The Foundation organised a course in Autumn 2005 in collaboration with the International Consortium Menendez Pelayo University - Ernest Lluch Centre of Barcelona and with the Catalan Health Institute.

The new patient model and patient participation in health decisions. Directed by Albert Jovell, Director of the Josep Laporte Library Foundation of Barcelona, with a programme combining reading sessions with panel discussions addressing the various aspects of participation in the new patient model which is emerging as a result of social changes in society as a whole and in health care in particular. These changes entail a rapid transition from a passive patient model to a more active one in which a paternalistic doctor–patient relationship is replaced by a more considered model in which the patient and his family will want to have access to second opinions from other doctors, and will want to participate in the decision-making process. These changes makes it imperative for health professionals and health administrations to undertake a root-and-branch review of their model of the social contract they have with citizens and patients.