Artificial Intelligence Area

The Catalan Government’s official journal published resolution SLT/954/2023 on 19th March which creates the Programme to promote and develop Artificial Intelligence within the Healthcare System.

The objective of the Health/AI Programme is to create a facilitating environment for innovation in the health industry, through the development and implementation of artificial intelligence solutions to improve the health of citizens, while prioritising prevention, leading the implementation of artificial intelligence solutions, and contributing to improving the quality of care and the sustainability of the health system, and adding value to the knowledge generated by the Comprehensive Catalan Public Use Healthcare System (SISCAT).

• Mission: Creation of helpful surroundings that innovate in healthcare by means of AI solution development and implementation to improve upon citizen care and support healthcare professionals.
• Vision: Lead AI solution implementation that contribute to improve upon quality care and sustainability in the healthcare system by placing value on SISCAT’s knowledge.
• Values: Transparency, efficiency, innovation, commitment, participation, respect, and sustainability. 

The Health/AI Programme is a strategic bet to ensure robustness, ethics, fairness, and efficiency of AI health solutions in Catalonia. And to make this possible, it includes in its Executive Committee different actors of the Health System: healthcare professionals, AI experts, and senior officials from the Department of Health, the Catalan Health Service, the Strategic Management of the Departmental Commission for Innovation and Transformation of the Health System, the General Coordination of ICT in the Health System, the Catalan Health Quality and Assessment Agency, and the TIC Salut Social Foundation.

Health/AI Programme line of action 

Regarding activity, the Health/AI Programme includes all AI tools’ life cycle: from conception to implementation; and centres around three main lines of action: innovation, evaluation, and implementation.

Innovation has three courses of action. The first one is Challenge Launching to cover healthcare system necessities that can be solved using AI. Secondly, AI Initiative Support allows to promote those initiatives in the SISCAT area that contribute high value to the Health System, and contemplates the publication of methodological and support guides for the development of AI tools, as well as the definition of requirements AI tools adhering to the Health System must meet. Finally, Innovation includes AI Health Watchdog, which works as a gate for AI initiative support, identifies those solutions that could become systemic and maintains a repository of reference documents.

Previously to the implementation of a system based on AI in the Catalan Healthcare system, the Evaluation line of action in said Programme views an evaluation method centred around AI trustworthiness and takes into account different domains and dimensions. The Health Quality and Assessment Agency (AQUAS in Catalan) is the guarantor of this assessment framework. Continual monitoring and evaluations are needed once solutions are implemented to guarantee models do not experience significant deviations during life cycles.

Due to the Implementation line of action, the Programme becomes involved in all related aspects when introducing AI tools into the system, including technology integration, healthcare professionals’ training, management of change, and communication. In this sense, beyond the technical aspects, AI training for health professionals is a key aspect to guarantee the success of the programme, as it is essential to train professionals who will be end users of these solutions so that they have a sound criteria when making decisions in this area.

More information about the Programme: https://iasalut.cat/