Sharing decisions: what changes are needed?

The 38^th edition of the Health Economics Days, organized each year by the Association of Health Economics (AES), were held in Las Palmas (Gran Canaria) on 20, 21 and 22 June. Entitled “Sharing Decisions: what changes are needed?”, the conference set out to widen the debate on the relationship and decision making between healthcare professionals and the public (a topic which is closely related to the TIC Salut Social Foundation’s DPAX projects on the transformation of the digital health environment). The conference featured some three hundred projects from all over Spain in the form of presentations, communications, posters and others, including the mResist project, which is coordinated by the Foundation (poster link).

Over the course of the three days, the conference featured a highly engaging analysis of the socioeconomic determinants of health, gender inequalities, maternal and child health, cancer, dependence, medication policy, end of life care, health and hospital management, informal care, inequalities and equity, health policy, planning and so on. However, technology also played a key role in the numerous communications and papers on data mining (the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre), the use of health data as vital to the intelligence of health systems (Instituto Aragonés en Salud Ciencias) and the new ubiquitous kind of healthcare uHealth (Telemedicine and eHealth Research Unit of the Instituto de Salud – Carlos III). Those who work in Health Economics are well aware that innovation is key to the health environment, meaning it is imperative we understand and evaluate such developments in order to ensure they are implemented in the best manner possible.

Of the numerous organisations from the Catalan public sector that participated, of particular interest were the Catalan Agency for Health Quality and Assessment (AQuAS), Hospital Clínic, the Catalan Health Service, the Catalan Oncology Institute, the Catalan Health and Social Care Consortium, the Catalan Union of Hospitals and the Organ and Tissue Bank. It should be noted that only a third of the members of the organisation are economists, which underscores the multidisciplinary nature of both the Conference and Health Economics in general. In addition, 41% of the organisation are women and form a majority on the Board of Directors.