The scientific journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection has recently launched the “Giants in Infectious Diseases”, section, created to recognise international figures who have marked research in infectious diseases. The first expert featured is Josep M. Miró, senior consultant at the Infections Diseases Service of the Hospital Clínic and head of the IDIBAPS research group in Endocarditis. Cardiovascular infections. Experimental model, Chair Professor of Medicine at the UB and Academic of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Catalonia (RAMC), in recognition of his exceptional career in the study of infectious endocarditis and HIV/AIDS.
The published article reviews over four decades of Miró's dedication to infectious endocarditis and is structured in three parts. The first describes his seminal work that demonstrated the relationship between endocarditis caused by Enterococcus faecalis, and colon cancer. This finding has had a direct impact on clinical practice: today it is recommended that colonoscopy be performed on patients with this infection in oirder to detect hidden lesions. The second part includes work that has changed the way endocarditis is treated, such as the creation of the Multidisciplinary Endocarditis Team at the Hospital Clínic, a pioneer in Spain and an international reference point. It also highlights his participation in the updating of the Duke/ISCVID diagnostic criteria (2023), which incorporate new imaging techniques and molecular tests, and the definition of more flexible criteria for antibiotic treatment, included in the European guidelines. Other significant contributions include the validation of PET/CT in cardiac device infections, the study on the efficacy of mechanical thrombectomy in strokes associated with endocarditis, and innovative clinical trials such as the OraPAT-IE GAMES, comparing the consolidation of treatment with oral versus intravenous antibiotics, and translational research in the experimental endocarditis model of new antibiotic treatment regimens that have ended up demonstrating their efficacy in clinical trials. In all these studies, the researchers who have led them have explained what the mentorship of Miró has meant for their professional careers.
The third part of the article is dedicated to the personal and professional career of Miró. It explains how he began his career in the 1980s, in the midst of the heroin and HIV epidemic, and it shares his advice for the new generations: "Patients first, students first, and teamwork first". It also highlights the importance of research, which is behind patients and students, of adaptation to change, and of continuous training.
With over 1,000 articles indexed in PubMed, an h-index of 95 and more than 44,000 citations, Miró is a world authority. He has chaired national and international scientific societies such as the International Society for Cardiovascular Infectious Diseases (ISCVID; https://www.iscvid.org/), is head of research into cardiovascular infections at IDIBAPS and into HIV/AIDS at CIBERINFEC, and he has trained over 100 researchers. His contributions have been incorporated into the main European and American clinical guidelines, helping to improve the care of thousands of patients all over the world.
Reference article
Juan M. Pericás, Inma Lopez-Montesinos, Juan Ambrosioni, Guillermo Cuervo, Cristina Garcia-de-la-Mària, Marta Hernández-Meneses, Carlos A. Mestres, Asunción Moreno, Jose M. Miro. Giants in Infectious Diseases: Prof. Jose M. Miro's translational research in infective endocarditis.Clinical Microbiology and Infection. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmi.2025.11.017.
