Rosa Morros: "What satisfies me the most is to keep learning"

The specialist in Clinical Pharmacology and PhD in Pharmacology arrived at the IDIAPJGol in 2009 and is the head of the Medicine Studies Unit (UEM). In her busy schedule there is also room to perform the duties of president of the Clinical Research Ethics Committee.

• Rosa, can you summarize your career?
Well, in fact, I came from Primary Care, from the pharmacy care side, from the North Metropolitan Area. And what I was doing was advising medical professionals on drug issues, until I entered IDIAP more fully with the opportunity to coordinate the clinical trials network, since 2009.

• What is the function of the EMU?
Well, there's a part of it that's developing all the drug studies, especially clinical trials. We advise them and help them develop within the SCReN network of the Carlos III Institute, and we also do other functions related to medicines, not so focused on a certain disease, but on the use of medicines in special conditions, topics of 'adherence, pharmacovigilance... Although we can do other things with, for example, health products, the crux of the matter is the medicine.

• How has your work at EMU evolved or changed since you started?
It has changed in the sense that it has expanded, but in fact, I continue to maintain the initial task, which is that of clinical trials, from the time they are managed and we think about how they can be, until the final report. Here we continue with a high level of involvement, but we have expanded the other part of other studies and our own studies and of also advising on medication issues because, in fact, our expertise is in medications.

• What do you think your knowledge and experience is bringing to the Institute?
I think that I do contribute knowledge, because it is a rather unknown topic in primary care, especially the legal and mandatory aspects that these drug studies entail. The issue of medicine is one of the most legislated at European level. We are in a European legislation that must be complied with and this is what we also contribute to, to make it known and to help those who want to develop studies, advising them and seeing if they can be done or how we could do it so that it was easier. And this encompasses everything from the preparation of the medication to all the legal requirements, reporting, monitoring and control that is done in these studies. In fact, this is why the SCReN network of the Carlos III Institute was created, where everything is a hospital and we are the only unit that is solely for primary care.

• What gives you the most satisfaction in your work at EMU?
Learning with new things, with my projects; I always like to do different and new things, and that my people can also enjoy it because it's the best way to learn and spend time. Therefore, the challenge is to train it. But I have little time to devote to it, that's the problem. The day to day eats away at you and you cannot devote yourself to improving projects, nor to building them, nor to helping people to improve.

• And what is your role in the Ethics Committee?
We evaluate all the projects that are carried out in primary care and this is a view of the brutal research, but it is also a considerable job, because more and more the ethical committee is being charged with legal aspects (the subject of protection of data, more responsibilities with the medicine studies that the Agency has given to the committees, projects that you have to make a reference for all the centers, not just yours..) I mean that every time there is more responsibility and projects are increasingly complex. But it does give an aspect of all primary care and other supervised centers. Here we also oversee the Department of Health and, especially since COVID, we have been able to evaluate more projects from the more institutional side.

• I ask you the same thing again, but with reference to the Ethics Committee. What is your contribution?
I have a fairly extensive knowledge of other activities; in fact, I've always been at university, I've also been closely linked to the Spanish Medicines Agency, because I'm on the Medicines Evaluation Committee, and I think that all this external knowledge I have is what I bring to the IDIAPJGol. From Primary Care it would be much more difficult to be up to date on all these issues.