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16/06/2025 - General information

Dr. Manuel Pera is now a full member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Catalonia

On June 15, Dr. Manuel Pera, Head of the Gastrointestinal Surgery Unit at Hospital del Mar and researcher at its research institute, was appointed as a full academic member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Catalonia. He now becomes one of the sixty full academic members of the institution, replacing Professor Lluís Morales i Fochs. The ceremony was sponsored by Professor Carmen Gomar and Professor Laureano Fernández-Cruz.

In his acceptance speech, Dr. Pera reflected on his professional journey, from his native Seville to Hospital del Mar, after beginning his medical career at Hospital Clínic. He spoke of the influence of his family-his father, grandfather, and uncle-as well as other individuals who have shaped his life as a surgeon.

From left to right: Dr. Manuel Pera and Dr. Lluís Grande

The rest of his speech, titled "The Human Gaze in the Doctor-Patient Relationship. Anatomy of an Encounter", served to analyze the need to humanize the way patients are treated. "The human gaze must go beyond the disease and see the whole person, their family, and their world", Dr. Pera stated. In light of the current trend toward the dehumanization of care, he argued that "training in medical humanities benefits not only the patient but also the medical student and future healthcare professional, as it strengthens the sense of purpose and the resilience needed to grow and thrive in medicine".

The response speech was delivered by Dr. Lluís Grande, former Head of the General Surgery Department at Hospital del Mar and full academic member of the RAMC. He emphasized Dr. Pera's words as a future framework to "integrate science and compassion, technical knowledge and moral wisdom, evidence and empathy. Let bedside manner not be a luxury, but a right. Let us not resign ourselves to a wordless limbo-let us recover the transformative power of language in medical practice".

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