RAFAEL VICENTE
CASTRO DELGADO

For more than 20 years I have combined research and teaching activities with healthcare work as an emergency doctor in the Urgent Medical Assistance Service (SAMU) of Asturias, also being coordinator of the mobile intensive care unit (ICU) of Avilés and President of the SAMU-Asturias disaster commission. Associate Professor of the Department of Medicine at the University of Oviedo. Graduate in Medicine (1996), Extraordinary Degree Award (1998) and Specialist in Family and Community Medicine (2001). Doctor of Medicine (University of Oviedo, 2001). Doctoral thesis: “Industrial disaster risk in health area III and preparation of the health structure” (outstanding cum laude). Director of the temporary COVID hospital H144 of the Health Service of the Principality of Asturias for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, receiving the “Engineering in Action: Response to the Pandemic” award from the 9th International Congress of the International Federation of Hospital Engineering (2021), as well as the “Dr. Mariano Lacort” 2021 Healthcare Ethics Award for the Humanization Plan. I coordinate the Prehospital and Disaster Care Research Group (GIAPREDE) of the Primary Care Area of the Health Research Institute of the Principality of Asturias (ISPA). Director of the Prehospital Emergency Research Network of the Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine (RINVEMER-SEMES). Internships at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Harvard University, the Medical College of Wisconsin and the Karolinska Institutet. I have published 109 articles (83 indexed in the WOS; 24% first author and 46% corresponding author). More than 70 presentations and communications at national and international conferences. I direct the Erasmus Mundus Master in Public Health and Disasters of the European Union, together with the Karolinska Institutet and the University of Nicosia. I have directed five doctoral theses and more than 80 Master's theses. In 2024 the project "Development of a board game for training in incidents with multiple victims" has obtained the ITEMAS quality seal from the Ministry of Health. This seal is a distinction awarded by the Platform for Innovation in Medical and Health Technologies (ITEMAS). Research projects. Currently (2024) I am leading the projects “Development of a board game for simulation of multiple-victim incidents and analysis of its usefulness and viability in the training of primary care teams through the design of a training action” and “Analysis and prevention of attacks on Sespa health professionals”, with funding from ISPA. I participate in the projects “Design of a Metaverse for Higher Education in Health Sciences” (ISCIII), and “Health Emergency Competence Education Program (PECES) (Mapfre Foundation). Member of the Emergency Medical Teams Technical Working Group on Medical Evacuation (MEDEVAC) and Prehospital Management in Emergencies of the WHO, I have collaborated with the Health Cluster in Ukraine. I participate in the public dissemination of research activity in non-specialized environments, such as in the University of Oviedo projects "Science Day at my school" and "On Tour with Science". In 2021, I published the article "Emergency calls for suspected COVID-19 allow us to predict peaks in hospital occupancy" in The Conversation. The dissemination of science is also demonstrated by the publication in the national newspaper El País then table top game project.