Digital Health Development in Spain: The Sector Looks with Concern

The technological development of the health sector in Spain remains unconsolidated. This is how Spanish health companies perceive it, with only 26% of favorable opinions considering that the development of digital health in the country is high or very high, twelve points less than in the previous edition of the Health Companies Barometer.

Specifically, the 2% rate of companies that believed that the development was very high remained, but the group of companies that rated it only as high fell from 36% to 24%.

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At the same time, the number of responses that believed that the development of Spanish digital health was low or very low increased:

If in 2022 this group was made up of 8% of the total panelists, in 2023 this percentage rose to 8%. Within this category, 2% of the companies rated the implementation of digital health in Spain as very low, when during the previous year this group did not reach even 1% of the total.

However, the fact that the Spanish health industry has a worse perception in 2023 than in the previous year about the degree of development of digital health in Spain does not imply that the number of companies that have opted for initiatives within the sector has not increased. this area. In this direction, 91% of companies in the sector have indicated that they have launched new initiatives in 2023 aimed at greater digitalization. In the 2022 edition, this percentage was 86%.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has positioned itself as one of the main vectors of transformation in the sector in the coming years

From applications ranging from diagnosis to research, the wide range of possibilities of AI means that only one in fifty companies in the health sector in Spain consider that they should not bet on this technology.

For their part, 6% of companies agreed that they should invest in artificial intelligence, although to a lesser extent than in other sectors of the economy. The majority group, supported by 57% of the Barometer panelists, was made up of companies that, although they believed that they should focus on developing the potential of this technology, believed that no more or less effort should be dedicated to it than in other economic sectors in the same area.

Finally, companies in the health sector that believed that they should bet on artificial intelligence, even more than in other sectors, is 37% of the total. In this direction, the idea that the digitalization process is transversal and practically hegemonic in the health business in Spain was reinforced, with the incorporation of new services and organizational improvements, such as artificial intelligence.

Santiago de Torres, executive president of Atrys Health, has assured that “doctors must accept that we cannot do everything and take better advantage of the advantages offered by the latest technologies.” The manager stressed that it is essential to “empower and train health professionals in this area to optimize time and be more efficient.”

The Barometer of Health Companies in Spain is an annual report that aims to be a useful tool for professionals in the sector when making strategic decisions. The study measures the evolution of the sector in Spain based on the information provided by the companies themselves regarding their performance, employment, investments, financing, international business, or digitization.

The fourth edition of the study also incorporates the opinion of companies on key aspects of this business, such as the effects that greater public-private collaboration would have or the commitment that the sector should make to the development of artificial intelligence.

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(Featured image by National Cancer Institute via Unsplash)

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First published in PlantaDoce. A third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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