of Medicine that we teach them and for which we bet, with the patient and his family always in the center, from a deep respect for the dignity of all people and with a mentality of service to society", emphasizes Alberto Fernández Bartolomé, director of development of the School of Medicine. "Therefore, the fact that they can fill in their training in the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation will provide them with a specialized training that stands out for its comprehensive and scientifically based care for people with intellectual disabilities".

"Collaborating in the training of future doctors and health professionals in general is a fundamental step to continue enabling now and in the future the best medical attendance for people with intellectual disabilities Genetics. That these professionals acquire the necessary specific skill and a look focused on the value of these people during their training is a great challenge to make a truly inclusive society. We also hope that this will generate additional professional interest in these patients for the future," adds Pablo Siegrist, director general manager of the Foundation in Spain. "As Prof. Jérôme Lejeune said: 'the quality of a civilization is measured by the respect it has for the most vulnerable of its members." 

This agreement is part of the strategic plan that the School of Medicine of the University of Navarra for the period 2020-2025 with which it aims to be a reference letter in the training of health professionals, and that has as its backbone the complete renovation of the Degree in Medicine, as well as a commitment to Medical Ethics and new teaching methodologies.