Winners of the Carlos Slim 2023 Health Awards
- The Carlos Slim Foundation announces the winners of the sixteenth edition of the Health Awards, which recognize work of great relevance to the Latin American region.
- The Lifetime Achievement Award for research was given to Dr. José Alejandro Madrigal Fernández, México
- The Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy, (Instituto de Efectividad Clínica y Sanitaria), Argentina is the winner of the Exceptional Institution Award.
Like every year, the Carlos Slim Foundation recognizes the work of those who, individually and collectively, have dedicated their lives to finding innovative solutions to Latin America’s health problems, especially those that affect the region’s most vulnerable populations, thereby helping more people to live longer and better lives.
The winners have been chosen from among dozens of proposals received by an independent jury of experts, who this year selected Dr. José Alejandro Madrigal Fernández of Mexico and the Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy based in Argentina.
Read about the winners of this edition
Dr. José Alejandro Madrigal Fernández , Mexico
Dr. José Alejandro Madrigal Fernández is a medical doctor with a degree from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, after which he completed a specialty and a doctorate at the universities of Harvard, London and Stanford. His research has focused on immunotherapy and stem cell transplantation. This research has been important for cell therapy and particularly for stem cell transplantation.
Dr. Madrigal’s leadership led him to pioneer the creation of donor registries and umbilical cord banks in the world. He was the founder and scientific director of the Anthony Nolan Cell Therapy Center. His leadership led him to chair the European Transplantation Society. He has also served as Vice Chancellor for Latin America at University College London.
His research has resulted in the publication of more than 500 articles in the most prestigious journals in the world, including Nature, Nature Genetics and Lancet.
He is currently developing research in cell therapy against different types of cancer.
He has received distinctions from prestigious academies in Mexico, Latin America, United States and Europe. He has also been recognized with three different honorary doctorates, including from the University of Guadalajara. In 2022, he received from the Queen of England the title of Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his contributions.
Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy (Instituto de Efectividad Clínica y Sanitaria), Argentina
The Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy (IECS) is an independent, non-profit academic institution dedicated to research, education and technical cooperation in health. It is an institution affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) that houses an executing unit of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research of Argentina, a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center and a Cochrane Center. Created in 2002, its mission is to “contribute to improving global health, generating and promoting the application of the best scientific evidence”.
Composed of 5 departments and 6 research centers, it develops, among other projects, clinical trials, epidemiological surveillance, qualitative research and evaluation of the effectiveness of health interventions in areas such as health technology, maternal and child health, chronic diseases, cancer and palliative care and public health policies.
Its research projects involve thousands of people in Latin American and other regions. To date, more than 700 projects have been developed in 40 countries. As some examples of their research, they have generated studies on maternal and perinatal health involving more than 250,000 women who gave birth in 40 hospitals in 16 countries and the study of the state of cardiovascular health follows 7,400 adults in three countries.
Regarding the training of researchers, the Institute has received more than 9 thousand students from 20 countries in various programs.