Our Founder
Dr. Alejandro Cardeña y Martínez
PhD, MScN, MPhil, MPhit, CErg, NT, NHC.
I am a medical researcher trained in algology —the medicine of pain—, cognitive ergonomics, clinical nutritional therapy and orthomolecular phytotherapy, with over 15 years of experience working at the intersection of medicine, technology, and the humanities. My work bridges complex diagnostics, integrative nutrition, and therapeutic systems design.
I hold a cum laude PhD in the epistemology of pain neuropsychiatry, specialising in complex epidiagnostics and the history and philosophy of emotions. My academic formation includes 4 master’s degrees in clinical nutrition, advanced orthomolecular therapy, philosophy of science and neurotechnology, and contemporary phytotherapy. Throughout my career, I have taught postgraduate university courses in applied medicine, clinical philosophy, and pain epistemology, and have led interdisciplinary research teams across Europe and USA companies.
I founded Kalavik and its research core, where I coordinate the integration of AI-assisted contemporary research, phytotherapy, and nutritional therapy. In both academic and practical settings, my vision is grounded in integrative therapeutic coaching relationships, scientific rigor, and the ethics of listening.
Core Beliefs
If I have learned anything, it’s this: I belong to a tradition of epistemologists, historians, clinicians and anatomists that ran their life with the motto of Academic Humility, people that devoted their intelectual and professional attitude to learning for helping, more precisely because no machine can be substitute for the subtleties of understanding a person in pain. Instead, by combining science, history, and compassion, when we allow therapeutic presence to be precise, and research to be empathetic, we begin to change not just outcomes, but how healing feels.
This is the future we are building at Kalavik. It is scientifically attuned, emotional, ethical, and deeply human. It is designed by evidence, created for care, and it begins, always, with listening.
A Personal
Journey
The Story behind my Work
There is a moment in every practitioner’s life —often quiet, often late— when one realises that healing is not a formula to apply, but a relationship to rebuild. Between person and body and their mindset. Between symptoms and stories. Between data and meaning. My work begins there.
Many years ago my mother called me when I was at work in a different country. Alone, from the hospital, she told me she had a terminal cancer, no treatment was to be given, just simple palliative care and words of sorrow. I came back home, and took care of my mum for 3 months, because that was all the time I had to say goodbye to a person I loved with my full heart. Cancer devasted her in 8 different systems, her pain was present everyday, and growing, with opioids taking her mind away most often than not. I don’t remember feeling less useful and ignorant in my life, not knowing how this situation could be better, could be less traumatic, less painful and smooth for her. In such moments, all the horrors of a person that studies pain become a reality, what an incredible irony.
Two years later, grief passed, I started to think in the things I could have done, and decided to move forward into a different kind of attention, one more integrative, one that could have given more tools, for her, for me, for us. I remembered that one thing that at least made her happy was the little aperitivo I offered her, which was something she couldn’t miss as a good Spaniard. Food, flavours, the pleasure of the vinegary pickles, the olives, some nuts, a bit of cheese . . . My family’s passion for food and cooking has always amazed me, and definitely made me who I am: I get anxious if I can’t cook for a few days. I realised the way my mum was being really helped, was through food, even when there’s nothing to do, this was a rock for her. Her son preparing a little detail, a nice and healthy detail that would made her happy for a moment of degustation. This was also the case for one of our last Christmas together, a sweet memory to share where food enriched our lives.
Much later I connected the dots: what if I could bring forward my ideas on research and my passion for food into a clinical environment, accompanying pain, cancer, pathologies of many origins, and learn to understand deeply how people could feel a bit happier, but healthier too. I immersed myself in integrative nutrition, phytotherapy, the waves of new research in clinical mycotherapy, nootropics and the psychiatric changes in health all this was helping to evolve. This is how I discovered I needed to create such a space, to give more opportunities to people that might need better tools, that might need explanations, clear guidance, fresh evidence turned into a delicious and personalised foodstyle. This is how I discovered I was going to create Kalavik. My wish with it is to honour her and our passion for food that enriches us.
My Trajectory
What Happens when We Listen?
My background is interdisciplinary by necessity, not by fashion. Personally, I was extremely happy during the years studying my PhD. It was on the epistemology of clinical medicine, epidiagnostics, and the neuropsychiatry of pain. It was awarded with honours for being the first thesis on the subject in Europe. It taught me that language matters; not just in how we speak about illness, but in how we build the systems that attempt to explain and resolve it. My early research asked what happens when pain doesn’t fit the protocol. Two answers arise: we either blame the patient, or we redesign the protocol. I chose the latter.
