Under the slogan “Valuing Life”, the city of Palma hosted the 13th International Congress of the Spanish Society of Palliative Care (SECPAL), from 9 to 11 June. Various cross-sectional issues were discussed in education, teaching and research, as well as the recently approved law on the regulation of euthanasia in Spain.

Dr Joaquim Julià, vice-president of SECPAL, co-director of the WeCare Chair of UIC Barcelona and head of the Palliative Care Service of the Badalona Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), was responsible for running the inaugural session and moderating the round table: “What is new about the same as always?” which discussed aspects such as pain, new types of neuroleptics, and dyspnoea. Dr Josep Porta, Senior Consultant of the WeCare Chair of UIC Barcelona, moderated the round table “Learning from other professionals: paediatricians, geriatricians and physiotherapists”.

During the sessions dedicated to communications presentations, Dr Andrea Rodríguez, WeCare Chair researcher and lecturer in the UIC Barcelona Faculty of Humanities, gave the presentation “CO21. Autonomy and control in the desire to die in patients with advanced diseases: an integrative systematic review”. Within the framework of the conference, Dr Deborah Moreno, head of the e-oncology programme of the Catalan Institute of Oncology and researcher of the WeCare Chair, presented the paper ‘’ Design and development of an e-health form for the multidimensional assessment of palliative care in a monographic cancer institute’’.

Finally, throughout the final day of the congress, Dr Josep Porta participated in the round table “How to research palliative care and not die in the process...”, and spoke about ‘how palliative care research can hold its own in the pursuit of excellence’.