The Index Foundation receives the Medes-Medicina en Español 2013 award
The prestigious award was presented at the Royal National Academy of Medicine in the presence of notable authorities from the world of science
"Nursing knowledge flows and is used in spaces of proximity, where language serves both for scientific communication and for understanding one another with citizens," argued Dr. Manuel Amezcua, President of the Index Foundation, upon receiving the 2013 Medes Award.
On December 4, the Royal National Academy of Medicine held the delivery of the Medes-Medicine Awards in Spanish, in which the Index Foundation has been awarded as an outstanding institution in the promotion and dissemination of the biomedical publication in Spanish. In its 2013 call, the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) has also been awarded in its modality of best initiative in the use of Spanish for its virtual training program in Medical Oncology in Spanish-speaking countries.
The Index Foundation is the first nursing scientific entity to receive this prestigious award, which in previous editions has gone to institutions such as the National Library of Health Sciences of the Carlos III Health Institute, the Ibero-American Cochrane Collaboration, or the Royal National Academy of Medicine, in whose headquarters the prizes were delivered. MEDES is an initiative of the Lilly Foundation that aims to contribute to promoting scientific publication in biomedical journals in Spanish, as well as promoting its national and international dissemination through various research, training and outreach activities.
During the awards ceremony, Professor César Nombela, Rector of the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP), delivered the lecture "Spanish, a Language of Scientific Communication," in which he emphasized that Spanish is the heritage of 500 million native speakers and the third most used language on the internet. "For all these reasons, Spanish holds a privileged position as the language of knowledge, although we must accept that the lingua franca for communicating science, in general, is English." "Capturing science and technology in our own language, regardless of where it is developed, is essential for facing the future," Professor Nombela emphasized. "Language is not merely a tool for communication, but the foundation of well-formed thinking."
After receiving the award, the president of the INDEX Foundation, Dr. Manuel Amezcua, a researcher at ibs.GRANADA, offered two reasons for communicating in Spanish: "There is a tendency to think that only what is published in English is important. This probably makes sense in basic sciences, but not in applied sciences like nursing. Nursing knowledge flows and is used in local settings, where the language serves both scientific communication and communication skills among citizens."
The President of the Index Foundation, Manuel Amezcua Martínez, expressed his satisfaction with the award, which he extends to all the Index project collaborators: "Medes is possibly the most decisive initiative in promoting our language as a vehicle for scientific knowledge. Today we receive this prestigious award, which we wish to share with all the people and institutions that have made the Index Foundation's activities possible over the last quarter-century."
RECOGNITION OF NURSING SCIENCE
The INDEX Foundation has been recognized as the Best Institution or Entity Outstanding in the Promotion and Dissemination of Medical Publishing in Spanish. Among the achievements of this organization specializing in nursing knowledge management activities is the creation of a network of 50 collaborating centers spread across Spain, Portugal, and eight Latin American countries. Another of its activities is the Cuiden database, with information on Ibero-American scientific nursing journals. "It is the most consulted Ibero-American source in this area, with more than 13 million hits per year. Ciberindex sometimes records peaks of more than 50.000 hits per day." Index also publishes journals, manages six research networks, and conducts educational activities. "Last year we celebrated our 25th anniversary. Until then, more than 20.000 people had participated in our scientific events."
INDEX was founded in 1987, initially as a scientific society under the auspices of the primary care reform in Andalusia. "The goal was to implement the reform without improvisation, drawing on available international knowledge," explained Professor Amezcua. The organization was established in its current foundation form in 1994.
Regarding the future of the Index Foundation, Professor Amezcua warned that its influence depends greatly on the knowledge management policies established in each country where the professionals practice: "In Spain, the evaluation agencies are very radical, giving priority almost exclusively to what is published in English." According to its president, the Index Foundation respects the natural processes of knowledge emergence, while the gap is widening between the means nurses use to guarantee research transfer and the opinions of evaluation agencies on where and how nurses should publish to be recognized. "But I believe this will change progressively, and agencies in Spain and other Latin American countries will adapt to the evaluation systems of the most competitive countries in science, placing greater emphasis on the social impact of knowledge."
The MEDES Awards were created to encourage those initiatives that favor the use of our language in the communication of knowledge of the health sciences, in general, and of medical knowledge in particular, as well as to highlight the work carried out by the institutions or entities that make possible the production or dissemination of scientific literature in Spanish.
