MARACA International participated in the annual Safe-N-Medtech OITB consortium meeting in Barcelona. Dr. Luc Van Hove presented the work package 7 report on applying ethical principles in developing nanotechnology-based medical devices. Just a reminder for anyone in a European company or in the hospital, the European code of conduct for ethical business practices in nanosciences and nanotechnologies applies the following ethical principles: Respect human dignity; Take your responsibility; Be integer in your business; Be non-maleficience, do not harm; Respect the autonomy of the person’s identify; Be just; Apply equity, everyone has an equal share; show solidarity; Be beneficent. This is how business in Europe should be conducted. It is also the most effective and least expensive approach, since you will not be confronted with lawsuits on bribes and fraud. MARACA proposed also a code of conduct for the newly formed OITB Pathway company. This was discussed with the key partners and accepted for implementation.

As part of the meeting a tour visit was planned to the Vall d’Hebron Hospital. This is one of the European centers of excellence in medical care and they run the clinical study with the NOCANTHER medical device. It was impressive to see the capabilities of this hospital. We also very much enjoyed seeing the RCL (Resonant circuits Limited) Clinical Mach machine in action.

Since we had some time left, we enjoyed also some of the most beautiful sites in Barcelona, the Sagrada Familia cathedral and the Casa Botllo Gaudi house. It is impressive to see these Gaudi masterpieces, well worth the visit.