Tino Marti, one of EHTEL's three digital health facilitators, was recently interviewed by HTN, a health tech digital news platform.
HTN quizzed this digital health facilitator on four areas:
-
Projects and areas of focus
-
Spain's digital health landscape
-
Workforce literacy and training in digital health
-
Looking ahead.
Tino chose to emphasise the importance of scaling-up digital health in Europe, and to highlight the role of the DigitalHealthUptake coordination and support action in which EHTEL participates. Key activities include DHU's radar tool which monitors and analyses opportunities for digital innovation in health and care. EHTEL itself is especially involved in collecting useful tools that can help facilitate growth in digital health and data.
Remarking on the Spanish context, Tino drew attention to Spain's decentralised health system of 17 regions, and key aspects of healthcare in both the public sector and private sector. Since Tino is based in Barcelona, he reflected on his experiences with the Catalan Information Systems Master Plan and the region's current development of its E-Health Infrastructure.
From Tino's observations, he offered the insight that healthcare professionals have been keen to pick up digital skills and get trained. Recently, the COVID-19 experience meant rapid moves ahead. Workforce literacy and training in digital health in Spain is certainly heading forward. Adoption and take-up has been common.
Among major future steps are AI, use of data and databases, infrastructure, and innovation. Ultimately, "the transition is underway to move from building digital health infrastructure to using consolidated data and services, but there is a need to develop the policies to accompany this change."
For more on digital health in Spain and Catalonia
Since TICSalutSocial is a longstanding EHTEL member, developments in the Catalan region features often among EHTEL news. Among them:
- COMPDIG-Salut: Enhancing Digital Competences of Health Professionals in Catalonia
- Catalonia launches its Blue Button
- Catalonia's now involved in the xShare project
- The xShare project is developing the Yellow Button
Read the original article with Tino Marti's views on the HTN website. We especially acknowledge HTN for its permission to reproduce this article.
For more info on HTN
HTN is an innovative platform for the health tech community. Through its website, live events, Health Tech Awards and Features, HTN offers a unique depth, breadth, and perspective on health technology. HTN was launched in 2016 in the United Kingdom, but is now "going global" and will cover health tech news not only in Europe but also in other continents and countries. Its website includes various news channels e.g., on health tech and virtual care. It conducts regular interviews with experts worldwide.