Over the past 15 years, I have moved between the hard lines of medical research and the more subtle textures of human experience. I’ve studied how pain resists categorisation. I’ve written clinical systems that try to understand it. I’ve sat with patients who have had every test, and still no name for what they carry. What unites all of this is a commitment to make medicine more responsive, more intelligent, and more emotionally honest.
I have led international teams in user and patient experience and cognitive ergonomics for platforms used by Apple, Repsol, BlackRock, and Harvard; I have co-created tools for digital psychiatry, AI-assisted diagnostics, and online group therapy. My work has always moved between clinical practice and design, ranging from academic settings to tech hubs like Crytek in Frankfurt and Diligent in Galway and Dublin, developing complex tools and AI systems that help listen before they predict.
Nowadays technology is here to help us more than ever to listen, to humanise and empathise. Along this technological focus, I’ve never looked away from bodies, plural, complex, wounded, diverse. More recent studies have put me in contact with fresh and modernised integrative views on clinical nutrition, orthomolecular protocols, functional nutrition, microbiome, phytotherapy. This commitment now takes shape in Kalavik, an international studio for advanced integrative nutrition and clinical research.
Translation
A note for a gentle practice that has accompanied me throughout my career: translation. In my research and clinical trajectory, translation has allowed me to listen through difference — between what a patient says and what they truly mean; between what a diagnostic test reveals and what it feels like to live the experience; between reflections that move beyond cultural intuition. Having worked and lived in several countries, including Spain, Germany, Poland, and Ireland, and having studied and practiced in both Spanish and English, across diverse medical and philosophical traditions, I have come to understand that translation is one of the most fundamental therapeutic acts in our field. I have collaborated in the drafting, editing, supervision, and review of publications on a wide range of topics — from Smart Education within EdTech platforms, to medical practice and epidiagnostics, as well as technological development and the role of AI in clinical epidiagnostic contexts.
Teaching & Mentoring
For me, teaching is not about delivering answers, but about accompanying and safeguarding the curiosity of the initial questions that so often fades as we accumulate information.
Teaching is a vocation. It is a practice rooted in dialogue, discovery and depth. My students learned not only to identify organs, but to read bodies. To understand how a diagnosis is constructed. To recognise that pain is rarely confined to a single point, but is often embedded within a story.
Whether working with students or professionals in training, I seek to cultivate a space where curiosity without guilt, rigour and doubt without shame can coexist with the discipline of critical study—particularly for those who build bridges between medicine, design, philosophy and technology. I walk alongside my students, reminding them that their perspective matters more than their method—which evolves—and that this perspective must remain close to the person, rather than solely to the disease that may temporarily limit them.
Like my mother, who was a Montessori educator, I regard teaching as a shared and creative enquiry, not a one-way transmission of knowledge. At the Faculty of Medicine of the UCM, I taught applied neuroanatomy, philosophy of emotions and the neuropsychiatry of pain within postgraduate programmes. Rather than presenting these subjects as static frameworks, I approached them as lived experiences, helping students to understand what pain feels like, how diagnoses are formed, and how bodies first speak through stories, habits and uncertainties—before symptoms emerge. Pedagogical approaches employed included Problem-Based Learning, the evolution of ideas, the flipped classroom model, pragmatic reflection, integration through clinical cases and case-based clarification, alongside supervised postgraduate research mentoring.
Studies & Certifications
• 2025-2026, ESI. Master’s Degree: “Diploma in Evidence-Based Integrative Nutritional Supplementation (9th Edition, 720h, including 48h of practical clinical case work)”. Perspective: Integrative Medicine and Orthomolecular Therapy.
• 2025, University of Arizona, Andrew Weil Centre for Integrative Medicine: “Integrative Pain Management”.
• 2024, CEU Cardenal Herrera University + Tech Global University. Master's Degree: “Advances in Applied Phytotherapy” (12 months, 60 ECTS). Perspective: Pharmacological and Phytochemical. Awarded under FUNDEUM Autumn 2025 Scholarship.
• 2025, ESI School of Integrative Health. Diploma: “Professional Course in Microbiota and Health”. Directed by Prof. Mar Alonso, specialist in Quantum Biophysics. Expert in NCA, and international speaker in the field of microbiota.
• 2025, ESI School of Integrative Health. Diploma: “Diagnostics and Clinical Analysis in Integrative Medicine (3rd Edition)”. 124h.
• 2025, ESI School of Integrative Health. Diploma: “Heavy Metals, Toxins, and Disease Prevention (3rd Edition)”. Directed by: Prof. Dr Sergio Mejía, Expert in Phlebology and Clinical Metal Toxicology. Member of the IBCMT (International Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology). Specialised in Chelation & Ozone Therapies, Cardiology, and Orthomolecular Medicine; and Prof. Mar Alonso, specialist in Quantum Biophysics. Expert in NCA, and international speaker in the field of microbiota, autism and toxic metals. 40h.
