Dr. Ramon Martí i Bonet was born in Terrassa in 1944. He graduated in Medicine from the University of Barcelona and specialized in heart and lung. Shortly after, he fell in love with ophthalmology and specialized at the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona. He later obtained his Doctorate in Medicine from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
In 1976 started as an assistant physician in the ophthalmology service of the Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona, combining this dedication with the new private practice he opened that same year in his hometown. In 1979 he was appointed Head of the Retina and Vitreous Department at the Hospital de Sant Pau.
In 1986 Dr. Martí’s passion and commitment to ophthalmology led him to found Institut Català de Retina (ICR) in Barcelona. It was then that he turned his private practice into a new branch of ICR, in Terrassa. Today, this new branch, placed in the modernist house of Carrer del Nord, is a referent in ophthalmology in the town of Terrassa.
In 1994, at the Barcelona headquarters, Dr. Martí made a relevant step forward, expanding ICR’s facilities by moving the initial consultations from the Escorial Street to the modernist house in Pau Alcover Street, in the Tres Torres neighborhood of the city. This new location, the confidence of the professionals who joined in and the trust of our patients, made ICR become a reference in ophthalmology in the city of Barcelona.
Dr. Martí founded ICR with the goal of becoming a reference ophthalmology center both nationally and internationally.
He dedicated his life to work tirelessly for the prevention, diagnosis and control of eye diseases and focused especially on the treatment and research of retinal pathologies. He presented numerous papers, including the study on an absorbable explant in the treatment of retinal detachment, published in 1984 in the prestigious Chibret International Journal of Ophthalmology.
In 1999, ICR acquired a clinic in Passeig de la Bonanova in Barcelona, the CBCO clinic, a center with 5 surgical theaters exclusively for ophthalmology surgery and state of the art technology that is today the surgical center of reference, also open to other ophthalmologists that do not have their own theaters.
Dr. Martí’s vision drove him into working with health insurance companies, with whom we have forged a valuable relationship based on trust. He also worked in several collaboration agreements with the public network of health and different hospitals of the charter health network.
In 2007 all the facilities of the new building attached to the modernist house of Pau Alcover street, 67 (Barcelona) were inaugurated.
In 2012 the main building and current headquarters of ICR, at Ganduxer street in Barcelona, a reference center and where most assistencial activity of ICR takes place.
Due to historical and close collaborations with Clínica de Remei, in 2015 was inaugurated the ophthalmology service of ICR in the Remei Clinic.
Convinced that research is the basis of clinical care and evidence-based medicine the method that guides decision making, in 2006 Dr. Martí promoted the creation of a department dedicated exclusively to research in order to promote, facilitate and guide research of the highest quality and rigor in the field of ophthalmology. ICR is also a member of EVICR (European Vision Institute for Clinical Research), a select group of European institutions that share rigorous and demanding procedures for conducting clinical studies and trials.
For Dr. Martí, research was a fundamental pillar in ophthalmology and he worked to implement this idea at ICR.
The commitment of the entity and Dr. Martí to medical care of high quality led to the implementation of ISO standards in 2007, consolidating ICR’s Quality Policy, based on five pillars: patient and client orientation, permanent updating of specialized medical knowledge, comprehensive offer of ophthalmologic services, maximum care coverage and both professional and business ethics.
In the teaching field, Dr. Martí always supported scientific events with the aim of contributing to the multidisciplinary training of medical teams, and specifically to surgical training, highlighting the two conferences held on live eye surgery in 2004 and 2006 (Fòrum Quirúrgic ICR Auditori Winterthur and II Fòrum Quirúrgic ICR Cosmo Caixa), or the celebration in 2012 of the 4 conferences on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the institution: “Retina práctica 2012: Dónde somos y hacia donde vayamos (Practical Retina 2012: Where we are and where we are going)”, “Cirugía refractiva y catarata. Update 2012 (Refractive surgery and cataract. Update 2012)”, “Oculoplastic & Corneal Leaks: Todo el que siempre has querido saber (Oculoplastic & Corneal Leaks: Everything you always wanted to know)” and “Presente y futuro en glaucoma y Neuroftalmología (Present and future in glaucoma and Neurophthalmology)”.
In this sense, in 2015 started new ophthalmological medicosurgical master programs in collaboration with the Medicine Faculty of the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya. Currently the Master program in Glaucoma and the Master program in Oculoplastics, Orbit and Tear duct are still being offered.
As a result of his passion and commitment to ophthalmology, in 2008 Dr. Martí created and chaired the Fundació Ramon Martí i Bonet (Ramon Martí i Bonet Foundation) against blindness, from which projects are promoted offering ophthalmological services to the most vulnerable people without resources. Both locally (in Catalonia) and internationally, with projects in Chad, Peru, India, etc., where in addition to offering ophthalmology services, local professionals are trained and operating theaters and all the necessary equipment are provided so that one day they can be autonomous.
The main goal of the projects from the Foundation is working for the right of health, one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) defined by the United Nations. Improving the vision of the people who are in greater need is the Foundation’s main driver, offering them better opportunities and future perspectives. That is why, from the beginning of the project, agreements and collaborations have been settled with several social entities in order to take further the Foundation’s goals and values.
Dr. Martí left us in 2021. Institut Català de Retina paid him a moving tribute and concert in an event held in the Palau de la Música Catalana. The Petit Palau room was filled with the doctor’s closest people, such as his family, friends, some patients and staff and collaborators of ICR and the Ramon Martí i Bonet Foundation.
He will always be remembered as an approachable, cheerful, passionate, brilliant, hard-working and committed person with integrity. He was also a generous person who was always willing to help others, who believed in a better, more egalitarian world and who dedicated an important part of his life to achieving it.
Dr. Martí, from the very beginning, always surrounded himself with a loyal and professional team to whom he entrusted the management and direction of the institution.
Today, both his family and the same management team in whom he trusted, lead and continue the family project, with the same commitment and enthusiasm to continue with the same philosophy and the same values that Dr. Ramon Martí Bonet promoted throughout these more than 35 years.
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