This centre is located next to the Cudeca Foundation's Palliative Care Centre and will train social and healthcare professionals to improve the quality of palliative care. The centre has 3 floors of facilities dedicated to training and research in palliative care.

Today, Wednesday 20 April, Cudeca Foundation inaugurated the Yusuf Hamied Centre, the headquarters of the Cudeca Institute for Studies and Research in Palliative Care.

The main objective of this centre is to train social and healthcare professionals at all professional levels to improve the quality of care in palliative care, as well as to develop innovative models of intervention and research.

The Centre will thus fulfil two objectives: to train future specialists in Palliative Care through teaching, research and awareness-raising, and to finance part of Cudeca's healthcare work. In addition, this Centre will be a complementary source of income, which will help to cope with the increase in the number of patients treated.

The event was attended by Dr. Yusuf Hamied; Dr. Miguel Angel Guzmán, Manager of the Andalusian Health Service, Dr. Jose Angel Narváez, Rector of the University of Malaga, Dr. Juan Pablo Leiva, President of SECPAL (Spanish Society of Palliative Care), Dr. Katherine Pettus, IA Director of Cudeca, and Dr. Juan Pablo Leiva, President of SECPAL (Spanish Society of Palliative Care). Katherine Pettus, Director at IAHPC (International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care), Mr. Víctor Navas, Mayor of Benalmádena; and on behalf of the Cudeca Foundation, Ricardo Urdiales, President; Dr. Marisa Martín, Manager and Medical Director; Mr. Rafael Olalla, Deputy Manager and Financial Director and Mr. Ángel Bataller, Head of Cudeca Institute.

Dr. Yusuf Hamied

Dr. Yusuf Hamied, born in 1936, enrolled in 1954 at Christ's College, Cambridge, and studied Natural Sciences. He completed his PhD in Organic Chemistry and then joined the Indian pharmaceutical company CIPLA, which had been founded by his father, Khwaja Abdul Hamied in 1935, taking over its management from 1972 and growing it to become one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Since its inception, Cipla has aimed to make India self-sufficient in pharmaceuticals and make its products available to the less fortunate at affordable prices.

On 31 March 2010, Dr. Yusuf Hamied and his wife Farida visited Cudeca's Palliative Care Centre for the first time, and from that very moment there was a sense of identification and connection with Joan Hunt and her work.

Since 2018, Dr. Yusuf Hamied, as a commitment to the Cudeca Foundation, has been promoting and supporting the construction and equipping of the Study and Research Centre that bears his name and is the headquarters of the Cudeca Institute. Dr. Yusuf Hamied's collaboration is not limited to the Cudeca Institute, but he has also been collaborating with large annual donations to the Foundation for more than 10 years and providing much of what is needed for the upcoming construction of Cudeca's Paediatric Palliative Care Unit, which will provide a suitable environment for the specialised comprehensive care and compassionate accompaniment of children and adolescents, as well as their families.

His extraordinary generosity and commitment to Cudeca Foundation, which is none other than his own commitment to human suffering at the end of life, has been a constant that culminates today with this wonderful transformational gift, the Yusuf Hamied Centre. Those who study, teach and research at this centre will be inspired by the life and actions of Dr. Yusuf Hamied, to work hard, to share their ideas, to seek solutions and to make a difference, as he did, the one capable of changing the world, of changing lives.

Yusuf Hamied Centre, home of the Cudeca Institute for Studies and Research in Palliative Care

Since its inception, the Cudeca Foundation has trained professionals in the social and health care sector at all levels and in all branches, in order to contribute to the improvement of the quality of care at the end of life. The Cudeca Institute for Studies and Research in Palliative Care is able to give specific form to this objective, offering training activities of different formats and durations, both online and on-site, postgraduate courses in Palliative Care or specific courses, including on-site internships at Cudeca's own centre with its professionals, for all professionals who wish to share CUDECA's "special way of caring".

In addition to training activities, with a strong focus on both national and Latin American target groups, Cudeca Institute promotes and participates in innovative research projects as part of international networks that contribute to the spread of palliative care and ensure its continuous improvement.

The affiliation of the Cudeca Foundation as the first associated group of the Institute of Biomedical Research of Malaga (IBIMA) is Cudeca's recognition of its capacity to generate knowledge derived from the collaboration between clinical research programmes and patient care.

The Centre, which is located on land annexed to Cudeca's Palliative Care Centre on loan from Benalmádena Town Council, has three floors to cover all the services required for its training and research work, making it a world leader in its field. There is no other space in Spain that covers these needs in a space that also integrates healthcare work.

The building is divided into three floors, all with large windows that generate a very bright space with natural light.

Floor 0, with a surface area of 285 m2, fully equipped with offices, workcenter, library, study and concentration area, large terraces...

A floor -1, of 450 m2, equipped with a meeting room, 5 classrooms of different sizes, vending area and kitchen. These 5 classrooms are separated by movable partitions that soundproof the space and can be converted into a single large classroom with capacity for 100 people or up to five classrooms of different sizes with capacity for between 60 and 15 people. It also has a specific clinical simulation area and a space designed for simultaneous translation equipment.

The second floor, with a surface area of 469 m2, with gardens for student recreation and its own car park, will also house an auditorium for up to 150 people, which will be built in the coming months.

For more information about the Cudeca Institute for Studies and Research in Palliative Care visit https://cudecaformacion.org/