Starting shot for the work framework to develop digital assets for citizens

The TIC Salut Social Foundation and the Citizenship, Innovation and User Area of the Catalan Health Service organised the Seminar on Digital Assets for Citizens held on 3 July in Barcelona. The session can now be viewed on the YouTube channel of the TIC Salut Social Foundation.

Two initiatives driven by the Foundation and the Catalan Health Service to encourage the proper use of digital assets in health and promote equality between citizens in their access to it were presented at the session. Firstly, Carme Pratdepàdua, head of mHealth at the TIC Salut Social Foundation, presented the Radar of Digital Assets in Catalonia, which provides an overview of the digital solutions and services on offer at the SISCAT’s centres. Secondly, Yolanda Portero, Relational Innovation Manager of the Citizenship, Innovation and User Area of the Catalan Health Service, presented the Guide on best practices for developing Digital Assets for Citizens, applicable to all digital health and wellness products and services for the SISCAT’s suppliers.

As Joan Guanyabens, Director of the TIC Salut Social Foundation, pointed out at the event’s opening ceremony, the radar fulfils the Foundation’s role as an observatory, while the guide is a starting point for building involving all the stakeholders: “What we’re presenting today is a work framework based on which we can jointly build the digital assets that citizens use to take better care of themselves, to enjoy better health. And the main message is that all this can’t be built by a single person alone”. As examples of chapters that are still to be built together, he listed issues such as where the personal data obtained by apps should end up, how long the data’s life cycle lasts and how digital solutions should be financed when citizens use them.

A round table was held during the seminar with representatives of digital assets from the public and private areas. On behalf of the public sphere, Meritxell Davins, Director of Transformation and Digital Health at the Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital, presented the eSalut MetroNord app, designed to help patients to play an active part in the treatment and monitoring of their illnesses. Pere Guerrero, head of Digital Transformation, Information Systems and ICT at Althaia (Manresa University Assistance Network), presented the ALTHAIA app, which can access information on the centres and services in the care network, and ALTHAIA Crono 360, which enhances the monitoring of the user’s chronic pathology and improves mental and cardiac health. He also presented the PUKONO app, which helps patients with hypertension and kidney failure to identify which foods are suitable and safe.

As representatives of the private sector, Laura Vidal, the co-founder of the HappySneeze app, presented her solution devoted to improving the health of the pelvic floor. While María Salido, the co-founder of the SocialDiabetes app, laid out her platform for the self-management of diabetes.

Following the presentation of the digital solutions, the participants in the round table debated what the keys for the private sector are if it is to succeed in introducing its applications into the public sector and the main difficulties encountered when developing these digital assets.

Elisenda Serra, Director of the Citizenship, Innovation and User Area of the Catalan Health Service, brought the event to a close by emphasising the need to work together to promote digital assets and explaining how she wants to see La Meva Salut develop: “Citizens are becoming more and more empowered and we must be able to give them a relationship with the System that’s omnichannel.  As a citizen, as a user (…) I must be able to enjoy digital, hybrid, in-person and phone interaction and whatever the new relational model brings us”. At the same time, she added, we must guarantee fairness, accessibility and a good and personalised experience. 

In the event of any queries related to the issues covered at the event, please contact the Foundation’s mHealth Office by email at oficinamobilitat@ticsalutsocial.cat