About 75% of SISCAT Hospitals Offer Digital Services for Citizens

On behalf of the Citizenship, Innovation and User Area of the Catalan Health Service, the TIC Salut Social Foundation has drawn up the Radar of Digital Assets in Catalonia; a report that provides a global vision of the digital solutions and services offered by SISCAT hospitals. The document lists the strengths and weaknesses of digital assets, presents examples of good practices, and includes useful information to advance their development and to promote equity of care for all citizens of Catalonia.

As the report points out, a digital asset is any digital solution in health and social areas that facilitates the practice of person-centred health and social welfare activities and is accessible through a web page, mobile application or other user interfaces. Likewise, the document differentiates between two types of digital assets: the relational, and those concerning health and well-being. On the one hand, relational digital assets are those intended to facilitate and speed up the management that users have with health centres or systems, such as, for example, the case of La Meva Salut (My Health). On the other hand, health and wellness assets are intended for health care and promotion, and often focus on a specific disease or medical speciality, such as apps for diabetes or cancer management.

To draft the report, the TIC Salut Social Foundation team has analysed all the relational assets offered at the SISCAT centres and the set of noteworthy digital health and well-being assets in the Catalan territory, based on national and international reference frameworks. It has also prepared a small comparative study with the assets offered by the main medical insurers and private hospital groups, with the aim of being able to compare the existing offer.

Relational digital assets

As far as hospital care is concerned, about 75% of centres have relational digital assets. Of these, 40% have a website and an app, 32% only have a website with services, and 28% only have an app. In this case, hospitals that had a web page with only centre and contact information were excluded.

The relational assets offered by public hospitals are mainly dedicated to managing the visits agenda, doing administrative tasks, preparing patients for hospital visits, supporting carers, and, to a lesser extent, providing information and enabling telemonitoring for disease monitoring and device synchronisation, among others. On the other hand, all hospital centres within the private sector offer digital assets. Also, teleconsultation, digital prescription and, above all, telemonitoring are more developed overall.

Regarding primary care, no specific digital assets have been found, beyond the La Meva Salut application and some digital solutions from health regions or hospitals that also offer primary care services.

Digital health and wellness assets

Hospitals have also played an active role in promoting digital assets focused on a medical speciality. According to the report, nearly 40% of SISCAT hospitals have developed, collaborated or encouraged the development of health and well-being assets. In addition, in this case, three relational assets developed in collaboration with primary care have also been identified.

In total, also taking into account the assets identified in SISCAT hospitals, Radar has counted 233 noteworthy health and well-being assets within the Catalan territory, focusing on up to 30 different medical specialities. The specialities with the highest incidence are mental health, neurology, endocrinology, oncology and cardiology. All these assets can be consulted at Directory of Digital Assets of the TIC Salut Social Foundation.

Conclusions of the Digital Assets Radar

As the report concludes, digital assets are a very useful tool, both in facilitating the management of personal health and for clinical practice. The Radar has made it possible to identify a large number of very useful services offered by certain health centres, whose gradual incorporation into provider centres would be highly advisable.

In order to ensure that digital assets provide quality guarantees and to include them in a unique space, such as a virtual library, the TIC Salut Social Foundation and the Catalan Health Service have drawn up a Guide to Good Practices for Developing Digital Assets for Citizens. The guide includes the most relevant aspects that the applications of SISCAT providers and other digital health and well-being services used within SISCAT must meet in order to align with the requirements of La Meva Salut.

For more information, on 3 July, the Radar and the Guide will be presented during an open session for professionals, which can be attended online and in person in Barcelona. Registration is free and spots will open soon.