Through INADVANCE (Patient-centred pathways of early palliative care, supportive ecosystems and appraisal standard), the aim is to design effective, sustainable over time intervention programs that can be replicated in various care and cultural contexts that improve the quality of life of patients. Likewise, the project is one of the major concerns of Europe, since it aims to reduce the socioeconomic impact of chronic diseases.

The consortium of the project is made up of eleven high-level academic and technological partners from seven European countries, under the coordination of the Polibienestar Institute. Professor Jorge Garcés Ferrer and the researcher Ascensión Doñate Martínez are in charge of the program.

The experts involved in INADVANCE will carry out five clinical trials in Valencia, Thessaloniki (Greece), Lisbon (Portugal), Leeds and Inverness (United Kingdom), in which patients and relatives, as well as informal caregivers and healthcare professionals will participate. To offer more specialised attention, the design of interventions will be based on patient-centred care, so that the research group will design these actions with the affected person and their relatives, and will take into account their needs and preferences.

INADVANCE is one of the ten projects financed from among the 45 proposals received under the call “Novel patient-centred approaches for survivorship, palliation and / or end-of-life care” of the Horizon 2020 program of the European Commission. Polibienestar is currently preparing a request to the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for its accreditation as a María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence, a fact that would be an important recognition for the research carried out in the area of Social Sciences of the University of Valencia.

Among the INADVANCE partnerships there are five members of the academic and research field (Polibienestar, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of Leeds and Erasmus Medical Center), three healthcare service providers (La Fe Hospital, Santa Casa da Misericordia of Amadora and NHS Highland), two Pymes (Salumedia and Nively) and an organisation that is dedicated to claiming the rights and needs of older people (AGE Platform Europe) at European level.

Polibienestar

The Research Institute of Social Welfare Policy (Polibienestar) it is an international reference institute, specialised in research, innovation and social technology, technical advice and training in the field of social policies. It is directed by the Professor of Social Policy at the University of Valencia Jorge Garcés, who has a research career of more than 30 years and has held the Prince of Asturias Chair at Georgetown University (United States).

Polibenestar is made up of an interdisciplinary team of researchers with experience in both national and European research projects. At present, the institute works in more than 20 of these projects, mostly financed by the European Commission.