Subsequently, following his family's advice he moved to Paris to specialize in dermatology at the Hospital Saint Louis, then stayed for a period in Strasbourg and Milan where he received training from other leading scientists.
In the wake of the Spanish Civil War, he traveled in 1936 to Colombia to run the leprosarium Aguas de Dios.
His extensive scientific activity was reflected in more than five hundred publications, attaining, furthermore, numerous national and international distinctions.
His appointment as an expert in the Venerology and Treponematosis Section of the World Health Organization, was a recognition of his status as a specialist in sexually transmitted diseases.
[3] The medical eponym Vilanova-Cañadell syndrome is named for Vilanova and Dr. Josep Maria Cañadell i Vidal.