The digital transformation of the health sector must be based on innovation

Promoting the digital transformation in the health sector is one of the objectives set by the European Union, within the Healthcare 2025 program. This European strategy contains a set of measures to provide digital solutions in the field of health. Meanwhile, in Spain, the Plan España Digital 2025 has been launched, with 47 measures to promote the digital transition in the country, also in the health sector. To further the objectives of these programs, the technology companies Cerner and SAP organized the presentation Healthcare 2025: Boosting Digitalization, moderated by José Maniega, Cerner’s Business Development Director.

“We find it very interesting to conclude this way the second day dedicated to the users of our electronic medical record system i.s.h.med in Spain. In it we have been able to review the present changes and its ambitious roadmap. Only with the new solutions and the great advantages such as Artificial Intelligence or Big Data will it be possible to transform the health sector in the way that professionals are already asking for,” said Maniega.

The Spanish initiative to promote the digital transformation in the health sector contemplates that this will be achieved through innovation, research, assistance and patient empowerment. All this with a final goal of increasing the quality of life of the population. As Noemí Díaz-Benito, SAP Business Architect, explained: “The objective of the health and social system is to increase the quality of life and achieve reimbursement based on results.”

Within the España Digital 2025 program, Díaz-Benito said that his strategic priorities are prediction, personalization and efficiency. In this sense, the SAP representative commented that “the digital transformation of the health sector is very important, through innovation, research, strengthening of the National Health System and the empowerment of people. She also insisted that the objective pursued by SAP is “to be able to provide solutions to our customers in order to offer the best service to patients.

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Access to European Funds

Regarding the financing of these initiatives, Jorge Morillo, director of Institutional Relations and Digital Administration of SAP Spain, spoke about the EU funding program, Healthcare 2025. The expert said that “2020 and 2021 will be key to deciding how these European funds will be spent.”

Jorge Morillo: “Any project has to have at least an impact on one of these axes. The more impact, the easier it will be for the project to access European funds.”

In the case of Spain, any proposal that will access European funds must be aligned on four axes: digital transformation, ecological transition, territorial and social incursion and equality. “Any project must have at least an impact on one of these axes. The more impact, the more easily the project will be able to access the funds,” explained Morillo.

On the other hand, what is sought are transformative and ambitious projects, of viable and solvent companies. According to Morillo, “the money will be spent if or if, since the intention is to exhaust this huge amount of money, which so far in other cases has not happened. 

Innovative ideas: the examples of Germany, Spain and Italy

The future of health systems lies in three areas: research, to measure and improve health outcomes; automating and providing tools to citizens to make more informed decisions; and empowering the patient through telemedicine, self-diagnostic and improved accessibility tools.

From Spain there are also examples such as the Spanish Society of Nephrology (SEN), which participates in the international project ICHCOM

To achieve these goals, “technology can be a great help,” said Manal Halwani, Healthcare Industry Leader & Expert, EMEA South, from SAP. One of the examples of good technology practice is in Germany. With the idea of research to measure and improve health outcomes and design prevention systems, the research platform TBase was created at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, a world reference for medical quality and scientific research and user of the i.s.h.med solution. “It is a robust tool for medical research and documentation that guarantees high standards of patient data security. To achieve this, the hospital used SAP technology,” said Halwani.

Finally, on the empowerment of patients through telemedicine tools, the use of chats stands out. Halwani explained that, thanks to this, “it is possible to maintain periodic reviews with the patient, to organize the medical appointments and to solve doubts”. Another example of empowerment is the creation of virtual health care platforms, such as those developed by SAP and Cerner.

“After many years of investment, the digitalization of public and private healthcare systems is near, and comes with the latest technologies, including the cloud, the true digital transformation of our industry. It is exciting to be part of this stage,” concluded José Maniega at the end of the day.

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(Featured image by PublicDomainPictures via Pixabay)

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

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