David Irureta, CEO of IVF-Life Donostia, gave us this interview – listen to it on our Spotify channel. He tells us about his experience at the Basque Fertility Institute and what drives the entire team to achieve excellence in every treatment as well as being one of the top rated fertility clinics on Google.
I’m from San Sebastian, I was born and raised here, but I lived abroad for 15 years, working in different jobs. After such a long time, I was looking forward to going back to my home town and that’s where the opportunity to join IVF-Life came up.
One of my fears when I came to work here was that I had never worked in the health sector before, but the whole team really embraced me on my arrival. That welcome and my urge to learn new things, along with everything I was able to apply from my previous professional experience, made it so much easier for me to land on my feet in the San Sebastian clinic.
One of the things that surprised me the most when I started working at IVF-Life Group was the protocolization of all the steps that take place in the clinic. I think that, although this protocol is part of the sector, especially in IVF, it’s very much part of our DNA across the entire group.
This also reassures patients and employees that the right steps are being followed, because every time there’s a new innovation, a new trend or some sort of study that means any of these protocols need to be altered, they’re changed and everyone is aware of it.
You don’t have to make big changes or do major training because everyone is constantly updating. In terms of learning, the truth is that I’m constantly learning from what a cycle is to what it means for a woman to be a mother. These are things I probably hadn’t taken fully on board and, to be honest, they’ve surprised me a lot.
Yes indeed, we’ve grown exponentially and the truth is we’re delighted with it. We’ve gone from being a small clinic here in San Sebastian with 8 people to being almost 30 people at the moment and tripling the number of cycles in 5 years. I believe this is due to a combination of several things; success doesn’t come from a single source or a single reason. For me, the main reason is the clinic’s wonderful human team.
So many patients tell us this: we’re a family. When people come to the clinic suffering because they’re having a hard time, we treat them as part of our family and we fully support them all through the process, which makes things much easier.
Plus, having success rates higher than the ASEF makes us feel very confident and it also means that patients not only feel supported, they can see the results. "That's why I believe that the combination of family and work has been what has made us so special and helped us grow, offering the highest quality treatments".
When we talk about the Basque Fertility Institute, we aren’t talking about a centre with one leading doctor or embryologist, as may be the case in other clinics; here we’re talking about the team as a whole. "I think what makes us different is, to use the team sport analogy, that we don't have a star player, instead we have a lot of good players who make up a great squad".
Our weekly case meetings mean that our patients always feel they’re in good hands, because for example, if a patient comes and visits a doctor, but the next day she comes back and for some reason that doctor isn’t here, she can be treated by another medical professional who will know her case perfectly.
This way, the patient will always feel supported. Another group is the Patient Care and Nursing team, which are teams made up of people with a high level of empathy who are responsible for supporting, looking after, accompanying and guiding patients all through their treatment, becoming fundamental figures for them. This is clearly seen the day they appear at the door with their baby.
Those hugs and those tears, that bond forged between the person who has been at their side throughout the process and the patient… It’s amazing! Then there’s also, of course, the team of embryologists, who are actually the ones working with patients’ gametes and generating the embryos, always doing a painstaking and detailed job, following all the protocols so that in the end, that patient can fulfil their dream of starting a family.
"Generally speaking, I think that everyone, from the maintenance person, the administrators and even the external personnel who come in, forms that team in which each individual is a super important piece in the machinery, which, as I said before, I believe is our main strength".
Well, look, I usually tell this anecdote a lot, because we were at Oncology A at Villa Mona Hospital and on my arrival we were going down to Tolosa Avenue. We’d just got there and I was in my office, working on an Excel or something.
Suddenly, I heard some yelling and I thought, well nothing to worry about and I kept on working. After a while, I heard yelling again so I went out and asked what was going on. Then I saw the receptionist hang up the phone and start throwing her arms up in the air and jumping up and down next to a doctor, so I said “What happened? What happened?” and she replied that they just called from the lab to say that the beta (the test to find out if you’re pregnant) of this particular patient was positive and that she was pregnant.
That detailed knowledge about each patient, the way they monitor and follow-up every single one, the way they get involved… It’s amazing and I absolutely love seeing that feeling with each patient. "For us, every pregnancy is a thrill and is beautiful. In the end, it's a bit what keeps this group going, it gives us so much strength to continue working and dedicating our everyday work to helping couples".
In the end, the gratitude that patients show you in those comments is a reflection of our work and our expertise. And you can’t imagine the patients who, every time a new review arrives or we enter a forum or website to see the feedback they give us and we see their comments, they give us enough energy to keep moving forward.
