Emilio José
Sanz Álvarez

Medical Degree (1981) and PhD (1983) in Medicine from the ULL, DEA (Diploma in Advanced Studies) in Social and Cultural Anthropology (Philosophy) from the URiV, Specialist in Clinical Pharmacology (1988), Professor (1986-2007) and Professor of Clinical Pharmacology (2007-) at the Faculty of Medicine of the ULL, where he has been teaching since 1982. He was Dean from 2008 until October 2015, when he stepped down and took over as Director of the Department of Physical Medicine and Pharmacology until February 2020 (when his term of office ended). From April 2019 to December 2024 he was Head of the Clinical Pharmacology Department at the University Hospital of the Canary Islands, where he continues as Associate Professor. During the years 1986-1988 he spent a post-doctoral stay in the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. His main research interests include pharmacovigilance and drug epidemiology, especially in the field of psychopharmacology and paediatrics, as well as medical anthropology (cultural role of drugs in society) and bioethics. Since 1989 he has participated in and co-directed several European projects on social and cultural aspects of medicine use, using qualitative methodologies, in four projects coordinated with 10 other EU countries. As a result of this work he has published and edited several books on drug-related aspects of medical anthropology. During 2015-17 he was elected president of DIPEX International (www.dipexinternational.org) a scientific association that brings together scientists from 14 countries in this field, and he is president of DIPEX Spain (www.dipex.es). He is the author of more than 150 research papers and 50 books or book chapters. He is also a member of 12 Scientific Societies. Since 1998 he is Managing Editor of the ‘European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology’. He speaks and writes fluent English (C1) and Swedish (B2), as well as Spanish. He has been Secretary (1995-97) and Vice-Dean (2005-8) of the Faculty of Medicine of the ULL and Secretary of the National Conference of Deans of Medicine from 2010 to 2015. From 1983 to the present day, he has been a member of the ‘Commission of Deontology, Medical Law and Visa’ of the Official College of Doctors of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, being its President from 1999 to 2008. He is President of the ‘Healthcare Ethics Committee’ (CEA) of the University Hospital of the Canary Islands (HUC) and, from October 1989 until December 2024, President of the CEIm (Clinical Research Ethics Committee with medicines) and is currently a member of the CEIm of the Dr. Negrín Hospital / Province of Las Palmas. He is also the vice-president of the Animal Research and Welfare Ethics Committee of the University of La Laguna, since its creation in November 1999 and holds D1 accreditation for the supervision of animal research. He is a member of the Bioethics Advisory Commission of the Canary Islands Government. Since 2003 he is the Director of the Inter-University Master in Bioethics; it is an official Master's degree of the universities of La Laguna and Las Palmas and is being developed in the course 2024-25 its XV edition. In 2019 he received the ‘Lifetime achievement in Clinical Pharmacology Education’ from the European Association of Clinical Pharmacology (EACPT), for a lifetime dedicated to teaching and research in this field. In 2021 he received the ANECA Helix Award for Academic Quality, in its first edition, and in 2023 he was awarded the prize for ‘Teaching Excellence’ by the Social Council of the ULL. In July 2023 it received the ‘Teaching Excellence Award’ from the Social Council of the University of La Laguna.