History
The Hospital Clinic of Barcelona is a teaching hospital, founded in 1906, and integrated in the network of public hospitals of Catalonia. It is the main public supplier of specialised health services in one of the four health areas of the city of Barcelona (i.e. Eixample Esquerra), which has a population of over 530,000 inhabitants. At the same time, it is a tertiary referral hospital which develops therapeutic lines of high complexity for patients from Catalonia but also for patients from the rest of Spain and from around the world.
The hospital has a long tradition of research which places it as a reference institution, both nationally and internationally. The hospital's research activities are mainly developed within the Biomedical Research Institute August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), and are managed by the Clinic Foundation for Biomedical Research. The Hospital Clinic is linked to the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona and carries out undergraduate and graduate teaching, as well as specialised training for residents and the continuous training of its own staff.
Profile
The Hospital Clinic of Barcelona has around 820 beds. The organisation of the hospital is based on medical and surgical institutes.
The Institute of Cancer and Hematologic Diseases consists of three departments (Medical Oncology, Hematology and Radiotherapy Oncology), and its main objective is to promote and coordinate comprehensive care of patients with cancer and blood diseases. Oncologic comprehensive care includes the prevention, diagnosis, supportive care and specific cancer therapy.
Specialities
The Unit of Supportive and Palliative Care in Cancer (USPCC) is part of the Medical Oncology Department and provides support within the Institute and to the other institutes of the hospital.
Palliative and Supportive Care
USPCC is a multidisciplinary team formed of oncologists, specialists in internal medicine, palliative care specialists, social workers and specifically trained nurses.
The Psychology department collaborates as consultant specialists. USPCC provides care at any stage of the disease, from diagnosis to advanced disease, focusing on the basic needs of the patient and shared decision making.
Its goals are to treat cancer complications and provide the best possible symptom control, psychosocial support and end-of-life care if death cannot be avoided.
The USPCC is organised in different areas of care: inpatient ward (24 beds); outpatient clinic of Palliative Care; hospital consultant of Palliative Care; and Continuous Care Unit (day hospital, 24/7 call centre and home support team).
Most of the research projects ongoing within USPCC are based on epidemiological and clinical studies. Our main research lines are:
- Factors influencing complexity in palliative care
- Thromboembolic complications in cancer
- Predictive factors of frailty in advanced cancer
- Symptomatic drug treatment (e.g. clinical trials in pain and other symptoms)
Academic
Our centre is the teaching hospital of the Faculty of Medicine (Clinic campus) of the University of Barcelona. We are involved in teaching undergraduate (University of Barcelona) and graduate (Palliative Care Master – Universities of Barcelona and Vic) students, as well as training of residents and fellows of our hospital.
Since 2020 we have created the Chair of Palliative Care University of Barcelona-Hospital Clínic, focused on improving undergraduate and postgraduate training, innovation and research. Dr. Albert Tuca, Associate Professor at the University of Barcelona, directs this chair (cancer line). From 2021 we will convocated a annual fellow-ship in advanced competencies in cancer supportive and palliative care for medical specialists.
Last update: November 2020
