In 2018 he returned to VHH with the aim of implementing a follow-up program for pediatric cancer patients which included support for adolescents and the young adults (AYA). The program was a result of a self-financed clinical research project which he developed in the US from 2015 to 2016.

In 2019 he accepted an offer from The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, to establish a link with the Department of Translational Medicine and the University of Toronto (UoT). At present SickKids Hospital is a world leader and the largest of its kind in North America. The UoT is among of the twenty most recognized universities in the world.

At the Hospital for Sick for Children in Toronto, Parareda is working mainly on the risk of 2nd cancers in groups of patients affected by cancer of development with a high relative risk of other cancers. He is also working on a project related to the areas of the cerebral cortex where languages learnt after the mother tongue are located.

He collaborates in clinical research of pediatric and adolescent cancer with the retinoblastoma (RB) team headed by Dr. Brenda Gallie, with neuroendocrine tumours (NET) with Dr. Jonathan Wasserman and in Li Fraumeni Syndrome (LFS) with Drs. David Malkin and Anita Villani, from the same hospital. In LFS he collaborated with Dr. Thierry Frébourg, Professor at the University of Rouen, France, an expert in this syndrome in Europe. In relation to languages learnt he collaborate with Dr. Darren Kadis, research neuropsychologist at the Peter Gilgan Center for Research and Learning, linked with SickKids and UoT.

From 2022, Parareda has actively collaborated in the diagnostic and therapeutic approach of paediatric-type diffuse gliomas with paediatric neurooncology and pathobiology teams both at the Institute Gustave-Roussy (IGR) in Paris (Dr. Jacques Grill) and at SickKids, in Toronto (Dra. Cynthia Hawkins), respectively.

In recent years he has been linked with the School of Nursing at Western University in London and McMaster University in Hamilton, both in Ontario. This link is both in relation to the specialist training of Nurse Practitioners and in an innovative project for indigenous health education, specifically in the field of paediatrics. In the future he plans to coordinate aspects of training in pediatric care for the indigenous Anishinaabe people in the region of Temagami (n’Daki Menan) in the north- east of Ontario in the Nipissing district near Temagami Lake.

In the field of pediatric oncology, he specialized in the treatment of RB, retina cancer which affects the very young, usually during the first four years of life, and also in NET. However, his main contribution has been in cancer follow-up, both after the illness (Follow-up & Long Term Follow-up) and before (Predisposition and Risk Assessment) and also in clinical genetics of development tumors.

He was a Visiting Scientist at the Dana Farber-Cancer Institute in Boston from 2015 to 2016. He was also invited as a visiting scientist by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, Children’s of Philadelphia Hospital and Saint Jude Cancer Research Hospital in Memphis.

In Europe, he has collaborated with the IGR in Villejuif and Institute Curie both in Paris and with København University, in Denmark and with Vrije Universiteit (VU) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

In his clinical research in the USA, Andreu Parareda began developing his “LIFE” project, which later became a program under the name of “LIFE MELIOR”. The aim of this program is to offer support to individuals affected by cancer or other complex pathologies, and their families, so as to achieve the best diagnostic, therapeutic, follow.up and preventive strategies in order to maximize quantity of Life (qoL) together with Quality of Life (QoL)

The LIFE MELIOR program came out of the LIFE project and although it was started to offer pediatric cancer follow-up, it now offers transversal help (to patients of all ages) and universal help to all individual irrespective of their economic means. It includes pre- and post-follow-up of the oncological illness when possible. Progressively, LIFE MELIOR has became a benchmark program for 2 nd opinions and it also plans to create a check-up center which, through AI WB-MRI studies, will be able to assess potential risks such as detecting incidental problems including incidentalomas. In these cases early diagnosis is important to provide a more favorable prognosis. Thanks to the prior experience of the preliminary phase, the LM team decided to add a further kind of consultation. This new consultation offers a first diagnosis and it is aimed at individuals who, despite having clinical symptoms and after several public or private medical visits and complementary analyses, have not been provided with a diagnosis. This lack of diagnosis has not allowed them to be suitably treated.

The LIFE MELIOR program began operating on November 10 th , 2023 in the city of Manlleu, Osona, when its city council agreed to be the program’s headquarters. This day coincided with the tenth anniversary of a stroke suffered by Andreu Parareda, the mind behind LIFE MELIOR.