This is nothing more than the result of our patients feeling comfortable with us, as a family, because we’re by their side and helping them all through the process. Look, as soon as you go through the door there are 3 words that say: empathy, reliability and trust, and I think these are a bit like the 3 keywords in our work. We do our best to try to convey that to patients on a day-to-day basis, and they notice.
I think we should continue moving along the same line as we are now. At one point, we went from being 8 to being 12, the following year, from 16 to 22 and now, from 28 to almost 30. And we must follow that line so we can help more and more families.
We also have to continue to grow so we can maintain our line of research. To give you an idea, in a week’s time we’re going to start with Artificial Intelligence in the laboratory to help us predict certain results and develop protocols that help patients now and in the future, because if there’s one thing we’re known for, it’s that we always do things for and with our patients.
To sum up, after this interview with David Irureta and after he showed us his vision on what drives IVF-Life Donostia towards excellence, we can say that its success is largely due to the humanity and warmth with which it treats its patients, something that sets it apart and given it the accolade of being one of the top-rated fertility clinics on Google.
Plus, the clinic’s high pregnancy rates, thanks to the incorporation and development of new techniques and technological advances, make IVF-Life Donostia a clinic that’s constantly growing, in every way.
If you’d like to know a little more about the clinic and the team working there, you can go to their website and put faces to the entire team of professionals behind all this success. And if you’re looking for a fertility clinic you can trust to fulfil your dream of being a mother, you can put yourself in the hands of these experts and schedule a free first fertility visit with one of them. This means you’ll also be able to see at first hand why their patients are so grateful to all of them.
Privacy Policy
IVF-LIFE, hereby informs you of its privacy policy applied to personal data. The use of the website does not imply that the user must provide any information regarding their identity, and cannot be associated with a specific user by the company. In the event that personal data is provided, this data will be collected and used in accordance with the limitations and rights set out in the aforementioned regulation.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PROCESSING OF YOUR DATA?
DATA CONTROLLER: IVF SPAIN ALICANTE S.L.U (hereinafter IVF-Life)
CIF: B-54973227
Postal Address: Avenida de Ansaldo, no. 13, 03540, Alicante (Alicante)
Contact with the Data Protection Officer: dpo@ivf-life-group.com
DATA CONTROLLER: Instituto Vasco de Fertilidad (hereinafter IVF-Life)
CIF: B95575874
Postal Address: Avenida de Tolosa, 71-73, 20018 Donostia / San Sebastián (Spain)
Contact with the Data Protection Officer: dpo@ivf-life-group.com
DATA CONTROLLER: IVF Spain Madrid (hereinafter IVF-Life)
CIF: B 85138113
Postal Address: C/ de Manuel de Falla, 6-8, 28036 Madrid (Spain)
Contact with the Data Protection Officer: dpo@ivf-life-group.com
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- Connection, geolocation and navigation data.
- Commercial information if you are subscribed to our newsletter.
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WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE DATA?
The use of certain services or requests addressed to IVF-LIFE are subject to the prior completion of the corresponding form. All the information provided by the User through the forms on the Portal for the above purposes or any other must be truthful.
To this end, the User guarantees the authenticity of all the data provided and will keep the information provided to IVF-LIFE perfectly up to date so that it corresponds at all times to the User's real situation. In any case, the User will be solely responsible for any false or inaccurate statements made and for any damage caused to IVF-LIFE or third parties because of the information provided.
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Users who provide personal data of other natural persons are obliged to comply, in relation to said data, with all obligations deriving from the data protection regulations in force, and in particular the duty to inform and obtain the consent of the owner of the personal data.
When we request your personal data to provide access to certain website functionalities, we will mark the required fields to ensure the service can be delivered.
Please note that if you choose not to provide us with this data, you may not be able to complete your registration as a user or you may not be able to enjoy those services or functionalities.
For the processing of data, IVF-LIFE adopts the security levels required by current European and national legislation on the Protection of Personal Data. Notwithstanding the above, technical security in a medium such as the Internet is not impregnable and there may be leaks due to the malicious actions of third parties.
Our services are aimed at people of legal age, in the event that some of our services are specifically aimed at minors, IVF-LIFE will request the consent of parents or guardians for the collection of personal data or, where appropriate, for the automated processing of data as set out in current legislation. If the User is a minor, they are required to have the prior consent of their parents or guardians before proceeding to the inclusion of their personal data in the forms on the Website.
Initially, your personal data are provided directly by you, but in certain cases they may originate from centres, referring doctors and public health systems with which there is collaboration.
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Depending on how you interact with our website, we will process your personal data for the following purposes:
To deal with requests or requests that you make through the different means incorporated into our website.
We only process the personal data that is strictly necessary to manage or resolve your request or application.
For marketing purposes
To the extent that you subscribe to our newsletter, your personal data will be used for the periodic sending of company newsletters.
