We spoke with Anna Berenguera: "It is important to promote collaboration between research groups"

Anna Berenguera has been working at IDIAP Jordi Gol for fifteen years. Over the years, she has worked on several projects and is currently the Deputy Director in the research area. But before all this, he obtained a degree in psychology, a master's degree in research methods in social sciences from the University of Surrey and a doctorate in Public Health from the University of Barcelona. Ah! and she is a wife and mother of an eighteen-year-old son.

But like many other professionals who work at this institute, his vocation does not come from one day to the next. Anna began her research at a research center linked to the Hospital Clínic in Mozambique.

- Your first job experience was unusual, wasn't it?

- My first work experience was at the International Health Center of the Hospital Clínic, which would now be ISGlobal. There I put into practice the knowledge acquired in research and it was in 2002 that we won a project financed by La Caixa to implement a program for the prevention of vertical transmission of HIV-AIDS in pregnant women in Manhiça, 30 kilometers from Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. For months we had been preparing this project following all the manuals of the World Health Organization in countries of the Global South so that it would be as careful as possible. At that time, the HIV prevalence in Mozambique was 25%.

- But the reality you encountered was quite different from what the manuals said, right?

- Once we arrived in Manhiça, where the CISM (Centro de Investigação me Saúde de Mozambique) is located, we encountered the resistance offered by the population to the use of HIV prevention measures. Mainly because of their colonial relationship with South Africa, they thought that the Boers (Dutch population established in South Africa) had brought the disease, and they transmitted it to the black race to exterminate it from food (red oranges), they contaminated them in the diamond mines in which 50% of the male population of Mozambique work... and among other causes. There we understood that we could not implement any prevention program for HIV-AIDS without knowing better the perceptions, beliefs and attitudes of HIV-AIDS and knowing better the culture of this population.

- And how did you do it?

- Here I delved into the qualitative and quantitative methodology, working together with local leaders to help us in the information, communication and dissemination of preventive measures for HIV-AIDS in the population. With the whole team we managed to implement a Day Hospital for people with HIV-AIDS. The arrival of the antiretrovirals was difficult, it was lived in a very positive way but the stock out, the lack of adherence and the beliefs of the population made it difficult. However, I know that now, HIV disease is a chronic disease like here. Currently the Vertical Transmission Prevention program is still going on. After an experience of more than three and a half years, I returned to Barcelona and continued writing all the publications of the project carried out in Mozambique at the Hospital Clínic.

- How and when did you get to the IDIAP Jordi Gol?

- I arrived at IDIAPJGol in 2008. It was an Institute that selected me four months pregnant, I already found this fact differential from other institutions. At IDIAPJGol I was hired to carry out a project of the Department of Health in which they wanted to know the primary, secondary and tertiary prevention activities on HIV-AIDS. A professional profile was sought that knew preventive activities and could develop a battery of indicators to evaluate these activities. I got the job to develop this mixed methodology project and that project was the doctoral thesis.

- What attracted you to the institution?

- The IDIAPJGol attracted me to be able to investigate closely linked to the reality of people, especially due to the proximity to users and their primary care professionals. It seemed to me a research institute with a lot of potential to investigate excellence to improve people's health and quality of life.

- And for about nine months you have made an important leap at IDIAP Jordi Gol, assuming the position of Deputy Director in the research area. What responsibilities do you have?

- My main functions are to ensure that the IDIAPJGol research groups have opportunities to carry out excellent research, this objective implies different actions and to coordinate with the different IDIAPJGol units, both the Research Support Units, the research groups, the Project Management Unit, Medicine Studies Unit, SIDIAP, Innovation Unit, etc.

- What are the goals you have set yourself?

- One of the great objectives of this year is to promote more collaboration between the research groups of the IDIAPJGol and for this reason we organized a Retreat at Món Sant Benet on May 31 where we intend to establish synergies between groups beyond of the lines of investigation and territoriality. On the other hand, I continue to carry out research and, especially, co-creative research with the public.

- What is the relevance of IDIAP Jordi Gol as a research institute?

- IDIAPJGol has enormous potential. It is a benchmark and unique institute in the field of primary care and we have professionals from different disciplines who make our research provide a holistic version of the main problems that concern citizens and health professionals in Primary and Community Care. The work of each of the Research Support Units is essential to promote the search for rigor and quality in Primary Care professionals.

- And, besides, the institute is internationally recognized, right?

- At this time, thanks to everyone's efforts, all the departments and all the Units are working at a national, European and international level and we are a benchmark in many aspects of frontier research and our own lines of primary care.