The CataloniaBio & HealthTech Innovation Workgroup (WG) brought together more than 60 executives, investors and professionals in the Boosting Digital Health Innovation session on 17 February in the Barcelona Science Park to analyse the current situation and the key challenges in digital health.
"The development of digital health is accelerating worldwide and in Catalonia too. We need to promote new models and complementarity between all stakeholders in the health and life sciences ecosystem, and here CataloniaBioHT plays a key role as an association that represents the business world in Catalonia," said Isabel Amat, Global Head of Innovation and Pipeline Management at Reig Jofre and leader of the WG (along with Ángel Alonso, CEO of Vecmedical, and Melqui Calzado, general secretary of CataloniaBioHT).
The progress is evident in everyday life. "An artificial intelligence system was the first to raise the alarm about the Wuhan coronavirus" was the example given by Jaime del Barrio, president of the Digital Health Association (ASD), and "we are already starting to be able to predict a psychotic break or an epileptic fit by means of a device". Del Barrio believes that "we need a broader country-wide strategy with public and private-sector cooperation like they have in Canada, Australia, Finland and in Germany, where they have just passed a regulation by which doctors can prescribe apps”.
Along with artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data and the 5G are the backbone of the digital transformation in the healthcare arena, said Carles Gómara, deputy director of Innovation at ACCIÓ. "The quality of the data and having professionals who can validate them is very important," he said.
The digital therapeutics field is growing “because these are solutions that support us in looking after our health," said Josep Lluís Sanfeliu, managing partner at Asabys. “From the investor's point of view, various things are happening in digital therapeutics that make us feel comfortable, like the company acquisitions and the approvals from the FDA. We see a lot of opportunities in chronic illness and mental health,” he added.
The technology is moving faster than the legal framework. The changes in European law in May will be an important step towards the monitoring and evaluation of digital health. Dominique Monferrer, Scientific & Regulatory Affairs associate director at Asphalion, explained that "regulatory issues are key to start this type of project". We have to be sure what kind of science we have to demonstrate to ensure these technologies are approved as therapeutic or diagnostic products by the competent authorities.
The Catalan pharmaceutical industry is busy searching for business models adapted to the new technologies. Almirall is a good example. Francesca Wuttke joined the company in 2019 as Chief Digital Officer: "The digital transformation requires us to find use cases in R+D, marketing, manufacturing, finance, legal and human resources to provide time and cost efficiency and also to open up new business channels”. This year Almirall launched the accelerator Digital Garden to innovate in dermatology through start-ups.
If you are a CataloniaBioHT member and would like to receive documentation on the session, please write to us at ismael.avila@cataloniabioht.org.
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