4YFN - Interview with Jesús Berdún of Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau

Barcelona Health Hub returns once again to 4YFN 2023, the startup business platform at the Mobile World Congress next month. At the BHH stand you’ll explore cutting-edge technologies, new tendencies and future solutions, provided by the BHH members. One of the companies you can meet at 4YFN, is BHH member Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona.

This high-complexity hospital with more than 600 years of history, launched in 2022 the Clinical Validation Centre of Digital Health Solutions, a joint venture with Barcelona Health Hub. This center aims to become an agile tool for clinical validation, promoting clinical evidence and technology transference of digital health solutions. Today we meet with Jesús Berdún, Head of Operations of the Clinical Validation Center for Digital Health of Hospital Sant Pau, who will share with us more about their expectations for this edition of 4YFN.

Jesús, thank you for joining Barcelona Health Hub! We’re looking forward to seeing you at the BHH stand at 4YFN. Can you please introduce yourself and tell us about Hospital Sant Pau? Hi, it's a pleasure to be here today at 4YFN. I'm responsible for the activities performed in the Clinical Validation Centre of Digital Health, a joint initiative between the hospital and Barcelona Health Hub. Hospital Sant Pau is one of the oldest and leading organizations in the Catalan public healthcare network, being a reference hospital in areas like cardiovascular diseases, onco-hematology and neurology, among others. Through the Clinical Validation Center, the hospital is promoting high-quality, patient-safe and clinically effective digital solutions, adding up to the current healthcare activity of the hospital, which includes over 35.500 inpatients each year, 160.000 emergencies and more than 460.000 outpatient appointments.

Can you elaborate about what's new at the Hospital Sant Pau these days? During the last three years, the healthcare sector has experienced a remarkable transformation, as digital tools are increasingly being used as part of daily practice. Hospital Sant Pau is changing with the times, including new healthcare processes for in non-face-to-face attention, data standardization, decision support systems, telemonitoring tools, 3D printing or virtual modelling, among others. In this context, the hospital launched in 2022 the Clinical Validation Centre of Digital Health, a joint venture with BHH, aiming to generate clinical evidence of digital health solutions, and to promote adoption and technology transference from the industry to healthcare. And the big news is that, as a driver for the center's achievements, Hospital Sant Pau has created one of the first "Clinical and Technological Research Ethics Subcommittee" in Spain, a sub-group of the hospital's Ethical Committee, with the required expertise to assess research activities that involve cutting-edge technologies.

BHH is glad to see you present at the digital health area of Barcelona Health Hub. Could you share why you decided to join Barcelona Health Hub at 4YFN? Well, 4YFN is an excellent opportunity to share our interests and experience with other potential partners who want to be engaged in clinical validation activities. We are looking forward to meet startups, big corporates, investors, healthcare organizations and other relevant players. And we believe that the thrilling ambient of 4YFN is the perfect place for that.

You’re also participating in the #BHHPanel about "From Innovation to Reality: the Importance of Clinical Validations in Digital Health". Can you tell us what would be your key message at the panel? As I said, more and more digital technologies are becoming part of clinical practice. Some of them allow a better communication with patients, self-empowerment or remote monitoring. Other advanced technologies, such as AI or data-driven services, go beyond the virtualization of healthcare processes, since they are radically changing the way with conceive healthcare.

For both basic and advanced technologies, there is an urgent need, to, first, standardize the way we clinically validated solutions, and second, to ensure adoption and technology transference from the industry to the healthcare providers. In this context, my key message is that the standardization of clinical validation to generate evidence, and the promotion of technology transference, are key activities in which hospitals, companies and other stakeholders need to collaborate. And this is precisely the aim of the Clinical Validation Centre of Digital Health. Furthermore, I would like to stress out that these objectives cannot be achieved by a hospital or a company alone. The center believes that it is by creating an international network for clinical validation that we can drive a change in healthcare, promoting the standardization of clinical validation and attracting international leading companies to collaborate with us in this quest for adoption. So, we are more than glad to share our resources and expertise with any partner interested to join us.

What are you excited about these days at the 4YFN conference? I'm a telecom engineer with more than 10 years' experience in healthcare. And what I can tell you is that every year I'm astonished by all the new technologies and applications in healthcare. I would never have expected on my early days in the university that I would be here today, surrounded by so many entrepreneurs and innovators in this field. And I'm glad to be part of it!

Is there anything else you want to share with us? I would like to congratulate you for the excellent job you are doing, helping companies and healthcare organizations to be engaged in joint activities, and expanding the limits of how technology can bring new opportunities for health. And I would to encourage anyone interested to be part of this exciting journey to come and share their interest with us.

If you're interested in meeting the Hospital Sant Pau, don't hesitate to visit the BHH Stand 8.1D30 in Hall 8 on Monday and Tuesday. Barcelona Health Hub is already looking forward to meeting you! More information here.