The Neuromuscular Unit of the Bellvitge University Hospital, a tertiary centre for a population of more than 2 million inhabitants, (NMD-HUB) is part of the Neurology Department and currently is working in coordination with the group of neurological diseases and neurogenetics and the neurometabolic disease group of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), the neuroscience area of the department of Clinical Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona. In addition, members of the Unit are integrated into both CIBERNED and AGAUR groups. The NMD-HUB is differentiated in subareas with specific coordinators in each of them: 1. Muscle diseases 2. Peripheric nerve diseases 3. motor neuron diseases 4. neuromuscular junction diseases 5. Neurophysiological studies on neuromuscular disorders. The Unit also includes the Amotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Functional Unit and the Family Amyloidosis Functional Unit.
The NMD-HUB, in turn, is included in the Minority Diseases Attention Group of the Bellvitge University Hospital, which includes all the professionals involved in the diagnosis, management, care and treatment of low prevalence diseases in our centre.
At present, the HUB-NMD is a reference center in the Network of Units of Clinical Expertise in Catalonia (XUEC) and Centers, Services and Reference Units in Spain (CSUR) for rare neuromuscular diseases.
Dr Casasnovas is the CSUR coordinator of Rare Neuromuscular Diseases and of the Network of Clinical Expertise Units in Neuromuscular Diseases of the Neurology Department at Bellvitge University Hospital (HUB), and from January 2022, coordinator of the local node of the European Reference Network (ERN) in Neuromuscular Diseases.