You should remember that you can unsubscribe from the newsletter, at any time and free of charge, by contacting us via the e-mail address of the data controller or by following the instructions that we will provide you with in each of our communications.
For the management of social networks
If you follow us or contact us through the different social networks in which we are present, we will process the data that you provide to us through these for the sole purpose of responding to your messages or comments and managing our contact list.
Usability and quality analysis to improve our services (cookies).
If you access our platform, we inform you that we will process your browsing data for analytical and statistical purposes, i.e. to understand how users interact with our platform and thus be able to make improvements to it. Likewise, we sometimes carry out quality actions and surveys aimed at finding out the degree of satisfaction of our customers and users and detecting those areas in which we can improve.
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The legal basis that allows us to process your personal data also depends on the purpose for which we process them, so we will find different legal bases under the following purposes:
Attention to requests for information.
The legal basis for the processing of your data is the informed consent to respond to queries raised through the website, forms and other means provided, which implies the prior reading and acceptance of these conditions by the interested party.
Marketing
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Social networking
The basis of legitimacy is the informed consent to respond to queries raised through the social network, as well as the time when you follow us and want to be part of our contact list.
Usability and quality analysis (cookies)
User consent to the use of cookies.
HOW LONG WILL WE KEEP YOUR DATA?
Request for information. We will process your data for as long as it is necessary to deal with your request or request and thereafter 1 year.
Marketing
We will process your data until you unsubscribe or cancel your subscription to the newsletter.
Social media
We will process your data for as long as it is necessary to deal with your request and for as long as you are a follower of our profile.
WILL WE SHARE YOUR DATA WITH THIRD PARTIES?
Personal data will not be transferred or communicated to third parties, except: legal obligation, we obtain your express consent, or we understand that there is a legitimate interest on our part, which will be duly communicated to you.
However, we inform you that we are present in the following social networks: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube, to keep our followers informed regarding the company's news and services.
You can access these social networks voluntarily and through the links available on the website itself or by accessing directly and on your own from your browser or installed app.
You should know that this website is not responsible for the use of the data that these social networks may make. However, when these data are generated in the social network and derive from an interaction with our website, we will not be held responsible for the use of such data.
In order to consent to our transfer from this website and the processing of your data, you should carefully read the privacy policy of the social network you wish to access:
Facebook: Facebook Privacy Policy
Instagram: Instagram Privacy Policy
LinkedIn: Linkedin Privacy Policy
YouTube: Youtube Privacy Policy
Spotify: Spotify Privacy Policy
In this way, before clicking on the logos of the SS. RR. present on our website, you can inform yourself and make a redirection with prior knowledge of the processing of your data and on a voluntary basis.
Other technological services:
- WhatsApp: WhatsApp Privacy Policy
- Companies of the "IVF LIFE Group" on the legal basis of consent or legitimate interest: Instituto Vasco de Fertilidad S.L.U., with NIF B95575874 and address at Avda Tolosa, 71-73 Donostia (Gipuzkoa), and IVF Spain Madrid S.L., with NIF B85138113 and address at Calle Manuel de Falla, 6-8, 28036 Madrid.
WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS WHEN YOU PROVIDE US WITH YOUR DATA?
We undertake to respect the confidentiality of your personal data and to guarantee you the exercise of your rights.
You may exercise them free of charge by sending us an e-mail to our address above, simply by providing proof of identity, the reason for your request and the right you wish to exercise.
If we consider it necessary in order to identify you, we may ask you for a copy of a document proving your identity. In particular, regardless of the purpose or the legal basis on which we process your data, you have the right to:
Ask us for access to the data we hold about you.
Ask us to rectify the data we already hold about you. Please note that by actively providing us with your personal information in any way, you warrant that it is true and accurate and you undertake to notify us of any changes or modifications to it.
Ask us to delete your data to the extent that they are no longer necessary for the purpose for which we need to process them as we have previously informed you, or to the extent that we no longer have the legitimacy to do so.
Ask us to restrict the processing of your data, which means that in certain cases you may ask us to temporarily stop processing the data or to keep it longer than necessary when you may need it. If you have given us your consent to process your data for any purpose, you also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
To receive the personal data concerning you that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable form and to transfer it to another data controller.
Moreover, where the processing of your data is based on our legitimate interest, you also have the right to object to the processing of your data.
Finally, we inform you of your right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority, with the Spanish Data Protection Agency.
CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY
We may change the information contained in this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we do so, we will notify you by various means through the Platform, or we will notify you at your email address when the change in question is significant to your privacy, so that you can review the changes, assess them and, where appropriate, object to or unsubscribe from any service or functionality.
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