Girona places its sights on integrated attention, mHealth and active ageing

Round table 1: INTEGRATED HEALTHCARE

Promoting interaction between social healthcare services

The key speaker at the table, Nick Goodwin (see presentation), CEO of the International Foundation of Integrated Care (IFIC), highlighted the importance of public policies to improve social well-being, illustrating it with the case of Glasgow, the British city with the worst health results. “Better healthcare coordination saves money and improves quality”, he argued in his intervention. “It is therefore necessary to implement an integrated system, but with responsible providers”, in which ICTs play an important role.

“We don’t need great gadgets”, added Dr. Carles Blay (see presentation), responsible for the operation of the Program of Prevention and Attention to Chronic Disease of the Catalan Health Department. Dr. Blay presented the healthcare model of the Centre Riudeperes in Osona, which has an ECAP station in the centre to optimise healthcare for chronic patients. For the moment, the Integrated Healthcare Plan has reduced physical consultations and emergencies and three out of every four crises are attended by telephone.

The table continued with the presentation of the Interdepartmental Plan of Public Health (PINSAP) by Dr. Carmen Cabezas (see presentation), the subdirectress of Health Promotion of the Catalan Health Department. The PINSAP aims to incorporate health transversely across all government policies. In fact only 20% of health determinants lie within the healthcare system: the level of education, socio-economic standards, pollution and habits, amongst other factors, account for the remaining 80%. “It is necessary to demedicalise: why not prescribe going to the day centre, doing sport or using the social networks?” is the question that Dr. Cabezas asks those attending.

Therefore during the round table it became obvious that when the social healthcare areas worked together, results are achieved. “Now it is necessary to establish an honest narrative focused on people and on the social healthcare services”, the experts concluded. 

• Presentation by Mr. Joan Carles Contel, Program of Prevention and Attention to Chronic Disease of the Health Department of the Government of Catalonia.
• Presentation by Mrs. Queralt Aranda, head of the Social Action section of the area of Local, Cultural Cooperation and Social Action of Girona Provincial Council. 

Round table 2: mHEALTH 

New solutions to global challenges in health and well-being

“mHealth contributes to creating a more sustainable system with faster and more intelligent medicine, better prediction, prevention, personalisation and participation of the patient, while the general well-being of the population increases”, Dr. Jordi Martínez, the director of Innovation of the Fundació TicSalut and key speaker of the second round table of the 5th R&D Meetings summed up. 

In his intervention, Dr. Martínez presented the mHealth Catalonia Plan, a project which receives the strategy and leadership of the Presidency, Health and Well-being Department of the Government of Catalonia, the performance of the Fundació TicSalut and the supervision of Mobile World Capital Barcelona. “The first step is important and even more so if it places Catalonia in an outstanding position in digital health”, Verónica Torras, the joint founder of Health Mavericks, an accelerator of start-ups operating from Barcelona, stressed. 

The discussion at the round table continued with a developer and patient, Víctor Bautista, creator of the Social Diabetes app. “People want to have information on their disease in real-time and a mobility plan is therefore necessary”, he said. From the technological point of view, Miguel Ángel Montero, director of El Corte Inglés Computer Health, wondered in what sense it was necessary to work for performance in the efforts in developing applications. 

The approval of mobile applications was one of the leading questions of the round table. “Apps developers are five years ahead of the regulators. If the application is good, patients will recognise it. In the absence of a stamp, for the moment this is the only indicator”, Bautista assured. Furthermore, Verónica Torras was firm, “We must stop worrying about the data and a wager on honesty and on offering valuable solutions not at odds with safety”.

The experts at the table referred to some of the existing apps repositories such as Xyo.net or the Web display of the Fundació TicSalut, which receives the collaboration of the Mobile World Capital Barcelona Competence Centre. While waiting for new developments in this area, the table closed with the idea that mHealth will not ignore the model and lose confidence in healthcare professionals, but will rather end up transforming the healthcare processes. 

• Presentation by Dr. Jordi Martínez, director of innovation of the Fundació TicSalut. 

Round table 3: HEALTH FOR EVERYONE 

Towards active and healthy ageing

“The good news is that we can take action to prevent problems of ageing”, Dr. Marco Inzitari, the healthcare director of the Parc Sanitari Pere Virgili, opened the third and last round table of the 5th R&D Meetings. Pierre Benaïm, the Secretary-General for Regional Strategy of Innovation of the Midi-Pyrénées region (France), brought in a question, “As the elderly do not have a large income, more innovation is required in this area to create a new economic model. We must work together for social, financial and economic fragility”. 

“It is necessary to explain what ICTs in elderly healthcare are for and to create value around home help”, Benaïm argued from his experience. “As we age at the time we are born, the strategy is to train individuals in ageing”, said Maria Àngels Farreny, head of the Rehabilitation Service of the Hospital Son Llàtzer in Palma de Mallorca. 

“When we refer to active and healthy ageing, we always talk in the third person; we are not dealing with it properly”, Ester Sarquella, a member of the operative committee of the Interdepartmental Plan of Action and Social and Healthcare Interaction of Catalonia, told the auditorium. “The system requires a deeper transformation of our point of view to generate citizens jointly responsible for their health and well-being”, said Sarquella, who wagers on “a change of values with respect to the health management itself”. 

“We must learn to ensure communication between the professionals and technologists”, reflected Dr. Laura Coll, responsible for the Ageing Institute of the UAB, “But we must also put ourselves in the place of the elderly”. Dr. Coll was in favour of involving the most elderly in ICTs to enhance empowerment. 

The experts at the round table agreed that the professional challenge of ageing is highly complex. In Girona it was argued that the key lies in the proactive culture of healthcare and ICT professionals, which must complement each other. “We must build a clear, firm and solid strategy in the area of social healthcare integrated with ICTs and interoperability, focused on improving the attention that people receive”, said Ester Sarquella. 

Benaïm, the French general secretary, made a final statement to sum up the round table. “We must find the balance between people and ICTs and between the economic and social players”.