Francisco de Vitoria University (UFV) ranks first among Spanish universities in cardiology and cardiovascular medicine and is among the leading institutions in Europe.
The institution tops the national rankings in this area in the 2026 edition of the SCImago Institutions Rankings (SIR), an international ranking recognized for the objectivity and transparency of its evaluation criteria, backed by the extensive experience of its teams in the field of scientometrics and refined with precision over the years.
The universities that rank at the top of the SCIMAGO global ranking in cardiology, based on these same indicators, are: Harvard, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Columbia University. UFV ranks 14th among European universities and 41st worldwide in this biomedical field.
The Vice President for Research at UFV, Alberto López Rosado, explains that this result is the outcome of years of work by the university’s research teams in collaboration with hospitals and clinical centers across various areas of cardiovascular medicine.
“This recognition is the result of the daily work of many researchers at UFV and would not have been possible without ongoing collaboration with hospitals and research centers. Beyond the ranking, what matters is that UFV’s research has an impact on medicine and on patients,” he notes.
Cardiovascular Diseases: A Global Challenge
This finding comes at a time when research in cardiology is of great public health importance. Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death worldwide and one of the greatest challenges facing modern medicine. The development of new treatments, improvements in early diagnosis, personalized medicine, and the prevention of heart damage account for a significant portion of international biomedical research. Cardiology has become one of the most active fields in medicine and one of the areas where collaboration between universities, hospitals, and research centers is most critical.
What the SCImago Ranking Measures
The SCImago ranking analyzes the scientific activity of universities and research centers over five-year periods (en esta edición, entre 2020 y 2024) and takes into account three main areas: scientific research, innovation, and social impact.
In cardiology and cardiovascular medicine, indicators such as the impact and quality of scientific publications, technology transfer, patents, and the public visibility of research are evaluated.
In these indicators, the UFV has achieved particularly high scores in normalized scientific impact, technological impact as measured by citations in patent literature, and open science, which explains its position in the international rankings.
Below are some examples of the work carried out by various research groups affiliated with Francisco de Vitoria University in the field of cardiovascular medicine, ranging from basic and translational research to clinical research and personalized medicine.
From the Lab to the Heart Attack Patient
One of the most notable areas of research is the work on heart damage following a heart attack led by Dr. Carlos Zaragoza, a professor at the UFV School of Medicine and head of the joint cardiovascular research unit that the university maintains in partnership with Ramón y Cajal University Hospital and the Ramón y Cajal Institute for Health Research—a scientific collaboration that has been underway for over a decade.
This is the context for NIL10, a nanoparticle designed to reduce inflammatory damage to the heart following an acute myocardial infarction.
The research conducted by this team has been published in high-impact international scientific journals. Among these is Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging, published by the American Heart Association, which devoted a special editorial to the study because of its therapeutic potential.
As a result of this research, an international patent for the prevention and treatment of heart damage was granted in 2023, as part of an effort to translate laboratory findings into clinical practice.
Clinical Innovation in Interventional Cardiology
Research related to UFV is also conducted in the hospital setting, particularly in the field of interventional cardiology. Notable in this field is the work of Dr. Eduardo Alegría Barrero, a professor at UFV and head of the Interventional Cardiology Unit at Ruber Internacional Hospital.
His work focuses on improving the safety and effectiveness of interventional procedures and on treating patients with coronary and valvular heart disease.
In recent years, he has contributed to scientific publications in interventional cardiology, multicenter studies, and international reviews on the prevention of cardiovascular disease.
His work is also linked to the UFV–UICAR–Quirónsalud Chair in Cardiovascular Innovation, which promotes clinical research projects aimed at improving interventional procedures and the treatment of patients with cardiovascular disease.
Hereditary Heart Diseases and Personalized Medicine
Another key area is clinical and genetic research into inherited cardiomyopathies, cardiac amyloidosis, and personalized medicine. Notable in this field are the works of Dr. Pablo García-Pavía, head of familial cardiopathies at Puerta de Hierro Hospital and a researcher at the CNIC, as well as other researchers associated with UFV-affiliated scientific publications in areas such as cardiovascular genetics, advanced cardiac imaging, arrhythmia risk stratification, and predictive models for cardiomyopathies.
This research focuses on tailoring diagnosis and treatment to the genetic and clinical characteristics of each patient, particularly in the case of hereditary heart diseases.
Cardiovascular Research with a Focus on the Future
Francisco de Vitoria University’s leadership in cardiology and cardiovascular medicine is the result of several years of scientific research, clinical collaboration, and the development of new therapies. This progress has enabled the university to rank among the leading European universities in cardiovascular research.
Although UFV and its medical school in particular are not among the largest, they stand out for the excellence of their work and their commitment to serving society, patients, their families, and healthcare professionals.
