Almirall and the Council of Catalonian Medical Associations’ Fundació Galatea sign an agreement to undertake the programme “The health of the student doctor”

The aim is to find out the incidence of stress, burn-out and other mental illnesses among this collective.

The Council of Medical Associations in Spain (OMC), the COM Cordoba Foundation and the Council of Medical Associations in the Basque Country are also participating, along with the Vall d’Hebró Hospital and the Institute for Health Studies

Barcelona, 30 January 2007.- Almirall and the Council of Catalonian Medical Associations’ Fundació Galatea have signed an agreement aimed principally at developing the programme “The health of the student doctor”. The initial length of the agreement is three years.Activities aimed at tutors and student doctors will be carried out. Also working on the project is the Council of Medical Associations in Spain (OMC), the COM Cordoba Foundation and the Council of Medical Associations in the Basque Country as well as the Vall d’Hebró Hospital and the Catalonian Institute for Health Studies.

The specific purpose of this project is to obtain data about the prevalence of stress and mental illness and their association in risk factors amongstudent doctors. The study was prompted due to current working conditions endured by Spanish student doctors and their possibility of suffering from stress, burn-out and other psychological problems or addictive behaviours. The results of the study will indicate the state of their health and will instigate activities aimed at improving care and early detection of these problems.It also aims to address skills for tutors in order to help them become aware of their students’ health and to improve their ability of detecting and guiding them in the event of psycho-emotional problems.

The activities will also teach student doctors how to look after their own health and find out about aid programmes for unwell doctors.

The methodology of the study will be carried out through a questionnaire to be completed by a random simple of 335 student doctors throughout Catalonia. A letter will be sent to the participants asking them to complete the questionnaires by going in to the Galatea Foundation’s website with a personal access password. The socio-demographic circumstances measurements are age, sex, speciality and year of study as well as family circumstances.

About the Galatea Foundation

The Galatea Foundation was created in 2001 by the Council of Medical Associations in Catalonia with the aim of promoting health, physical and mental wellbeing and quality of life for doctors and, by extension, all health professionals. This ensures better health guarantees for the patient population.

For more information you can visit our website: www.fgalatea.org

Almirall, a leading company committed to health

Almirall is an international pharmaceutical company that researches, develops and commercialises its own R&D and licensed specialities with the aim of improving health and quality of life.

The therapeutic areas on which Almirall focuses its research resources are related to the treatment of asthma, COPD, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Almirall is to invest 750 million euros in R&D over the next five years. This is the largest investment in this area by a Spanish pharmaceutical company.

Almirall has a staff of over 3,200 people, of whom around 500 form part of the R&D team and 1000 are in the international area. Almirall is currently present in over 100 countries with a direct presence in Europe and Latin America through affiliates in Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Mexico.

Further information:

Ketchum/SEIS

Carla Cudós / Victoria Hernández

carla.cudos@ketchum.com

victoria.hernandez@ketchum.com

Tel.: +34 91 788 32 00.- Fax: +34 91 788 32 99