The investigations focus on why alternates, without authorization of Health care or of the address, the tests with pigs and rats and then with people

‘Emails’ reveal that responsible not requested permission for the combined use

The Institute Carlos III sent an ’email’ in which he said that he could not give a double use

The Prosecutor’s office and the Court of Instruction no. 15 of Valencia analyzed extensive documentation that reveals that over the years, the Health Research Institute La Fe (IIS La Fe) leads using the same machinery to perform scans on animals and humans without request the relevant authorisations and to implement the protocols of disinfection and hygiene set by the health authorities.

As tested various emails that arrive in the offices of the anti-Corruption Office and in the Court of Instruction 15, the director of the department of Diagnostic and Image of the Hospital La Fe, Luis Martí-Bonmatí, who reconciles his position with the chief of Radiology service at the private Hospital Quirón, was told by several workers that it could not continue to perform diagnostic tests to pigs, rats and then to humans in the same magnetic resonance imaging. In the same high tech machinery that is located in the basement of the Tower To The Faith -or building – research is also carried out explorations to animals, marine species such as turtles or dolphins, in an agreement with the Aquarium.

The farce that investigates the justice is based on that from the research group that compromises the testing between human and animal were processed paths requests to two agencies separately but none of them clarified that it was the sharing between animals and humans. In the minutes of meeting of April 25, of the La Fe hospital to try and find a solution to this problem the team of Bonmatí justified that he had sent an application to the Department of Health that approved the use in people, and the other to that of Agriculture, which accepted the use for animals. In both cases, we added the apostille of authorizing the use of the machine “as long as they follow the guidelines standards for the approval of projects and suitability of rooms”. In both applications it is concealed that she was going to do was to be shared.

Authorization shared

In the minutes was transcribed “on the part of the various heads of the IIS Faith, in attendance at this meeting, emphasizes that such approvals do not contemplate the possibility of the use of the platform in a shared way, for animals and people”.

In fact, the Prosecution is aware of that are not presented documentation by the IIS Faith, as would have been timely but for the research group and, most serious of all, both agencies ignored the activity intended to reconcile the use for people and animals. The test is not available, the confirmation of the approval of the sharing protocols that have been carried out.

An animal subjected to a magnetic resonance imaging test. E. M.

The demonstration that there was no authorization for such purpose became clear on December 7, 2016 when the director of the IIS Faith communicates to Dr. Martí-Bonmatí the opinion of the governing Board of the IIS Faith. The email exposes that the responsible of the Platform and Director of the Area of Medical Image of the Hospital must be informed: “About what to use you will give to the platform, if you are going to be for animals or for people, since, according to the existing documentation, the shared use (animals and people) is not authorized by the Department or by the Management/ Medical Direction of the Hospital.”

The resonance where they are subjected to tests both people and animals is of the brand Philips model Achieva. Its main feature is that it is a machinery of three tesla and when animals are used must be subjected to a disinfection system.

apparently, as they explained to this newspaper sources of the research center, the head of the department performed a cleaning on your own -when you made the scans of the animal facilities of the hospital – but it lacks the certification, which includes the international organizations and that must authorize the direction of its own reference hospital of the Valencian Community and the Department of Health.

Instituto carlos III

On this issue, several months before, on April 28, 2016, information had been requested from the department of Scientific Coordination of the research center of Faith for the Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII) Madrid -scientific reference in Spain – explain if they could use the MRI to humans and animals.

In the email stated the concern about the legal status of the shared use since the machine had been designed by the manufacturer for human: “From the Platform of animal Experimentation of the IIS Faith want to do a shared use of the radiology equipment experimental in humans (clinical trials) and animals. This equipment is provided by the manufacturer to be used by humans. However, doubt about the legal framework that is applicable to both uses (human and animal) of the same equipment. We get in touch with you to see if from the ISCIII you give us some guidance of how to proceed in this case.”

This question was answered with a refusal for the use of a resonance in an alternate way. In the email reply that he received The Faith upon asking for the shared use of the radiology equipment experimental in humans and animals in a same facility, it indicated that: “The responsible of the animal house of the ISCIII me answer the following. In my experience you can’t do. When I was in the CNIC aimed to share the imaging devices a human-pig, but health didn’t allow it”.

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