The Coret Family did already live in Badalona by the 1600. They were farmers and fishermen until the last third of the XIX century. It was then when Andres Coret Maristany, following a relative of him, Eduardo Maristany, participated in the construction of the Argentera tunnel and ended up having his own building company.

His son Juan was the first doctor in the family. He ended his studies in 1903, and with his carriage and his morning coat visited patients in Badalona and its surroundings. In the inferior part of his coat he had a small bag where he used to carry his inkpen and inkpot.

In 1930, my father Andrés finished his studies, but unfortunately his life is supposed to have ended in 1938 as he was considered missing while being medical lieutenant. He belong to the 491st battallion, 123rd mixed brigade, 27th division.

I had my primary education in the Escolapios in Diputación, and I decided to study medicine and ophthalmology with the guidance and protection of my uncle, Dr.Antoinio Vila-Coro. At that time, he was one of the leading ophthalmologists in Barcelona. While studying, I used to work mornings at the Ophthalmology department of the Hospital de la Cruz Roja and afternoons with my uncle in his private consultancy.

My first job as ophthalmologist was in 1959, in the Hospital of Olesa de Montserrat. I used to work two Sundays a month from 9am to 9pm. I used to earn 1.500pts a month; I paid transport and meal, and I still keep patients, nearly friends, from that time.

Mornings I used to work with no financial compensation in the Hospital de la Cruz Roja, later on in the Hosptital del Sagrado Corazón, and finally in the Hosptial Municipal of Badalona, just to learn and practise. In the afternoons I had my private consultancy in Badalona.

Due to some diffuculties to operate in Badalona, I started working in the Clinica Carmelitana of Barcelona, and it was then when I started the cataract surgery by facoemulsification.

The hard work and belief in this technique made of facoemulsification the best technique to operate cataracts. My colleague and friend Dr.Soler Sala and myself wrote the first Spanish book about this technique.

I travelled all over Spain giving courses and doing life cases. Meanwhile, facoemulsification was significantly improving to become the splendorous truth it is now.

 In 1992 I started to treat short-sightedness with the Excimer laser. I must confess that few patients accepted that treatment and financially it was a disaster. However, with time and in the light of good resuls the Excimer laser was accepted and the number of cases increased rapidly.

Soon the praxis in the Clinica Carmelitana became insufficient to cope with the increasing number of patients. The main reasons of it were the success of the facoemulsification technique and the short-sightedness technique, and the fact that my son Andres finished his studies obtaining the MIR and joined me. We had to look for another center. In Avenida Diagonal 632 there were the old Gran Tibidabo Headquarters. We hesitated but we finally bought them and made them suitable for us.

In 1999 we started working in the new headquarters, and since then we are one of the best private hospitals in Europe, with the most advanced technology and with the most consolidated experience.

Dr. Andrés Coret Novoa