The Department of Autoimmune Diseases (Servei de Malalties Autoimmunes) was created in 1995 as a consequence of the wide experience in the management, teaching and research on Systemic Autoimmune Diseases that the Department of Internal Medicine (Hospital Clínic, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain) had acquired during the last 2 decades. The Department works as a referral centre in Catalonia and Spain for those patients suffering for all kind of Systemic Autoimmune Diseases, specially Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Antiphospholipid Syndrome, Sjögren´s Syndrome and Systemic Vasculitis.