New VASCERN Affiliated Partner from Spain!

With the bilateral cooperation agreement signed, VASCERN has its first official Affiliated Partner: Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron from Barcelona, Spain!

This Spanish Healthcare Provider, which is an Associated National Centre, will be represented by Dr. Arturo Evangelista and Dr. Gisela Teixido, two cardiologists working in the Expert center with specialized expertise in Heritable Thoracic Aortic Diseases (HTAD).

We are very pleased to officially welcome them to VASCERN.

As a reminder, the designation of “Affiliated Partner” to the ERN was integrated into the ERN legal framework in order to “achieve the widest possible geographical coverage, exchange of knowledge and best practice throughout Europe.”

Affiliated Partners are named by their national governments.

There are 2 types of Affiliated Partners:

Associated National Centres (mainly healthcare providers) for those ERNs where an EU Member State is not yet represented by a full member in the respective ERN. It establishes a link with one specific ERN.
A National Coordination Hub which establishes at once a link with more than one Network in which a given Member State is neither represented by a full member nor by an Associated National Centre. National Coordination Hubs may especially represent a useful solution for those Member States with very small populations that need to establish such links with many ERNs at once.

For all documents related to Affiliated Partners see the ERN Board of Member States (BoMS) page here

VASCERN has received several letters of designation of Affiliated Partners from countries such as Spain, Austria, Slovenia and Malta. Our ERN is currently reviewing the applications and following the different steps for their future integration into the ERN.

See the complete list of VASCERN’s full Healthcare Provider members and Affiliated Partners here