The Cochrane Collaboration was awarded the 2004 Premio Homenot Internacional de la Sanidad for excellence in health care research at an Awards Ceremony in the Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona, Spain. The ceremony was attended by both the Spanish and the Catalonia Ministers of Health. Previous winners of this prestigious award include the British Medical Journal and the Harvard School of Public Health. In her speech, Sra Ana Pastor, Minister of Health for Spain, praised The Cochrane Collaboration "for its magnificent work and contributions by performing systematic reviews of health interventions and facilitating the accessibility of these to health professionals and to citizens". In his speech of acknowledgement on behalf of all recipients of awards at the ceremony, Dr Felipe Sa'nchez de la Cuesta, pharmacologist and winner of the Homenot Nacional award for 2003, remarked "we will never be grateful enough to The Cochrane Collaboration for its efforts and initiatives in promoting evidence-based medicine".