Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda-Segovia de Arana University Hospital (IDIPHISA)

The Health Research Institute of the Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda-Segovia de Arana University Hospital (hereinafter, IDIPHISA) was established on September 28^th, 2012 and has subsequently been updated with successive agreements. The entities that make up IDIPHISA are: the Community of Madrid through the Council of Health and the General Directorate of Research, Teaching and Documentation, the Madrid Health Service with the “Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda” University Hospital (hereinafter, HUPHM ) as a basic nucleus and the “Infanta Cristina” University Hospital (hereinafter, HUIC), the Autonoma University of Madrid and the Foundation for Biomedical Research of the Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda University Hospital (managing entity of IDIPHISA).

The IDIPHISA is conceived as a space dedicated to promoting, developing and integrating research of excellence in the field of health sciences, with special attention to that of a cooperative, transversal and multidisciplinary nature that promotes translational research in favor of the well-being and health of citizenship through constant improvement of care activity to increase the quality and life expectancy of the population.

IDIPHISA has human and material resources that ensure the development of translational research of excellence, converting the results of basic, clinical and epidemiological research to into results that directly benefit humans in terms of health services and public health. In this regard, IDIPHISA has governing bodies (Governing Board and Delegated Commission), consultation bodies (External Scientific Committee, Research Commission and Mixed Monitoring Commission) and advisory bodies (Research Ethics Committee, Biological Safety Committee, Ethics Committee on Animal Experimentation, Innovation Commission, Training Commission, Quality Committee). Furthermore, up to 495 biomedical researchers are working in the Institute distributed in 43 groups (15 of them are consolidated and other 10 are emergent) focusing their efforts in 5 different specific areas, that are:

• Oncology-Hematology.
• Cardiovascular, Digestive and Rheumatological Biopathology.
• Surgical Research, Transplants and Health Technologies.
• Neurosciences and Sense Organs.
• Immunology and Genetics.

In terms of material resources, the most important infrastructures of the Institute are the Common Platforms for biomedical research. Among them, we can find:

• Biobank, as a research support platform that acts as a link between donors, clinicians and researchers, in order to ensure safe and effective treatment of biological samples and their associated data.
• Biostatistics Unit, that provides methodological support for researchers, improving the procedures to carry it out, performing data analysis and reporting and helping in the design of observational and intervention studies.
• Clinical Trials Unit of the Clinical Pharmacology Service provides support for the design, organization and conduct of clinical trials with medicines and medical devices, collaborating with hospital researchers in those ethical, regulatory, methodological and logistical aspects that they need so that the studies are carried out in accordance with the required standards. It works in closely coodination with Spanish Clinical Research Network (SCReN) and the European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN).
• Care Research Unit is one of the first Support Units for Nursing Research launched in Spain and the first one in Madrid. The challenges set from the beginning were aimed at promoting Nursing Research, innovating in the management of research in care, motivating a greater number of professionals to lead research in care and promoting research training for nursing professionals.
• Technical Support Units whose objective is to provide quality technological support to the researchers of the Institute in essential areas in biomedical research that, due to their complexity or cost, cannot be met by individual groups. Thus, in addition to providing technological support by highly qualified personnel promoting the investigation of quality; equipment performance is improved and resources are made profitable by improving their efficiency. Although the main objective of these units is to provide internal service to the groups of the institute, they are also open to collaborations with groups from other institutions, both public and private. These Technical Support Units are made up of:
  • Cytometry and cell separation unit
  • Cell culture unit
  • Confocal Microscopy
  • DNA Sequencing and Molecular Biology