The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences plants a tree that comes from the tree of Hippocrates in Kos Island

From left to right: Fernando Turró, consul of Greece in Barcelona; Nikos Kantarzis, from the town council of Kos; Pere Gascon, lecturer from the Department of Medicine; Francesc Cardellach, dean of the Faculty, and Nikos Kastanos, from Moviment per al Llegat Hipocràtic a Espanya.
From left to right: Fernando Turró, consul of Greece in Barcelona; Nikos Kantarzis, from the town council of Kos; Pere Gascon, lecturer from the Department of Medicine; Francesc Cardellach, dean of the Faculty, and Nikos Kastanos, from Moviment per al Llegat Hipocràtic a Espanya.
Institutional
(24/10/2017)

“Curar de vegades, alleujar sovint i confrontar sempre”: these are words by Hippocrates of Kos, father of medicine (460-380 aC) that can be read in the bust next to the oriental plane (Platanus orientalis) planted yesterday at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the UB, which comes from the island of Kos.

From left to right: Fernando Turró, consul of Greece in Barcelona; Nikos Kantarzis, from the town council of Kos; Pere Gascon, lecturer from the Department of Medicine; Francesc Cardellach, dean of the Faculty, and Nikos Kastanos, from Moviment per al Llegat Hipocràtic a Espanya.
From left to right: Fernando Turró, consul of Greece in Barcelona; Nikos Kantarzis, from the town council of Kos; Pere Gascon, lecturer from the Department of Medicine; Francesc Cardellach, dean of the Faculty, and Nikos Kastanos, from Moviment per al Llegat Hipocràtic a Espanya.
Institutional
24/10/2017

“Curar de vegades, alleujar sovint i confrontar sempre”: these are words by Hippocrates of Kos, father of medicine (460-380 aC) that can be read in the bust next to the oriental plane (Platanus orientalis) planted yesterday at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the UB, which comes from the island of Kos.

The tree came yesterday, Monday October 23, in an event where the city of Kos (Greece) gave the tree to the Faculty. This is a cutting coming from the legendary tree of Hippocrates. According to the legend, the father of medicine taught his disciples under the branches of this tree. This one was planted in the cloister of the Faculty, in the Medicine Campus - Hospital Clinic August Pi i Sunyer, next to a bust of Hippocrates unveiled in the same ceremony.

During the event, Pere Gascon, lecturer from the Department of Medicine of the UB highlighted the figure of Hippocrates of Kos as the “inspiring lecturer and role model to the doctors”. Also, he highlighted three typical features of Hippocratic medicine: the desacralized perspective of the disease, a methodology combining experiments and observation, and a high ethical content. Moreover, he mentioned some Hippocratic aphorisms that are still present, such as “the best medicine is to teach people so they do not need it” or “walking is the best medicine for the man”, apart from many others that point up to the importance of a healthy life. Regarding this, Nikos Kantarzis, from the town council of Kos, highlighted the “holistic view of the patient” that Hippocrates defended.

So far, only six universities -Boston, Washington, Montpellier, Karolinska, Salerno and Uppsala- had a tree that came from the original in Kos. After the University of Barcelona, the next one to receive such a donation is the University of Malaga.

This initiative has been promoted by the association Moviment per al Llegat Hipocràtic a Espanya, formed by health professionals who promote the timeless bases of ethical medicine. Nikos Kastanos, representative of the association, demanded more training for caregivers in the humanistic treatment of patients, one of the objectives to be promoted by the club of universities that have a tree coming from Kos.

In these lines, the dean Francesc Cardellach stated it is necessary to “find a firm assembly of the history of medicine in the syllabus” so as to no forget about the reference models. And he finished his speech highlighting that “the change that brought Hippocrates in medicine is the reason why nowadays the Hippocratic oath is still present”.

The consul of Greece in Barcelona, Fernando Turró, remembered that the Hippocratic oath is a “commitment in front of society” to carry out this profession with ethics and support the patients. He also highlighted the medical tradition and good level of biomedical research in Catalonia.