Andalusia Workshop results
Today, digital technologies are a reality in current societies. They offer great opportunities in the field of healthcare, enabling innovation in independent living, patient empowerment and in integrated healthcare. These transformations not only benefit people but also the sustainability of healthcare systems. Within this context, work is being done at all levels (European, national, regional or local) to provide and improve citizens access to safe and high-quality digital healthcare services.
Thus, aligned with the European Commission's Digital Single Market Strategy and after an Open Public Consultation and discussion process, an EC Communication on Digital Transformation of Health and Care in the Digital Single Market was published last April, empowering citizens and building a healthier society. This document sets the scene for EU key steps to be followed in this field for the coming years. Its contents are being discussed using examples from Reference Sites, other institutions and stakeholders participating in the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA).
The thematic workshop “Digital health for all” was organised by the Regional Ministry of Health of Andalusia (Andalusia Reference Site) in collaboration with the Andalusian Delegation in Brussels and supported by the Reference Sites Collaborative Network and WE4AHA project and was held at the Committee of the Regions on 25th October 2018.
The workshop gathered representatives from public institutions, academia, industry partners, and civil society, in order to boost synergies in the main areas included in the EC Communication by sharing the perspectives from different stakeholders and pointed out the benefits of working together.
After the welcoming speech by the Regional Minister of Health of Andalusia, Dr Marina Álvarez, who set the scene for the event, Dr José Antonio Valverde (DG CONNECT) presented the vision of the EC, to uphold the main priorities outlined in the Communication on enabling the digital transformation of health and care in the Digital Single Market; empowering citizens and building a healthier society [COM(2018) 233 final].
During the first session “Access to Electronic Health Records”, examples on how to tackle “citizens' secure access to and sharing of health data” were shown by representatives of the Andalusian and Portuguese healthcare systems. After that, the point of view of the citizens was shared by the European Patients Forum representative from its working group on digital health.
In the second session “Citizen empowerment”, several innovative and best practices for promoting capacity building to empower people and person-centred care were presented. The Scottish initiative for empowering citizens and professionals in digital health and care as well as the Andalusian platform “En Buena Edad” were detailed. Several initiatives included within the Andalusian mHealth strategy were introduced, in particular an innovative way for ensuring the quality and safety of health mobile apps.
The last session on “Better data to advance research, disease prevention and personalised health and care”, included examples from regions managing and sharing data for their research needs and initiatives in the field of personalised medicine. Northern Ireland’s initiative for using data for service planning and prevention approaches, the Catalonian big data strategy and the Andalusian public health system population health database were introduced.
During the workshop, experiences in the field of Digital Health from a regional perspective were exchanged, establishing a broad debate on how synergies among stakeholder can be established and how sustainability of healthcare systems can be ensured at the same time that the “Digital Transformation of health” goals are reached.
The workshop was supported by the Reference Sites Collaborative Network and WE4AHA, and organised by the Regional Ministry of Health of Andalusia (Andalusia Reference Site) in collaboration with the Andalusian Delegation in Brussels.
Several Andalusian health authorities attended this workshop, including the Regional Minister of Health, Dr Marina Álvarez, the Deputy Regional Minister of Health, Dr María Isabel Baena and the General Secretary for Research, Development and Innovation in Health, Prof Rafael Solana. The Regional Minister of Health of Andalusia highlighted the importance of information technologies and knowledge to promote citizen empowerment and boost a personalized healthcare within public healthcare systems. She also stressed the advantages of the citizens’ trust on healthcare professionals and services, due to connected care levels and services, as well as the shared access in real time to patient electronic health records.
