Barcelona, February 2013

The reason for the trip

In February 2013 I spent several days in Barcelona to attend HEALTHINF 2013, the Sixth International Conference on Health Informatics. I was not travelling merely to add another conference to the list of my professional engagements. The paper I was about to present mattered greatly to me, Paradigm Shifts in Health Informatics.

The trip was made possible by support from a project coordinated by Professor Adina Florea, then Dean of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers at Politehnica University of Bucharest. Nearly twenty years earlier, she had been one of my outstanding students. I was teaching at the Faculty of Engineering in Foreign Languages, but I did not have a project of my own from which to finance the journey. Without this help, I would probably not have reached Barcelona to present my paper.

A work of synthesis

The article did not describe a single project, nor was it merely the result of recent research. It attempted to view from a certain distance what I had observed and developed over more than fifteen years of work in health informatics, conducted largely in Italy.

The central idea was that major developments within a field can be understood as paradigm shifts. A paradigm is not merely a new technology, but a different way of viewing reality, organising activities, and designing the systems that support them. Moreover, paradigms can carry knowledge from one field to another: from enterprise modelling and software engineering into healthcare, but also from medical practice into computing.

This distancing from a field already studied and, to a large extent, understood seems essential to me for any researcher. Only in this way, by stepping outside a white box and contemplating the field as a black box, can we perceive two fundamental aspects of research: the influence of the environment on the field being studied and its similarities with neighbouring fields.

The paper revisited ideas first formulated during my research in software engineering. The business metamodel presented in my 1992 book, based on activities, agents, objects, tools, and rules, could also be used to understand medical processes. Its final section introduced multi-agent systems, digital avatars, the R2V2R model— Real to Virtual to Real —and the digital health ecosystem. Seen in retrospect, the article was attempting to capture the transformation that we would increasingly call digitalisation.

HEALTHINF 2013, Barcelona, 11–14 February 2013.
Luca Dan Serbanati and Serban Radu, Paradigm Shifts in Health Informatics, Proceedings of HEALTHINF 2013, pp. 256–262.
The page devoted to the paper in the Research section

The hotel and first impressions of the city

I stayed at the Barceló Sants Hotel, built directly above the large Barcelona Sants railway station. Its interior design, with simple lines and touches inspired by an orbital station, was unusual. From my room I had a broad view over the city’s neighbourhoods—my first image of Barcelona before setting out into its streets.

The Barceló Sants Hotel above Barcelona Sants station — Fig. 1. The Barceló Sants Hotel, built above Barcelona Sants station, where I stayed.

Room at the Barceló Sants Hotel — Fig. 2. My room at the Barceló Sants Hotel, furnished in the hotel’s futuristic style.

Barcelona seen from the hotel window — Fig. 3. A first view of Barcelona from the hotel window.

An unusual dinner at La Paradeta

Near the hotel I discovered La Paradeta Sants, a highly unusual restaurant. It resembled not an ordinary dining room but a fishmonger’s shop, where fish and seafood were displayed on a bed of ice: prawns, langoustines, shellfish, squid, cuttlefish, and several kinds of fish.

Customers selected their own produce at the counter and specified how they wanted it prepared. The order was sent to the kitchen, and when the food was ready they were called to collect it. The simplicity of the dining room contrasted with the abundance of the counter and the freshness of the dishes.

Fig. 19. The counter at La Paradeta Sants, arranged like a fishmonger’s display.

Fish and seafood at La Paradeta — Fig. 20. Fish and seafood displayed on ice for customers to select.

Selecting an order at the La Paradeta counter — Fig. 21. Orders were placed directly at the counter after selecting the produce.

I ate in modest surroundings, without the ceremony of an elegant restaurant, but the very combination of fish market, self-service, and seafood cooking made the experience memorable. By the time I left, a queue had already formed outside the entrance.

Luca at a table in La Paradeta — Fig. 22. At the restaurant’s simple table, with the dishes arriving one by one.

