Raquel Ibáñez holds a Biology degree (University of Oviedo, 2000) and a PhD in Biology (University of Oviedo, 2015). She developed her thesis project on the evaluation of the HPV testing in cervical cancer screening in Catalonia.

In 2000, she joined the Nutrition Department in the University of Oviedo where she started her research career working in nutrition and cancer in the elderly. In 2003, she joined the Cancer Epidemiology Research Program (PREC) in the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO). She was awarded a scholarship to study diet carcinogens and genetic susceptibility in the Spanish cohort of the EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) study.

Since 2006, her main research activity has been focused on cervical cancer screening. In 2006, she participated in the implementation and subsequent evaluation of the screening protocol in Catalonia. In this protocol the interval between negative cytologies changed from one year to three, and for the first time at public primary care level, the HPV test was introduced as a triage test (complementary test to further ascertain the risk of developing a precancerous cervical lesion). In 2014 and 2015 she participated in the development of the forthcoming 2019 recommendation guidelines for cervical cancer screening in the Public Health System in Catalonia. In this protocol, cytology is replaced by HPV as a primary screening test.

She has participated in several research lines, including the use of new tests in primary cervical cancer screening (evaluation HPV test as primary test in underscreened women), triage options for HPV-positive women (HPV test as triage of ASC-US or methylation as triage of HPV positive women), screening history of cervical cancer cases (evaluation of previous history of screening in women with a diagnosis of cervical cancer), or improvement of quality controls for screening tests (inter-laboratory reproducibility).

She is currently a Principal Investigator in UNIC-I, leading two research projects on cervical cancer screening: the evaluation of cervical self-sampling feasibility and acceptability among women aged 30-65 years and regularly attending cervical cancer screening; and the evaluation of individual HPV genotyping as triage test in cervical cancer screening. All the projects financed by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III of the Spanish Government.

She also participates in the implementation, evaluation and monitoring of the ongoing HPV-based cervical cancer screening protocol in Catalonia, promoted by Catalan Health Department and The Oncology Master Plan. She is also part of the work team for the implementation of self-sampling as device of collecting samples for the target population of screening aged over 30 years in Catalonia.

She is also committed to raise awareness on cervical cancer among health professionals and the general population by developing scientific material for educational online courses.