Carlos de la Cruz Cosme obtained the title of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Malaga in July 2004 (1998-2004). Six months later, he attended the annual examination for places for specialized training of the Spanish Health Ministry (January 2005), the “MIR examination”, where he came 68th out of a total of 7,540 physicians in the National Competitive Exam. He chose a position as resident of Neurology in the Neurology Deparment at Virgen de la Victoria University Hospital in Malaga (2005-2009). During this formative period, he carried out super-specialization stays in cerebral vascular pathology in the reference hospitals in the field, Virgen del Rocío in Seville and Valle Hebrón in Barcelona.

Since the completion of the specialization in 2009, he has been working as Neurologist at the Virgen de la Victoria University Hospital in Malaga, where he still carries out his professional work today. In 2014 he obtained the certification of training in Neurosonology (diagnosis of neurological diseases by ultrasound) within the framework of the corresponding national exam of the Spanish Society of Neurosonology. His research on the study of cerebral circulation by ultrasound culminated in January 2016 with the reading of his doctoral thesis “Validation of a neurosonology laboratory for the detection of stenosing carotid pathology”, which he develops under the direction of Dr. Marc Stefan Dawid Milner (University of Malaga), and for which he obtained the title of Medical Doctor (MD) with the maximum qualification, of outstanding cum laude. Subsequently, he won the definitive position of Neurologist in his current workplace after submitting to the 2017 Public Job Offer of the Andalusian Health Service, a public merits competition and examination in whose resolution he obtained the first position in the community. Since 2018 he has been accredited in Advanced degree as a Neurologist by the Andalusian Health Quality Agency.

After his training stage and later, until now, he has kept himself up to date and has also been involved in the training of other specialists as well as being involved in the organization of various courses and conferences. He has published research papers in journals and books of recognized national and international prestige. He has a master’s degree in Anticoagulant Treatment (Catholic University of Murcia, 2014-2016) and another one in Neuroimmunology(Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​2017-2018), and the university Diploma in Health Management (Andalusian School of Public Health – University of Granada, 2017-2018). He has been a professor at the International Expert in Neurosonology since 2019 and continues to do so.

He has been the coordinator of the Stroke Commission of the Virgen de la Victoria University Hospital since 2016, and secretary of the Provincial Stroke Commission (made up of all the public hospitals in the province) since 2017. Between 2017 and 2020 he was deputy medical director of the Virgen de la Victoria University Hospital. Between 2018 and 2021 he has been the coordinator – president of the Neurovascular Working Group of the Andalusian Society of Neurology, and vice president of the Spanish Society of Neurosonology. Dr. De la Cruz was designated as head of Neurology section of the Virgen de la Victoria University Hospital, being the medical coordinator of the Stroke Unit of that center since its inauguration in May 2021. Finally, he is head of the Neurology Department from july 2023.

He is also a permanent member of the Andalusian Society of Neurology and of its Working Group on Cerebrovascular Diseases, and of the Spanish Society of Neurology and its corresponding study group on cerebrovascular diseases. He works as a reviewer for different journals in the medical-neurological field. He is an associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Malaga, where he has directed and continues to direct various end-of-degree projects and doctoral theses. He carries out his research work as a member of the group “Research in Arteriosclerosis, Vascular Prevention, Metabolism and Neurological Diseases”, within the IBIMA (Institute of Biomedical Research of Malaga). He is also the principal investigator – coordinator of the Malaga hospitals research group in the chapter on cerebrovascular diseases, within the ministerial initiative of the Carlos III Health Institute (RICORS-Ictus).