Catalonia is home to 42% of the MedTech companies in Europe and is a pioneer in investment in R&D in the health sector and the use of ICT in healthcare centres

This April 29, from 9:30 pm to 2:15 pm, the Tecno Campus in Mataró (Carrer d’Ernest Lluch, 32, Mataró) will host a new edition of the Jornades d’Innovació TIC [ICT Innovation Conference] (JIT) focused on the health sector. The event, organized by the Cercle Tecnològic de Catalunya (CTecno) and the Digital Cluster, has the support of ACCIÓ and TIC Salut Social. Its aim is to discuss the impact of technology in the field of health, both from the point of view of data processing and the technology used in surgery.

According to ACCIO’s April 2018 study entitled ‘The life sciences in Catalonia’, innovation is one of the major features of Catalonia’s life sciences: it is home to over 95 active spin-offs and 352 Start-ups, and more than 200 related companies have been created over the last 5 years. In addition, neuroscience, genomics and epigenetics have been identified as the main capabilities of the Catalan biotech industry by Biocat, the strategic agent and catalyst of the Catalan life sciences sector. A keynote lecture will be given during the conference by Dr Josep Maria Campistol, Director General of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, who will speak about one of the most important technological advances in recent years: a live broadcast of an operation using 5G technology. The procedure was shown to the public during the most recent edition of the Mobile World Congress and served to show how this collaboration between technology and the most advanced medical facilities represents a great opportunity to use technology which will be extremely useful for both patients and society at large.

In the coming years, the use of 5G technology will make it possible for numerous devices to work together so that various specialists around the world can simultaneously connect and thus improve the conditions of any type of surgical operation. 5G technology also us many other possibilities.

Technology has many more potential applications in the health sector, such as the use of robots to bring food trays to hospital rooms, or the use of machines to select the correct medication for every patient. Technology applied to the health field is progressing rapidly and health-centres are using new tools which are employed in research and in the diagnosis of illnesses, which improve both monitoring and treatment. Thanks to digital technology, it is possible to improve the speed and accuracy with which illnesses are detected in all medical disciplines.

The new social and demographic needs, technological changes and sustainability are at the centre of public policies involving health. To explain the importance of establishing a Catalan health model, the JIT will feature Dr Manel Balcells, Doctor of Medicine and graduate in health management; the current President of the Department of Health’s Advisory Council, Director of CIMTI, Health Commissioner of the Leitat-Centre Tecnològic and a member of the Advisory Council for Sostenibilitat i Progrés de la Sanitat (CASOST).

In order to have a broader view of the role of technology in the health sector, we will also invite various experts who will address topics of interest such as the treatment of patient data, while discussing the protection of personal data generated by health centres.