Àltima, UIC Barcelona, and the ICO renew their commitment to research and dissemination on end-of-life care

• The agreement establishing the WeCare Chair: End-of-Life Care, created in 2013, has been renewed.
• Since its inception, the Chair has published numerous scientific articles and theses and has organised three international workshops.
• The Chair has an international working group composed of researchers from six European countries.

Barcelona, 12th April 2016.- The Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC Barcelona), Àltima, a funeral services company, and the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) have renewed the agreement for another three years that established the WeCare Chair: End-of-Life Care in 2013. The Chair, led by Dr. Cristina Monforte, Director of Nursing at UIC Barcelona, and Dr. Josep Porta, Professor of Medicine at the university and Head of the Palliative Care Service at ICO, and coordinated by Dr. Albert Balaguer, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at UIC Barcelona, promotes applied, interdisciplinary, and multidimensional research on end-of-life care in the field of palliative care.

Much of the Chair’s research has focused on Death Wish (DW), a phenomenon experienced by some patients with advanced illnesses that has not been thoroughly studied from a multidisciplinary perspective. The Chair addresses DW from the perspective of those who suffer from it and their immediate surroundings. Methodologically, the integrated use of qualitative and quantitative techniques is facilitating significant advances in understanding the phenomenon. Understanding the "Sense of Life" (SL) as one of the losses experienced by these patients has led researchers to delve deeper into its knowledge and analyse its relationship with DW. Since its creation, the Chair has presented around forty papers at conferences, published fifteen articles in indexed journals, defended two doctoral theses, and is working on five more. It has also organised three international workshops and created an international working group.

Present at the signing ceremony were Mr. Jordi Viñas, CEO of Àltima; Mr. Josep Ventura, General Director; and Mr. Santi Cruylles, Deputy to the Management Committee. Representing UIC Barcelona were Dr. Xavier Gil, Rector; Mr. Alberto Canals, Manager; Dr. Josep Porta, Director of the Chair; Dr. Albert Balaguer, Coordinator of the Chair; and Mr. Óscar Carbó and Ms. Edurne Díaz, Director and Head of the Knowledge Transfer and Research Valorisation Centre at UIC Barcelona.