Juan José Segura-Sampedro

Segura-Sampedro and his team first described the balconing phenomenon in 2017 and published their data in a paper entitled Balconing: An alcohol-induced craze that injures tourists. Characterization of the phenomenon. in the journal Injury.[4] The researchers pointed to alcohol abuse as the main risk factor to suffer this severe trauma. He also pointed out that Irish and British people were the most likely to suffer this kind of trauma, triggering different campaigns against alcohol during holidays[5] and close to balconies[6] in Ireland, United Kingdom[7] and Spain.[8] After the paper was published, a preventive campaign was developed in collaboration with the British Foreign office where Segura-Sampedro talked to British youth on how to avoid injuries and not become a victim of this phenomenon. After this, Segura-Sampedro participated in similar campaigns on Irish RTE television,[9] and on British BBC television where he explained balconing and its consequences on the Victoria Derbyshire programme.[10]

The main discoveries of Segura-Sampedro et al. findings regarding balconing where the subset of population who suffers it, male tourists from northern Europe, and its relation with alcohol and substance abuse. These findings have conducted Balearic authorities towards new policies to control alcohol consumption as they look for reducing the spate of accidents. The Balearic government is concerned that “all-in” package holidays, might encourage drunkenness and antisocial dangerous behaviour.[11]

He conducted his research as part of the “Advanced surgery and transplant, cell therapy and bioengineering applied to surgery” research group of Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS). There, he focused his inquiry on alginate-based biomaterials and growth factors for tissue regeneration, his work on this field, using PRGF in fistula-in-ano, granted him a PhD Cum laude by the University of Seville in 2016.[12]

At Son Espases University Hospital, his research was focused on oncologic surgery (cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC)[13] and trauma surgery.[14]

He has developed and patented an app for surgical patients[15] and a new packing system to control hepatic bleeding after blunt trauma.[16][17]

He has a Hirsch index of 11[18] and has published more than 60 research papers in peer-review journals.[19]

In 2018 he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Calvià Police Force, for his outstanding contribution to improving the safety of visitors[20] with his research and campaigns against uncivil tourism in Calvià.[21][22]

He was one of the Spanish scientists invited to the Singularity University Summit in Spain due to his advances in telematic follow-up for surgical patients.[23]

He was founder and current editor of the academic journal Annals of Mediterranean Surgery.[24]

He is a committee member of the European Society of Surgical Oncology[25] and a member of the Spanish Chapter of the World Society for Emergency Surgery.[26]

• Factibilidad y seguridad del plasma rico en factores de crecimiento (PRGF) en el tratamiento de la fístula anal criptoglandular [Feasibility and safety of plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF) in the treatment of cryptoglandular anal fistula] (in Spanish) (2nd ed.). Createspace Independent Pub. 2016-05-10. ISBN 9781537241920.
• Tratamiento actual del tumor neuroendocrino de recto [Current treatment of neuroendocrine tumor of the rectum] (in Spanish) (2nd ed.). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. 2011-11-01. ISBN 9781530512492.