• 2025, TECH University. Master’s degree: “Clinical Nutrition”, awarded by TECH University and the Panamericana Medical School (NBA’s TECH University). Awarded under the FUNDEUM Summer 2025 Scholarship. 1800h, 60 ECTS.
• 2024, TECH University. Diploma: “Nutritional Therapy and Phytotherapy (Herbal Medicine)” awarded by TECH University and the Panamericana Medical School (NBA’s TECH University). Includes Biological Practice in Nutritional Therapy (150 hours of theoretical and practical training, 6 ECTS credits).
• 2024, IINH International Institute of Nutrition & Health. Course Certificate: “Self-Compassion Techniques for Healthcare Communities”. Directed by Julia Sweetman, Nutrition Therapist & Mentor, from the International Centre for Mindful Self-Compassion & IINH.
• 2024, IINH International Institute of Nutrition & Health. Course Certificate: “Nutrition & Lifestyle For Mental Health (15h CPD)”.
• 2024, IINH International Institute of Nutrition & Health. Course Certificate “Smart Eating for Fertility & Pregnancy (30h CPD)”.
• 2024, IINH International Institute of Nutrition & Health. Diploma BTEC4: “Professional Nutrition & Health Coaching SRF Programme” (BTEC L4 with 3 Practical Case Studies of 3 months each).
• 2019, PhD Cum Laude: Doctorate awarded by the following universities: The University of Salamanca; University of Santiago de Compostela; University of Granada; University of La Laguna; University of Valencia; University of Valladolid; University of A Coruña. Diploma: PhD in the Doctoral Programme in Logic and Philosophy of Science, with a specialisation in Clinical Medicine, Algology, and Neuropsychiatry of Pain. Recipient of a special award distinction for being the first thesis on the subject published in Europe. Thesis title: “Pain Assessment in 21st-Century Neuropsychiatry: Introducing Plural, Perspective, Situated Epistemic Frames for the Epidiagnostic Characterisation of Pain Experiences”. Directed by evolutionary neuroanatomist Prof. Dr Ángel Luis Peña Melián, Tenured Professor of the Department of Human Anatomy and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, UCM. Supervisor: Prof. Dr Ana Cuevas Badallo, Director of the National Centre for the Studies in Science and Technology. Thesis Committee: 1) Chair: Prof. Dr Fermín Viejo Tirado, Director of the Javier Puerta Museum of Forensic Anatomy, Royal College of Surgery of San Carlos, Madrid; 2) Prof. Dr Inmaculada Perdomo Reyes, Director of the Women’s Institute and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Humanities (Epistemology), ULL; 3) Prof. Dr David Pedro del Río Grande, Senior Researcher in Neuropsychology and Physiology, UCM. Thesis’s UNESCO Classification: 7201.02 Epistemology. Catalogue entry in the University of Salamanca Doctoral Archive under: Clinical Medicine. Spanish Ministry Archive Record TESEO: 599693. Published in GREDOS Repository 2019.
• 2019, Society of Scientists Returned to Spain, Scientific Mentorship Training. Lecturer in the workshop-course: “Medicine and Scientific Practices”. Directed by Prof. Dr Fernando Josa Prado.
• 2019, ECyT National Institute for the Studies of Science & Technology, University of Salamanca, CSIC, University of La Laguna, University of Santiago de Compostela, University of A Coruña, University of Valladolid. Speaker: “Overflowing Morbidities: Pain Reinforcement and the Value of Epidiagnosis”, at the 8th ECyT USAL International Doctoral Meeting. Directed by Prof. Dr Ana Cuevas Badallo, Director of the National Centre for the Studies in Science and Technology.
• 2018, UCM Faculty of Medicine, during PhD studies. Postgraduate Lecturer in “Neuropsychiatry and Ergonomics: Gamification in Massive Online Game Dynamics and Pain Therapies”.
• 2018, UCM Faculty of Medicine, during PhD studies. Postgraduate Lecturer in “Pain Neuropsychiatry & Video Games: Current Therapies”.
• 2018, UCM Faculty of Medicine, during PhD studies. Postgraduate Lecturer in “Scientific Practices in Neurology & Neuromarketing”.
• 2018, Faculty Chair for the History of Institutions, Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC). Lecturer on the Postgraduate Course: “Advanced Techniques in Content Analysis and Usability Testing”.
