Spain funds development of Digital Health Strategy

The Spanish Council of Ministers has approved an allocation of 230 million euros to develop the Digital Health Strategy as one of the proposals of the current Government aims to promote the digital transformation of health services . This amount will be distributed between 2022 and 2023 among the autonomous communities applying three criteria: 10% will be a fixed amount for each of the territories; 84% based on population criteria; and the remaining 6% will go to those regions that are committed to leading projects collaboratively.

“This is a good document that describes policies and strategies that could effectively help the correct development of digitization in Spain. However, a significant investment of resources and adequate management of change is needed to see this transformation come true”, says Ismael Said Criado, coordinator the working subgroup on adoption of new technologies at the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (SEMI), “we hope for in the future is the development of true clinical decision support tools based on AI, which take advantage of the data generated by clinical activity to simplify the work of the health professional”.

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Mergers and acquisitions in digital health on the rise again

A new report by Rock Health describes mergers and acquisitions as a new way to invest in digital health. It takes place despite a significant slowdown in digital health investments. The following are key merger and acquisition trends in digital health: Mergers and acquisitions in the digital health sector averaged nearly 23 deals per month in 2021, for a total of 273 transactions. A monthly average of 23 digital health mergers and acquisitions was recorded in January and February of 2022. During the second quarter of 2022, economic headwinds caused digital health mergers and acquisitions to decline to 13 deals per month. With an average of 15 deals per month in the third quarter of 2022, there have been 144 digital health mergers and acquisitions in the first three quarters of 2022. The report expects this trend to continue into the fourth quarter of 2022, with merger and acquisition deals continuing to increase.  Rock Health’s latest report identifies four archetypes of digital health buyers capitalizing on sell-side interests to meet the following operational needs: 1. Consolidation for inorganic growth: ‘As some digital health startups contemplate exiting the private market to avoid an austere funding climate, others are looking to weather the market by acquiring their competitors, leading to waves of sector consolidation. From the buyer’s perspective, consolidation is a useful approach to grow one’s customer base and build confidence from investors looking for growth indicators.’ 2. Acquisitions to enhance core operations and internal efficiencies ‘The second acquisition strategy involves purchasing digital health startups that enhance or streamline the acquirer’s core operations, ideally offsetting the cost of acquisition with the bottom-line savings that would result from new internal efficiencies. Interestingly, many acquirers pursuing this type of M&A approach are provider organizations, which are battling staffing cost surges and rollbacks in post-pandemic relief funding.’ 3. “Buy and build” deals for category expansion ‘ A third acquisition strategy involves buying digital health companies with features complementary to the acquirer entity—empowering the acquirer to move more freely upstream or downstream in the care delivery value chain. This stepwise strategy can help acquirers capture market share in adjacent care categories.’ 4. M&A for disruptive innovation ‘As interest rates have continued to soar, the relative cost of capital has increased in tandem. With the days of easy money in the rear-view mirror, Rock Health hypothesize that the players best positioned to make headline-grabbing M&A deals are primarily those who used the heady times of 2021 to accumulate and hold serious cash reserves.’

WHO confirms better clinical outcomes of telemedicine

A new study conducted by WHO/Europe and the Faculty of Health Sciences of the Open University of Catalonia (an approved WHO collaborator in digital health) shows that telemedicine technologies have clear benefits in detecting, diagnosing, managing, treating and monitoring chronic diseases in the European region, iSanidad reports (in Spanish). Digital technologies were used to provide essential healthcare services during the Covid-19 pandemic. Telemedicine has already been considered a cost-effective and accessible method of providing high-quality care and reducing overall morbidity and mortality. Over 20,000 studies covering more than 20,000 patients from 53 countries were analyzed to get an overview of telemedicine in Europe and Central Asia. The use of telemedicine resulted in better clinical conclusions and better follow-up by health professionals. As a result, patients will benefit. “We found that the use of digital tools to deliver health services had a clear and significant effect on patients. We see better clinical outcomes, better follow-up by healthcare professionals, and an overall benefit for both patients and healthcare workers”, explains by Dr David Novillo-Ortiz, regional advisor on data and digital health and lead author of the study.

French “My health space” expands the catalog of digital services

“My health space”, the French national electronic health record, launched at the start of the year, has expanded its catalog of certified digital services, L’usine Digital reports (in French). In total, 12 sites and applications are now offered to the 65.4 million users, who have activated their online personal spaces, as well as those who have not opted out. The catalog includes, for example, the Ameli Account, the Santé.fr directory, Libheros, and My medicines. To appear on the portal, these services must comply with more than 150 interoperability, security and ethical requirements, in accordance with the framework defined by the Digital Health Agency (ANS), and more than be GDPR compliant. In particular, they must have obtained the Health Data Host (HDS) certification. “There are regulatory tools to ensure that all players follow the same rules to guarantee data transparency to users and data control by users”, explained Hela Ghariani, the ministerial delegate for digital health.

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Willum Þór: The question remains if our healthcare system is sustainable

On January 1st, Iceland took over the Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers. This intergovernmental organisation plays an important role in promoting innovations, health data integration, and cooperation between all major stakeholders in the Nordic healthcare. The Icelandic Health Minister elaborates on his vision to future health in the Nordic region, the Nordic strengths, Iceland’s plans for the Presidency with regards to health innovations, and the coming collaboration with Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

CIFS ran an all-day session at the Week of Health and Innovation (WHINN) in Odense

Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies ran an all-day session at the annual Week of Health and Innovation (WHINN) in Odense, Denmark. CIFS’ program attracted over 40 experts from health and data organisations. We presented strategic foresight and futures studies in the health sector, concepts that are used to reimagine the future of the health sector, such as the Humanome and decentralised clinical trials. Also, we had a panel discussion on the newly started Phase V project on decentralised clinical trials, where CIFS is a contributing partner

New HIMSS book out on blockchain in healthcare

The HIMSS Series has a new book on blockchain in healthcare. “Blockchain in Healthcare: Innovations that Empower Patients, Connect Professionals, and Improve Care” is the title of the book. According to the book’s authors, Vikram Dhillon, John Bass, Max Hooper, David Metcalf, and Alex Cahana, blockchain technology may hold the greatest potential in healthcare. Some of the first use cases in medical payments, electronic health records, HIPAA/data privacy, and drug counterfeiting have been explored by early pioneers. There is still much work to be done in order to automate the complexities of today’s healthcare systems and design new systems that are focused on trust, transparency, and aligning incentives. In this book, Metcalf, Bass, Hooper, Cahana, and Dhillon have assembled over 50 contributors, including early adopters, thought leaders, and health innovators. They tell their stories and share their knowledge. The videos and transcripts provided by many authors and contributors humanize the technical details and abstract aspects of blockchain. Using the fundamentals of blockchain, the authors curated a collection of future-oriented examples that build on early successes. After a brief introduction to the fundamentals and the protocols available, as well as early blockchain efforts specific to health and healthcare, the authors discuss the promise of smart contracts and protocols to automate complex, distributed processes and some of the early consortiums that are exploring the possibilities. Throughout the book are examples and use cases, with special attention given to the more advanced and far-reaching examples that can be scaled at an industry-level. In addition, a discussion of integrating blockchain technology into other advanced healthcare trends and IT systems – such as telemedicine, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, value-based payments, patient engagement solutions, big data solutions, medical tourism, and clinical trials among many others – is presented. The final section provides a glimpse into the future using blockchain technology and examples of research projects that are still in labs across the globe.