Founded in 1955, among the oldest in Spain. It offers one of the most extensive ranges of services for treating all kinds of allergic conditions, ensuring patient safety and high-quality care. Particularly notable in the field of allergic pathologies are the unit for the diagnosis of respiratory occupational pathology, and the unit for bronchial hyperreactivity and asthma in sports. The new location is very handy for both patients and healthcare professionals. The centre treated 17,000 patients over the course of 2011. It has received the 2012 BEST IN CLASS National Award for the best Allergology Service in Quality of Care. From the very beginning, our service has helped train consultants, and currently does so as part of medical residency training. It has also collaborated, and continues to collaborate, with the School of Medicine at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, giving classes to Medicine students.

Accredited by the UEMS (European Union of Medical Specialists) for teaching in Allergology. The service is renowned for its research activities. We take part in clinical trials and research projects both domestically and abroad. All this is published in a range of scientific journals. Over the last 5 years, 125 scientific articles have been published in international journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, and more than 140 communications have been presented at conferences. Three doctoral theses have also been completed.

History

The Allergology Service at Fundación Jiménez Díaz was set up in 1955, when Clínica de la Concepción was founded by Dr Jiménez Díaz. At the time it was known as the Allergy and Respiratory Therapeutics Service. Years earlier, in 1929, Professor Jiménez Díaz had set up the allergic diseases unit at San Carlos Hospital, part of Universidad Complutense de Madrid. In 1932, he published a one-thousand-page book titled "Asthma and other Allergic Diseases". In 1947, he formed the Spanish Allergy Society, organising its first congress in 1949. In 1955, the service included the physicians: Dr Fernando Lahoz Navarro, Dr Antonio Sastre Castillo, Dr José Pérez Guerrero, and Dr Francisco Marín Núñez. It was later renamed Allergy and Pneumology. In 1982, it split from the Pneumology Service due to logistical and teaching reasons. Many specialists have trained at this centre down the years, and some of them have been (or still are) heads of service in units in Madrid and around the country.

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Professor Jiménez Díaz (centre), organiser of the First Spanish Allergy Society Congress. 1949


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In the photo, Professor Gunnar Johansson, discoverer of IgE, gives the 35th Jiménez Díaz Memorial Lecture 2003.