• 2017, CSIC CCHS National Research Council. Postgraduate Diploma: “Phenomenology of Pain: Body and Intersubjectivity in Phenomenological Perspective, 2nd Edition”. Directed by Prof. Dr Agustín Serrano de Haro and Prof. Dr Gabriela Fainstein Lamuerda.
• 2017, ECyT National Institute for the Studies of Science & Technology, University of Salamanca. Speaker: “Analysing Biomedical Diagnosis as a Scientific Practice”, at the 4th Ibero-American Congress on Philosophy of Science and Technology.
• 2016, Master’s Degree: University of Salamanca; ECyT; University of Santiago de Compostela; University of Granada; University of La Laguna; University of Valencia; University of Valladolid; University of A Coruña. Diploma: Official Master's Degree in Logic and Philosophy of Science. Specialisation: Neurotechnology and Epistemology. Thesis title: “The Advancement of Neurotechnia: New Advancements in Neurotechnology & Progress Complications in Neuropsychiatry”. Published in GREDOS, University of Salamanca ECyT National Institute for the Studies of Science & Technology Archive, 2016.
• 2015, CSIC CCHS National Research Council. Advanced Postgraduate Diploma: “History and Philosophy of Emotions”. Directed by Prof. Dr Javier Moscoso and Prof. Dr Mercedes García-Arenal (CSIC-CORPI Project).
• 2015-Permanent. Interaction Design Foundation, Denmark: Membership Number 16223.
• 2014, CISDE, GEES. Diploma: “Advanced Technician in Intelligence and Psychological Operations Management”. Directed by Prof. Dr Carlos González de Escalada Álvarez, International University Campus for Security and Defence, Department of Social Sciences. Final dissertation, graded ‘Excellent’: “The EBOB-DBI Proposal for Mass Behavioural Intelligence Tactics in the Psychological Operative at VRAEM Region, Peru”. Research supervision: Lieutenant-Colonel Prof. Francisco Jiménez Moyano (fjmoyano@cisde.es).
• 2014, CISDE, GEES. Diploma: “Protocol, Diplomacy and Security”. Directed by Prof. Dr Carlos González de Escalada Álvarez, International University Campus for Security and Defence, Department of Social Sciences. Advanced Technical-Specialist Degree in Protocol, Diplomacy & Security with a focus on Commercial Protocol & National Heritage (2013). International University Campus for Security and Defence (CISDE). Directed by Prof. Javier Eiroa Escalada (jeiroa@telefonica.net) and Prof. Diego Miranda.
• 2011–2015, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Madrid, 2015: BA in Design, specialising in Cognitive Ergonomics (Editorial). Includes diploma in “Creative Management” (Museology). Awarded with a 100% Scholarship from the Community of Madrid in Recognition of Academic Record.
Lectures, Writings
& Congress Contributions
• 2026 — In preparation. 'Orthomolecular Phytotherapy for Pain Management'. Master Thesis. ESI.
• 2025 — Author. 'Reframing Phytotherapy Databases for Clinical Nutrition. A Case Study'. Kalavik Integrative Nutrition & Clinical Research Publishing.
• 2024 — Author. 'Tailoring Emotional Communities for UX Profiles in Nutrition as a Service Platforms'. Kalavik Integrative Nutrition & Clinical Research Publishing.
• 2023 — Author. 'User Research Strategies for Nutrition as a Service AI-Assisted Platforms'. Kalavik Integrative Nutrition & Clinical Research Publishing.
• 2020 — Author. ‘Analysis of the 20 Most Played Educational Games in Learning Platforms’. Research collaborator with Dr Natalia Lara Nieto-Márquez (nlaranim@gmail.com). Presenting at the Gamification & Serious Games Symposium 2020. 1-3 July 2020, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
• 2020 — Author. ‘An Exploratory Analysis of the Implementation and Use of an Intelligent Platform for Learning in Primary Education’, in Applied Sciences 10, 983. https://www.mdpi.com/20763417/10/3/983. Research and Edition Collaborator.
• 2019 — Speaker. ‘Epidiagnostic Nosographers on the Blochchain. On the Human-Software ergonomics of a diagnostic distributed platform’. Research collaboration with Vibeke Lundborg. Presented at CBC 2019b, ‘Orienting HCI & UX Research for Blockchain Systems’, CBC, Munich. 29th. Aug.
• 2019 — Author. ‘Pain Assessment in 21st-Century Neuropsychiatry. Introducing Plural, Perspective, Situated Epistemic Frames for the Epidiagnostic Characterisation of Pain Experiences’. PhD Dissertation. ECyT-USAL National Library.
