Dr. Joaquin Cabezas is a Gastroenterology and Hepatology physician. He is a staff member in Gastroenterology and Hepatology Department in Marques de Valdecilla University Hospital, Santander, Spain.
He got his Bachelor of Medicine in University of Valladolid (Spain) in 2006. Then, he finished his specialist residence in Marques de Valdecilla University Hospital by 2011. Investigation interests are focused in clinical research in liver diseases. The scope of liver diseases is: hepatitis C and B and alcoholic and non-alcoholic liver diseases. He is part of a research group named “Clinical and Traslational research in Digestive Diseases“ which is included in IDIVAL (Instituto de Investigación Valdecilla, Santander, Spain).
From September 2015 to September 2016, he spent a translational formation stay with Dr. Ramon Bataller in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (North Carolina, United States). This was supported by Juan Rodés Scholarship from AEEH (Asociación Española para el Estudio del Hígado). During this time, he joined investigation projects regarding alcoholic liver disease and novel molecular targets for therapy.
Current research projects include: hepatitis C epidemiology in Spain, cardiovascular risk assessment in hepatitis C infected patients and neurocognitive impairment evaluation in hepatitis C infected patients.
Collaborator in the JailFree-C project, manuscript recently accepted in American Journal of Gastroenterology. This is a successful microelimination program of hepatitis C in prison. This study is followed by an ongoing project, The HONEST project focused on non-imprisoned inmates serving non-custodial sentences. This study provides a novel model of care to set a test-and-treat strategy based in point-of-care tests with a navigator figure/multidisciplinary team/telemedicine tools in an underserve population serving aforementioned sentences in Cantabria-Spain. Since the success of these projects, we are involved in improving the model of care for hepatitis C elimination in Cantabria.
