Healthio 2017, the great meeting of patients, innovation and systems

On 3, 4 and 5 Barcelona will be host to the great meeting of healthcare innovation which, organised by Fira de Barcelona, will try to gather thousands of patients, professionals, innovators and entrepreneurs from the healthcare system in order to create an extraordinary event: Healthio.

Healthio is planned as an ambitious event which in three days aims to gather 10,000 patients, citizens and users of the system; 5,000 healthcare professionals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and 1,000 entrepreneurs. This is a global project in which the participation is sought of all people involved in the world of health.

This Congress will be structured around:

a)     the new relations between “empowered” patients and/or citizens and the carers.

b)    disruptive innovation, but also realistic innovation always seeking to improve the results of healthcare and improved well-being for the patient.

c)     the healthcare innovators or entrepreneurs, whether these be people, small companies or large companies interested in these new innovations.

We are living in new times in which people are more and more able to influence and decide. Patients, citizens and people are and will be ever more “empowered” over the decisions that affect their own health. At this time, more and more citizens are taking the initiative and starting to routinely measure different medical data, vital constants, symptoms, etc.  in order to have the most accurate possible map of their general state of health.

This context deals with different questions we aim to answer with Healthio:

• To what extent is this possible obsession in measuring your vital constants recommendable?
• Is it sufficient to go to the doctor and be visited for a few minutes and have details of your state of health every not so few months in the best possible case?
• If you are unlucky and suffer from a serious disease, wouldn’t you like your genome to be taken into consideration? When will this be generally possible? Is it convenient? Is the information on the genome easy to interpret or is it still largely a sea of senseless date?
• If you could know whether a drug that treats a serious disease would be more likely to be effective or less effective for you with a genetic test, wouldn’t you like to have one? Is this a practice that can be generalised to many drugs or just reduced to certain drugs and pathologies?
• Would you like someone to explain what health apps are the ones you can trust? And which are those which are not validated from a scientific viewpoint?
• Would you like to try the latest developments in Virtual Therapy?
• Would you like to be explained how to better control adherence to your treatment?

Another question to be borne in mind is the pressure to which carers are subject due to the preload of caring. Well, their vital space may be smaller and smaller due to lack of time, due to the possible “empowerment” of the patient and even the not too distant implementation of possible forms of artificial intelligence in many clinical decisions.

This situation also brings forth a series of questions:

• Is this a hopeful future, or is it a worrying future for Carers?
• How can carers bring themselves up to date in the best possible way?
• What are the latest developments in healthcare innovation that can really help carers? Or what healthcare innovations are more like hindrances on an effective relationship between carer and patient?

Well all of these questions and some real experiences can be discussed and also experienced at the first edition of Healthio with different answers and the participation of the main players of the Health sector. 

For further information, you can see the Congress presentation video or access the Healthio web portal.

We look forward to seeing you at Fira de Barcelona!

Dr. Jordi Serrano Pons
Joint Founder of Healthio