Barcelona Health Hub is thrilled to announce that the #YoPacienteDigital project has been presented to the Spanish authorities. D. Alfredo González Gómez, Secretary General of Digital Health, Information and Innovation of the National Health System of MoH (Ministerio de España) joined the latest episode of the #BHHSeries to discuss the project.

We also counted on the presence of Carina Escobar, President at Plataforma de Organizaciones de Pacientes; Luis Cordero, President at Fundación AstraZeneca; Dr. Josep Maria Campistol, General Director at Hospital Clínic Barcelona; Joan Barrubes, Managing Partner at Antares Consulting and professor at Esade; Alfonso Muñoz, Head of the Research Unit of Digital Health at ISCIII; Dr. Manel Peiró, Director of the Institute of Healthcare Management at Esade; Cristian Pascual, President at Barcelona Health Hub; Luis Badrinas, CEO at Barcelona Health Hub and Gina Farrús, Chief Communication & MK Officer at Barcelona Health Hub.

The Secretary General pointed that the #YoPacienteDigital is a very motivating initiative for the digital health sector. He stated that it will help transform the digital cultural change needed to improve the national health system, since it offers important conclusions and a series of recommendations: “The conclusions will be very important in the task that we all have ahead of us: to promote the transformation in digital health.”

Alfredo González Gómez recognized that the #YoPacienteDigital project “is in line with the Ministry of Health’s work on the strategic framework for primary care”. Over the last years, the budget of the Ministry of Health has been multiplied by 10, which also extends to digital health policies and underlines the importance of digital health for the Ministry.

To begin with, Luis Badrinas, CEO at Barcelona Health Hub, explained that the #YoPacienteDigital project proposes success stories and proposals to improve the Spanish health system through telemedicine. Joan Barrubes, Managing Partner at Antares Consulting and professor at Esade, presented the project and invited everyone to download and read the report. During the virtual round table discussion led by Dr. Manel Peiró, Director of the Institute of Healthcare Management of Esade, various experts gave their opinion about the #YoPacienteDigital project.

According to Dr. Josep Maria Campistol, General Director at Hospital Clínic Barcelona, “We can make a leap in digital health transformation. It includes telemedicine, but goes beyond: Artificial Intelligence, databases, and much more”. According to Alfonso Muñoz, Head of the Research Unit of Digital Health at ISCIII, “the project contributes to the development of telemedicine and teleconsultations in particular”. Carina Escobar, President at the Plataforma de Organizaciones de Pacientes, stated that “it is a transformation project that takes into account the person, not just the patient.” Cristian Pascual, President at Barcelona Health Hub, added that “we need a way of evolving healthcare much more from the patient’s point of view. Telemedicine can help a lot with this. This is why we as Barcelona Health Hub see telemedicine as a crucial element.”

Rick Suárez, President at Fundación AstraZeneca, closed the event reminding everyone that although it is a difficult time, “we are on the verge of enormous opportunities.”

About #YoPacienteDigital

This project has been led, promoted and sponsored by Barcelona Health Hub and its theoretical report “Study of the virtual health consultation and its benefits for the healthcare system” has been commissioned to Esade through its Institute for Healthcare Management.

#YoPacienteDigital includes an academic, scientific, legal and social analysis of the situation and proposes international success stories and proposals to improve the Spanish healthcare system through telemedicine.

From Barcelona Health Hub we are very happy to count on more than 45 entities -including corporations, startups, hospitals, health institutions, universities and other relevant institutions- that have joined the #YoPacienteDigital project and have made it possible.

The full report of the #YoPacienteDigital is available in English and Spanish here.

The whole episode of the #BHHSeries is available here, or at Barcelona Health Hub´s YouTube channel