Born in Barcelona in 1954, he is Full Professor in Medicine (Pulmonology) at the University of Barcelona (UB) and Director of the Respiratory Intensive Care Unit at Hospital Clínic. He is considered a physician of reference both nationally and internationally in lung infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), bronchiectasis, mechanical ventilation and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). He leads the research group on Applied Research in Respiratory Diseases of the Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), from where he facilitates translational research studies. He also coordinates a CIBER group and a CIBER programme on respiratory infections (Ciberes), an SGR group and participates in several European projects. He is co-author of more than 400 scientific publications and has supervised 32 PhD theses. He has a Hirsch index of 94.

Research interests

1. Respiratory infections: He has created several subgroups of research that study the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of these infections. In his laboratory is doing basic research in biofilm and PK/PD of antibiotics. In 2015 he published a randomised-clinical trial in JAMA about the benefit of using corticosteroids in addition to antibiotics in severe community-acquired pneumonia. 2. A second field of research is mechanical ventilation including invasive and non-invasive, weaning and prevention of complications. In this field he has organized important RCT´s that have changed the clinical practice. 3. He has organized a unique animal model of severe pneumonia (P.aeruginosa, MRSA and S.pneumoniae) in piglets ventilated for more than 72 hours that allows to perform translational research in respiratory infections, mechanical ventilation and ARDS 4. He is the coordinator of  Hospital/Ventilator associated pneumonia International Guidelines 

Keywords

lung infections, community acquired pneumonia, ventilator associated pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchiectasis