The Palacio de la Magdalena in Santander will host, on July 7 and 8, 2025, the fifth edition of the professional meeting Value-Based Digital Health: Transforming Healthcare Through the Power of Data, a landmark event organized by the Ministry of Health of the Government of Cantabria and co-organized by the Marqués de Valdecilla Research Institute (IDIVAL), with the collaboration of the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP). This meeting will once again bring together healthcare professionals, managers, institutional leaders, technology industry representatives and patients to collectively address the challenges and opportunities of the digital transformation of healthcare systems.
The event’s program is built around a clear premise: health is a fundamental pillar for social well-being, and ensuring high-quality, accessible and people-centered healthcare is a top priority. In this context, technology emerges as an essential tool for redefining how healthcare is organized, managed, and delivered. The meeting will explore how incorporating the human factor as a key design principle for technological solutions — considering aspects such as accessibility, ergonomics, usability and safety — is vital for progressing toward more personalized and participatory care. This calls for the active involvement of healthcare professionals, patients, and technology companies in the design and validation of new digital services.
Special focus will be placed on the opportunities currently offered by the European Recovery and Resilience Mechanism and the PERTE for Vanguard Healthcare, along with new programs in artificial intelligence and medical imaging interoperability, which set strategic milestones for advancing the digital maturity of Spain’s National Health System. The recent approval of the European Health Data Space Regulation represents a decisive boost for the interoperability of healthcare data and opens the door to the development of artificial intelligence algorithms that will help improve clinical decision-making and accelerate diagnostic and treatment processes. This new reality, characterized by a previously unimaginable volume of data, requires the development of a healthcare data governance model that ensures its safe, efficient, and ethical use, defining regulatory frameworks, quality standards and procedures to safeguard privacy, traceability and interoperability across the system.
Considering that the program, at the time of publishing this note, is still provisional, the event will offer conferences, dialogues, and panel discussions around the main drivers of transformation. The first day will focus on digital health, artificial intelligence, and patient engagement.
After welcoming attendees, the opening ceremony will be led by César Pascual, Minister of Health of the Government of Cantabria, and Carlos Andradas, Rector of the UIMP. This will be followed by a presentation from Noemí Cívicos, Director General for Digital Health and Information Systems for the Spanish National Health System (SNS), who will outline the national strategy in this field.
The day will continue with an address by Aleida Alcaide, Director General for Artificial Intelligence at the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Civil Service, who will explain how to implement the integration of AI into the healthcare sector.
Afterwards, a panel discussion will explore how to accelerate secure data sharing to integrate artificial intelligence in healthcare environments, featuring Ana López de la Rica, from the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices; Juan Ángel Morejudo, Director of the Castilla-La Mancha Digital Agency; Javier Gómez Román, Head of Pathology at Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital; and Benigno Rosón, Deputy Director of Systems at the Galician Health Service, moderated by Rocío Montalbán, Course Director and Deputy Director General for Digital Health in Cantabria.
In the afternoon, Raj Ratwani, Director of the MedStar National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare in Washington D.C., will lead a dialogue on human factors engineering applied to patient safety. This will be followed by Juan Fortea Ormaechea, Director of the Memory Unit at Hospital Santa Creu i Sant Pau, who will discuss how real-world data and big data are transforming research into diseases such as Alzheimer’s. The day will conclude with a panel discussion on how digital health can improve patient care and support, featuring professionals from various fields.
The second day will be dedicated to the use of healthcare data in clinical care and research, and its role in ensuring the sustainability of the healthcare system.
The morning will begin with a panel discussion on data-driven innovation in healthcare management, featuring Bernardo Valdivieso, Regional Secretary for Health in the Valencian Community; Javier Arcos, Managing Director of Fundación Jiménez Díaz; Yolima Cossio, Director of Systems at Vall d’Hebron Hospital; and Helena González, Associate Director of Medical Innovation and Data Analytics at MSD, moderated by Pablo Serrano, Deputy Director for Healthcare at the Cantabrian Health Service.
Next, Dipak Kalra, President of the European Institute for Innovation through Health Data, will join remotely for a dialogue on the necessary changes to transform healthcare organizations, also moderated by Pablo Serrano.
After a break, Nuria Mas, Chair of the Jaime Grego Professorship in Global Healthcare Management, will lead a dialogue on value-based digital health and sustainability.
The final panel discussion will examine the new horizons for research made possible by healthcare data spaces, with participants including Ruth del Campo, Director General for Data at the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Civil Service; Anna Saura, Senior Researcher at the University of Oxford; Marina Pollán, Director of the Carlos III Health Institute; Iñaki Gutiérrez, Director of Research and Innovation for the Basque Government; and Amelia Martín, Director of Clinical and Translational Research at Farmaindustria. The session will be moderated by Galo Peralta, Managing Director of IDIVAL.
The meeting will conclude with a summary of key takeaways by Rocío Montalbán and Óscar Fernández, Director General for Planning, Knowledge Management, and Digital Health for the Government of Cantabria and Co-Director of the course. The official closing will be delivered by Luis Carretero, Managing Director of the Cantabrian Health Service.
This professional meeting has established itself as an essential platform for sharing knowledge, fostering partnerships, and exploring how to place people at the heart of tomorrow’s digital healthcare system, using data as a driver for responsible, ethical and sustainable transformation.
Link to the full event program.
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