ÀLTIMA and UIC sign an agreement to establish the We Care Chair: End-of-Life Care, affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

Barcelona, May 13, 2013

The International University of Catalonia (UIC) and ÀLTIMA, a funeral services company with over 300 years of history, are jointly launching the new We Care Chair: End-of-Life Care, which has been established at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University. The new chair, directed by Dr. Cristina Monforte, Head of Nursing at UIC, and Dr. Josep Porta, Professor of Medicine at UIC and Head of the Palliative Care Service at the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), will promote applied, interdisciplinary, and multidimensional research related to end-of-life care within the field of palliative care.

The goal of the new We Care Chair is to generate knowledge about the needs and care of people with advanced illnesses at the end of life and their families, aiming to contribute to the prevention and treatment of patients' issues. Dr. Cristina Monforte emphasizes that “the area of end-of-life is a sensitive field where physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of both patients and their families emerge.” Therefore, she highlights the importance of this chair in disseminating knowledge and raising awareness in society about the needs of end-of-life care.

Josep Ventura, General Director of ÀLTIMA, commented that “the establishment of the We Care university chair is the best way to channel the creation and transfer of knowledge to society to improve care for people in the final stages of life. At ÀLTIMA, we know that personalized and appropriate care for those nearing the end of life is crucial for initiating a proper grieving process.”

RESEARCH AREAS AND ACTIVITIES

Among the chair's research areas, four stand out: patient care (prevention, early detection, and treatment of issues related to direct patient care), ethics (decision-making at the end of life: factors influencing various ethical and spiritual aspects), social (the socio-cultural impact governing decision-making within the family, experiences of loss in the face of death, grief, etc.), and clinical hematology-oncology, which will specifically focus on studying the physical and psychosocial aspects related to patients with hematological malignancies.

Under the chair, studies will be conducted, dissemination days and conferences will be organized with the participation of international researchers, and training will be provided to professionals in the field of palliative care, as well as informal caregivers of patients in the final stages of life. “The chair ultimately aims to assist patients with advanced pathological processes, who will benefit from the knowledge provided by the research areas.” It also aims to benefit the families and caregivers of these patients; health science professionals, who will receive professional training to care for these patients; and young researchers, who will be able to conduct their projects and doctoral theses.

The First International Conference on “The Desire to Advance Death” is scheduled to take place in October.

Present at the signing of the agreement were the Rector of UIC, Dr. Pere Alavedra; Mr. Jordi Viñas, CEO of Àltima; and Mr. Josep Ventura, General Director of Àltima.

Institutional Collaboration

The chair has a network of collaboration with prestigious national and international institutions, such as ICO (Catalan Institute of Oncology), SECPAL (Spanish Society of Palliative Care), AECPAL (Association of Nursing in Palliative Care), and SCBCP (Catalan-Balearic Society of Palliative Care).

About UIC

The International University of Catalonia (UIC) was founded in 1997 with the aim of providing quality comprehensive education and promoting research to serve society. Linked to the business world and with a strong international character, it offers 14 undergraduate degrees and over a hundred postgraduate programs at its two campuses in Barcelona and Sant Cugat del Vallès.