A Note on Continuity
Behind the scenes
Where this way of thinking was formed
Some platforms begin with an idea.
Others begin with a lineage.
The story behind social impact in health does not start with a company, a strategy, or a platform. It starts with a family for whom health was never just a profession, but a responsibility carried across time.
In 1925, my grandfather, Antoni Trilla Castellví, began his career at Bayer in Barcelona. He could not have known that this step would anchor a century-long relationship between our family and healthcare — one shaped not only by science and industry, but by a deep respect for the societal role of innovation.
For more than five decades, he dedicated his life to that work. His aspiration was simple and demanding at the same time: to see doctors in the family. That aspiration became reality through my uncle, a cardiologist, and my father, who devoted more than fifty years to medicine as a gynecologist, obstetrician, and pathologist in the public health system.
What drew my attention was the space around medicine — the space where decisions are made about which innovations advance, which stall, and which ultimately reach patients.
I followed the same path and trained as a medical doctor.
Yet early on, it became clear to me that my place would not be inside the hospital.
The space where strategy, capital, regulation, and responsibility intersect.
That curiosity led me to complement medicine with business training and to work in the pharmaceutical industry during the 1990s, at companies such as Sanofi and Grupo Ferrer. Those years were formative. They revealed both the power of innovation and the fragility of its translation into real-world impact when systems are misaligned.
During my university years, I met Marta Fernández — also a medical doctor. From the beginning, we shared a conviction: that improving health outcomes was not only about clinical excellence, but about how innovation is structured, partnered, and sustained over time.
In 2002, we co-founded trifermed.
It was not created as a consulting firm, a brokerage, or an investment vehicle. It was an attempt — imperfect and evolving — to work alongside organizations navigating complexity through strategic partnerships rather than control. Some ideas worked. Others did not. What endured was a way of thinking: that health innovation only creates lasting impact when strategy, execution, and societal context remain aligned.
Over the years, that thinking took multiple forms.
It was applied through direct strategic responsibility within organizations operating under real market pressure. It was institutionalized through initiatives designed to address different dimensions of impact — execution, recognition, and cultural expression. And it was continuously challenged and enriched through engagement with governments, academia, foundations, and emerging ecosystems, where influence matters more than ownership.
For a long time, these dimensions coexisted without a single name.
social impact in health (sih) emerged later — not as a parent structure, and not as a holding company, but as a way of recognizing and stewarding what had already taken shape.
trifermed was the first enduring expression of a way of thinking that later crystallized into sih.
Today, sih brings together that accumulated experience with a clear sense of continuity. It reflects not only my own trajectory, but also the people who actively carry this work forward: Marta, leading trifermed with operational rigor and long-term vision; Pol, shaping how impact is communicated and understood through Social Image; and a new generation growing up with health, science, and responsibility as part of their natural landscape.
This is not about legacy as inheritance.
It is about legacy as stewardship*.
Stewardship
*In this context, stewardship does not mean control or ownership. It means taking responsibility for coherence, intent, and continuity over time — protecting purpose from erosion, ensuring alignment across initiatives, and acting in trust on behalf of something that must endure beyond individual projects, roles, or generations.
sih exists to ensure that purpose is not diluted by execution, that strategy remains accountable to society, and that future horizons remain open even as initiatives mature.
If you are here because this perspective resonates — because you are navigating complexity that does not fit neatly into roles, projects, or timelines — then this page has served its purpose.
The rest belongs to conversation.