Santander hosted the 19th Interregional Meeting on the Legal Protection of Patients, organized by the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP) and the Health Department of the Government of Cantabria. The event has become one of Spain’s leading forums for reflection on the legal, ethical, and organizational challenges of the digital transformation of the healthcare system.
Under the title “Health Data, Governance and Digital Rights”, professionals from public administrations, universities, regulatory bodies, European institutions, technology and pharmaceutical companies, as well as experts in bioethics, artificial intelligence, and data protection, shared a multidisciplinary vision of the future of digital health.
The various sessions highlighted broad consensus around a central idea: digitalization represents a historic opportunity to improve care quality, biomedical research, and the sustainability of the National Health System—provided that its development is accompanied by solid governance, an adapted regulatory framework, and effective guarantees of patients’ rights.
In this regard, participants agreed that artificial intelligence, the secondary use of health data, interoperability of clinical information, and the creation of the European Health Data Space will shape the evolution of the healthcare system over the next decade.
A transformation that requires leadership, regulation, and trust
The meeting opened with a debate on the present and future of healthcare digitalization, emphasizing the need to promote a national strategy that enables the homogeneous development of artificial intelligence and digital health across the entire National Health System, avoiding new territorial inequalities and fostering collaboration among administrations, the private sector, and the scientific community.
Speakers also stressed the importance of moving toward a future digital health law that guarantees all citizens access to a common portfolio of digital services and leverages technological innovation to improve efficiency, care quality, and equity.
The legal dimension also played a central role throughout the seminar. The president of the Spanish Data Protection Agency argued that the new European regulatory framework will make it possible to reconcile privacy protection with the advancement of biomedical research through secure systems for accessing pseudonymized data and protected environments, ensuring that regulation does not become a barrier to scientific innovation.
Additionally, several working groups addressed the need to consider health data as a true strategic infrastructure for the healthcare system—one based on quality, interoperability, security, and governance that enables better clinical decision-making, greater competitiveness, and excellence in research.
Digital rights, artificial intelligence, and a European vision of health
The meeting also devoted special attention to patients’ digital rights, particularly those of groups in situations of greater vulnerability. Experts warned of the risk that the digital divide may limit equitable access to healthcare and advocated for the development of specific protection mechanisms that ensure effective equality for all citizens in an increasingly digital environment.
Artificial intelligence was another major focus of the program. Speakers agreed that these technologies are already part of the present of medicine—through predictive tools that enable increasingly personalized care and through generative assistants that will transform the work of healthcare professionals. Participants emphasized, however, that this evolution must be grounded in principles of responsibility, transparency, and human oversight.
The international dimension was reflected in the analysis of the future implementation of the European Health Data Space, the evolution of EU regulation on medical products, and the legal challenges posed by the expansion of telemedicine, particularly in areas such as data protection, security, professional liability, and cross-border provision of healthcare services.
The program concluded with the presentation of the Career Award for the Protection of the Right to Health to Ignacio Hernández Medrano, founder and Chief Medical Officer of Savana, who delivered a keynote lecture on the impact of artificial intelligence in medicine. The recognition served as the closing highlight of an edition that reaffirmed the role of the Interregional Meeting on the Legal Protection of Patients as a reference forum for anticipating the major challenges of healthcare digital transformation and promoting an innovation model that serves people, grounded in the protection of rights, institutional cooperation, and scientific knowledge.