• 2019 — Speaker. ‘Introducing AI-Assisted Evaluation via Epidiagnostics. Overflowing Morbidities: Pain Reinforcement and the Value of Epidiagnosis’. Presented at VIII Meeting, Salamanca, USAL, ECyT (8-10 May 2019).
• 2019 — Speaker ‘Contemporary Scientific Practices and Methodologies as Assessed by Technologists’. Presented at ‘Jornada de Formación de Mentores Científicos en Centros Educativos Nouniversitarios’, Madrid, UCM, 25 Mars 2019. Teacher collaborator invited by Dr. Fernando Josa Prado, President at CRE (Sociedad de Científicos Retornados a España).
• 2019 — Author. ‘Running After Emotional AI in Clinical Ergonomics. On designing Human-Software ethnographic tools for AI experience assessment’. Research collaboration with Pam Kluge. Presented at CBC 2019a, 5, ‘AI Assistants · Clinical Ergonomics · Intelligent Platforms’. CBC, Brugge. 3rd. Jan.
• 2018 — Teacher. Specialist Course in Advanced Techniques on Content Analysis & UX Usability Testing. Madrid, URJC Campus, Cátedra de Historia de las Instituciones (Nov.-Dec. 2018).
• 2018 — Author. ‘Designing Biotools for Assessing Affective Disorders. On how AI biobots can enhance psychiatric epidiagnostics from the inside’. Research collaboration with Baas Braam. Presented at CBC 2018b, 4, ‘Neuro-Ergonomics in Biobotics’. CBC, Copenhagen. 5th. Aug.
• 2018 (ini.2014) — Teacher. Low Levels of Recognisability Experiment Series, during PhD at ECyT-USAL, MedUCM.
• Postgraduate research applied to experimental ergonomics (2018-2016-2014), entitled ‘Designing Experiments for Researching Pattern & Colour Recognition with Children Presenting Early Signs of Autism’. The project ended in application to the PhD course of 2018 while investigating on AI-assisted diagnostics for neuropsychiatry, understanding emergent properties, like Artificial Recognition in Human-Software Research areas.
• 2018 — Author. ‘The Neuro-Ergonomics of Brain Software. On a near-future imagery of brain-tracking software for non-medical usage’. Research collaboration with Barbara Leid. Presented at CBC 2018a, 3, ‘Reaching Mind-Reading Software?’. CBC, Copenhagen. 8th. Mars.
• 2018 — Teacher. ‘Neuropsychiatry and Ergonomics. Gamification for Massive Online Game Dynamics’. Organised with Dr. Angel Luis Peña Melián (UCM) and Blackmouth Studios for students at CEV. Jan. 2018.
• 2017 — Teacher. ‘Neuropsychiatry, Neuromarketing and Games’. Organised with Dr. Angel Luis Peña Melián (UCM) for the Master’s Degree students, School of Medicine, UCM. Dec. 2017.
• 2017 — Speaker. ‘Neuromarketing, Content Marketing and Branded Content’, UFV, School of Communication. Organised by Prof. Dr. Paloma Fernández Fernández, and Prof. Leticia de Corral. 24 Nov. 2017.
• 2017 — Speaker. ‘Analysing Biomedical Diagnostics as a Scientific Practice’. Presented at the IV Ibero-American Congress CIFCYT. Coordinated by Prof. Dr. Ana Cuevas Badallo. Head of ECyT-USAL National Institute. Jul 2017.
• 2017 — Speaker. ‘Applied HCI Systems for Measuring Emotions in Video Games. On designing tools for assessing gamers’s real time emotional profiles’. Presented at CBC 2017b, 2, ‘Experimental Design on Affects & Emotions’. CBC, Madrid. 17th. May.
• 2017 — Speaker. ‘Designing Emotional Communities. On implementing game dynamics for making more sustainable and used platforms’. Research collaboration with Vibeke Lundborg. Presented at CBC 2017b, 2, ‘Experimental Design on Affects & Emotions’. CBC, Madrid. 17th. May.
• 2017 — Author. ‘Applying Human-Software Ethnographics into Neuropsychiatry. On the assessment of experiences through virtual psychiatry’. Presented at CBC 2017a, 1, ‘Digital Ethnographics · Virtual Ecology Design’. CBC, Madrid. 14th. Feb.
• 2016 — Author. ‘New Advancements in Neuro-Technology and Progress Complications in Neuro-Psychiatry’ , after ‘Neurotechnia. Are we on the edge of a scale revolution in biosciences?’ Postgraduate Dissertation. USAL.
• 2016 — Author. ‘Running After Emotional AI. Assessing Virtual Experiences of Smart Cooperators’. Postgraduate Dissertation Proposal. USAL.
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