Counter with fish and seafood at La Paradeta — Fig. 23. The counter laden with fish, crustaceans, and shellfish.

The entrance to La Paradeta Sants and the queue of customers — Fig. 24. When I left, a queue had already formed outside the restaurant.

Around Barcelona

The conference and preparation for my presentation occupied a substantial part of each day, but I used almost every free interval to see the city. This was not a leisurely planned trip, but a succession of outings fitted around conference activities, during which I tried to make use of every remaining hour.

I passed through very different areas: modern boulevards, the promenade from the Arc de Triomf, Parc de la Ciutadella, and the narrow streets of the old centre. The city changed character quickly, from contemporary buildings to the dense Gothic fabric of old Barcelona.

Avinguda Diagonal and Torre Glòries — Fig. 4. Avinguda Diagonal, with Torre Agbar—now Torre Glòries—in the distance.

Barcelona’s Arc de Triomf — Fig. 5. Arc de Triomf, one of the monumental entrances to the Ciutadella promenade.

Fig. 6. Castell dels Tres Dragons, a Modernist building in Parc de la Ciutadella.

Pont del Bisbe in the Gothic Quarter — Fig. 7. Pont del Bisbe, one of the characteristic sights of the Gothic Quarter.

Fig. 8. The façade of the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar, encountered while wandering through the old centre.

La Rambla and La Boqueria

La Rambla offered the liveliest and most crowded image of the city. From Plaça de Catalunya I walked down towards the harbour among kiosks, cafés, passers-by, and familiar buildings. I entered La Boqueria, where the colours of the stalls transformed the market into a true spectacle.

La Rambla in Barcelona — Fig. 10. La Rambla, descending from Plaça de Catalunya towards the harbour.

Entrance to La Boqueria market — Fig. 11. The entrance to Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria.

Fruit stall in La Boqueria — Fig. 12. The colours and abundance of a stall in La Boqueria.

Gran Teatre del Liceu in the evening — Fig. 13. Gran Teatre del Liceu, photographed from La Rambla in the evening.

Columbus and Port Vell

At the southern end of the promenade I reached the monument to Christopher Columbus and, beyond it, Port Vell. The February light settled over the boats, palm trees, and harbour buildings. Towards evening, the route continued along Passeig de Colom to the monumental sculpture El Cap de Barcelona.

Port Vell and Rambla de Mar — Fig. 15. Port Vell, with Rambla de Mar and the harbour buildings.

Boats in Port Vell — Fig. 16. The boats and palm-lined promenade in Port Vell at the end of the day.

Monumental buildings on Passeig de Colom — Fig. 17. The monumental buildings at the end of Passeig de Colom.

Roy Lichtenstein’s El Cap de Barcelona — Fig. 18. El Cap de Barcelona, Roy Lichtenstein’s sculpture, at sunset.

Dedicated pages

Several sights have been given pages of their own because the photographs and experiences associated with them exceeded the scope of a brief episode in the general itinerary.

Sagrada Família
The monumental exterior, the light-filled interior, and the details of Antoni Gaudí’s architecture.
Fundació Joan Miró
Miró’s works, Josep Lluís Sert’s building, the terraces, and the panorama from Montjuïc.
Two evenings at Gran Teatre del Liceu
The Tales of Hoffmann, the auditorium, the staircases, and Saló dels Miralls.
Barcelona Cathedral
The façade, Gothic naves, choir, chapels, and retrochoir.
Santa Maria del Mar
The restraint, spatial unity, and light of Catalan Gothic architecture.
From Plaça d’Espanya to Montjuïc
Dona i Ocell, Arenas, the Venetian Towers, and the ascent towards Palau Nacional.
Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya
From Romanesque frescoes and Gothic altarpieces to the Thyssen Collection and Picasso.

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Luca Dan Șerbănați

Emeritus Professor at Politehnica University of Bucharest

Research, teaching, industry and memoirs