Dra. Azucena García Palacios

Director of LABPSITEC – Director of the Psychological Assistance Service

azucena@uji.es
Despacho NB2110DD

Dr Azucena García Palacios is University Professor in Psychopathology and director of the LABPSITEC research group and the Psychological Assistance Service of the Universitat Jaume I since 2018.

Her research is framed in Psychopathology and the improvement of psychological treatments, mainly for emotional disorders, personality disorders and chronic pain in adults. The main line of the LABPSITEC group is the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT’s) such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), mobile devices, and the use of the Internet in the field of Clinical and Health Psychology. He has led and participated in more than 30 research projects funded by national entities and the European Union. It is noteworthy that LABPSITEC has received continuous funding from the various EU Framework Programs (Framework Programs V, VI and VII; Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe) since 2001. We also belong to one of the CIBER actions of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, specifically the CIBERobn “Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition”: CB06 (03/0052).

In terms of publications, she is the author of more than 200 articles, most of them in international journals with impact. She has also contributed to the training of researchers by directing 20 doctoral theses and supervising predoctoral and postdoctoral contracts.

One aspect that characterizes the research led by Professor García Palacios and the LABPSITEC group itself is the focus on the transfer of scientific results to society. Therefore, their research is carried out as far as possible in the health services to which patients routinely go, for example, the group collaborates with hospitals such as the General Hospital of Castellón, the Arnau de Vilanova Hospital in Valencia or the Vall d’Hebrón Hospital in Barcelona, among others. The  software developed by the group has given rise to various intellectual and industrial property rights, paving the way for numerous transfer actions.

Among the medium and long-term objectives are to carry out psychopathological studies and multicentre therapeutic efficacy studies within the framework of coordinated projects and European projects in order to reinforce scientific quality, achieve the transfer of the results obtained to routine clinical practice and contribute to a better positioning of Spanish research in the international arena.