Apart from the clinical pillar, the program also offers the public the possibility of becoming LIFE MELIOR members, so that they can enjoy important discounts. These cover imaging diagnoses such as MRI, CT, PET, ultrasounds, other complementary explorations such as digestive endoscopies, blood tests, and genetic studies, and specialist consultations such as clinical psychology and psychiatrics. This membership is offered under the motto “Helping us to help you” because it will make it possible to provide universal care, including for those with limited financial means.

LIFE MELIOR puts the patient solely at the center of the assistential debate rather than other aspects such as money, institutions (public or private) or even aspects related to medical corporatism which could bias the attention focused on the patient. This type of attention is only possible through an independent program, as the aim is always to find the best diagnostic, therapeutic, follow-up or preventive processes directed by the best professionals in each pathology and in the best possible centers.

In the future, LIFE MELIOR would like to offer programs related to knowledge, the third pillar of the program. This pillar would have an impact on the university training of professionals, such as innovative nurse practitioners training courses, but would also support teaching and mentorship, in collaboration with the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at The University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Andreu Parareda collaborated with The American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), and in 2017 published articles proposing follow-up guidelines for patients with risk of RB, NET or NB. He also collaborated with the IRiSC team (International Retinoblastoma and Second Cancers).

From 2005 to 2017 he worked as a specialist physician in the Department of Oncology at the HSJD in Esplugues, where he founded and led RB and follow-up units for patients with cancer histories. There he later introduced check-ups prior to cancer in patients at risk. risk. In Barcelona he directed the first treatment of RB with intra-arterial chemotherapy (IAC) outside New York. The aim of this technique was to avoid enucleations in some cases. In 2017 he refused to take part in an RB trial with oncolytic viruses, considering them unethical and not sufficiently safe.

In the same year he voluntarily requested the termination of the contract binding him to HSJD in disagreement with the uncontrolled strategy of privatization which was decided upon by the hospital management and with consent of the religious order which owns the hospital. Parareda considered that this privatizing strategy was ethically perverse and socially unfair, especially as in the same areas they treat public CatSalut patients as well as private international patients. In his opinion, this duality causes inequality in the treatment of patients, both medically and socially, and in the use of human and material resources. He has always considered from a personal and professional point of view that this strategy is unacceptable. He has expressed this opinion on several occasions to the relevant health authorities who, irrespective of their political leanings, have always recognized the problem but at the same time have been unable to assume their responsibilities to put an end to this mess.

From 1997 to 2005, Andreu Parareda worked as a specialist physician in the Oncology Unit at VHH and also as research doctor in the Center for Research in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and in the Biomedical Research Unit of the same institution. There he completed a PhD in the area of molecular biology applied to NB. During this period he was the first to describe two alternative splicings of the Tyrosine Hydroxylase gene, which were unknown until then.

He coordinated the clinic of pediatric specialities in his hometown of Manlleu, in the Osona region. This clinic enabled all the children in the area to have easy access to checkups by pediatric specialists, so avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy and costly travels to high level hospitals.

For many years he worked as a family pediatric doctor, first at the health center in Roda de Ter and then in l’Esquirol, with both centers then dependent on the Manlleu Health Area. In this period he alternated between family pediatrics in Manlleu and directing emergency services and laboratory research at VHH. Later he continued his work in family pediatrics and also worked at the health center in the Lluçanès Health Area where he proposed an innovative model in primary pediatric care.

This new model led him to the creation of the Catalan Cooperative Pediatria dels Pirineus in order to cover family pediatric care in the Alt Urgell region. He was its founder member, managing director and institutional coordinator. In 2014 he decided to renounce his position in disagreement with the intermediary role played by HSJD which was also a member of the cooperative but charged a teaching fee that he considered inappropriate and excessive. He also objected to the fact that HSJD and the other cooperative partners shared the company benefits which were in fact public funds. In spite of this, this type of care was widely recognized as the ultimate and potentially most reproducible model.

He was awarded certificates in advanced pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation by the “Grupo Español de Reanimación Cardiopulmonar Pediátrica y Neonatal” and in first care in pediatric trauma by the” Asociación Española de Cirugía Pediátrica i l’Asociación Argentina de Cirugía Pediátrica”.

Since October 2002, he has been a judge of objective and structured clinical assessment (ACOE) in pediatrics, organized jointly by the Health Institute Studies of the Generalitat de Catalunya and Catalan Pediatric Society.

During his PhD, he completed most of a degree in Political Sciences and Administration, at UAB, which reflected his interest in international relations and especially in healthcare politics.

Prior to his university medical studies, he studied music (1977/90) at the Liceu Higher Musical Conservatory in Barcelona where he completed courses in musical theory, harmony, counterpoint and fugue as well as four courses in classical guitar.