- The laboratory is pioneering in Catalonia and Spain, and is equipped with all the latest technological devices, which enable all kinds of audiological and vestibular tests to be carried out
- The Faculty of Medicine at UVic-UCC has expanded its spaces for teaching and research for Medicine and for the bachelor’s degrees in Dentistry and General Audiology, and has incorporated a dental preclinical laboratory and a technology laboratory, in addition to new classrooms
Audiometers, tympanometers and otoscopes are some of the devices with which students of the bachelor’s degree in General Audiology are trained at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) - the only centre in Catalonia and Spain that currently offers this standard degree. These state-of-the-art instruments are found in the AudioLab, a laboratory specialized in audiology that is comparable to the most advanced in Europe, both for the quantity and the quality of its devices. The AudioLab is one result of the adaptation works carried out in the building of the old Can Baumann factory, which had a total cost of 4.2 million euros, and with which the surface area of the faculty was increased by 1,500 m².
Audiology, the branch of medicine that addresses the evaluation, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of hearing disorders, is a constantly evolving discipline that requires work in modern, technologically prepared facilities, such as the AudioLab. This laboratory enables students to develop knowledge of areas of audiology such as otoscopy, physiology, tympanometry, videonystagmography (VNG) or acoustics and calibration, for example. Gerard Encina, coordinator of the bachelor’s degree in General Audiology at the Faculty of Medicine, highlights the importance of having equipment like this. “Other laboratories in Catalonia have some of the instruments that are in the AudioLab, but this is the only lab that has them all, where all types of audiological tests can be done,” he stated.
Four sound booths
The AudioLab, which is available to students of the bachelor’s degree in General Audiology from the first semester of the course, occupies an area of around 160 m² and has four soundproofed booths. Two of them, each with 4 m², are for audiometric tests and for the perceptual or psychoacoustic evaluation of hearing. A third booth, for electrophysiology, occupies a space of 15 m² and is isolated acoustically and electromagnetically. It is designed for the objective exploration of physiological signals during acoustic stimulation, that is, it serves mainly to test auditory evoked potentials and otoacoustic emissions.
The fourth free-field booth is the largest (25 m²) and most versatile: it is used to carry out audiological tests in a free sound field (using speakers and without headphones) and allows the auditory system to be explored during the use of hearing aids and implants. In this booth, measurements can be made such as sound localization in space, real ear measurements (REM) during hearing aid fitting, and paediatric audiometry measurements with visual reinforcement (VRA), among others.
The new audiology laboratory of the Faculty of Medicine serves mainly for teaching of the bachelor’s degree in General Audiology and for parallel activities associated with the degree. In addition, the AudioLab is available to all UVic-UCC research staff who conduct research in the field of audiology and auditory and vestibular sciences, and students who undertake their final degree projects or carry out future master’s degree or doctoral programmes in this field of health. In addition, the possibility of opening this laboratory to the healthcare environment of Osona is considered for specific tests or complex clinical cases that hospitals or health centres in the area and in other territories cannot resolve.
“We have worked hard to be able to offer studies in General Audiology, which did not exist in Catalonia or Spain, and being the first to do so is a remarkable merit”
The AudioLab has received a financial donation from the William Demant Foundation, of Denmark, of around 300,000 euros, which “has made it possible to acquire state-of-the-art audiological and vestibular assessment instruments,” explained Marina Geli, general director of the Foundation for Advanced Studies in Health Sciences (FESS), which owns the Faculty of Medicine. Geli explained: “We have worked hard to be able to offer studies in General Audiology, which did not exist in Catalonia or Spain, and being the first to do so is a remarkable merit.”
The vice dean of the bachelor’s degree in General Audiology, Francesc Roca-Ribas, noted that “there is a clear social and professional need to train audiologists” and affirmed that “in the coming years they will acquire greater relevance,” as has already happened in the United States, Denmark and other European countries, where the figure of the audiologist is fully consolidated in the health system. In addition, “the Audiolab will make it possible to deepen and advance audiological and vestibular assessment and research in Catalonia.”
The new laboratories and the new classrooms “signify an important step in the growth of the Faculty of Medicine, a project that began in 2011, which was consolidated in 2017 with the launch of the faculty and the bachelor’s degree in Medicine, and continues to grow this academic year with the new degrees in Dentistry and General Audiology,” added Marina Geli.
“The AudioLab will make it possible to deepen and advance audiological and vestibular assessment and research in Catalonia”
A technology laboratory
The new technology laboratory of the Faculty of Medicine is a multipurpose and multidisciplinary space where students from the three current degrees of the faculty can do practicums: Medicine, Dentistry and General Audiology. It consists of medical material for teaching Medicine, several computers, a milling machine, a 3D scanner, a 3D printer, an image bank and dental simulators (Simodont). One of the objectives of this laboratory is to help students of Dentistry in the management of clinical practices and to eliminate the gap that exists between preclinical and clinical practice with the use of dental simulators. This room also allows teachers to prepare material that is suitable for practicals and clinical case workshops for students.
A dental preclinical laboratory
The dental preclinical laboratory is designed for students of the bachelor’s degree in Dentistry. In the 2024-2025 academic year, it will be equipped with 36 phantom simulation benches and a simulation box, in addition to a room where students can practice casting impressions and putting together plaster models. This laboratory, equipped with dental scanners to introduce new technological advances in daily practice, will be used in subjects in the first year (Dental Biomaterials), in the second year (Principles of Surgery) and in the third year (Preclinical and Dental Intervention I and II).
New classrooms
The works to adapt the new spaces of the Faculty of Medicine of the UVic-UCC have led to the addition of five multipurpose classrooms for students of the degrees in Medicine, Dentistry and General Audiology. These new classrooms, located on the first floor of the faculty, are also part of the remodelling works of the Can Baumann building.