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.
Over the course of two days, the meeting will offer lectures, dialogues and roundtable discussions around the main pillars of healthcare transformation. The first day will focus on digital health, artificial intelligence and patient participation. Following the welcoming of attendees, the event will be officially opened by César Pascual, Health Minister of the Government of Cantabria, and Carlos Andradas, Rector of the UIMP. This will be followed by an address from Noemí Cívicos, Director General of Digital Health and Information Systems for the National Health System, who will present the national strategy in this field. The session will then continue with a keynote by Aleida Alcaide, Director General for Artificial Intelligence at the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Civil Service, who will explain how to translate AI integration into the healthcare sector.
Later, a roundtable will explore how to accelerate the trustworthy exchange of data to effectively integrate artificial intelligence into healthcare environments, with contributions from Ana López de la Rica of the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices; Juan Ángel Morejudo, Director of the Castilla-La Mancha Digital Agency; Javier Gómez Román, Head of Pathology at the Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital; and Benigno Rosón, Deputy Director of Systems at the Galicia Health Ministry. The session will be moderated by Rocío Montalbán, the course director and Deputy Director General for Digital Health of Cantabria.
In the afternoon, Raj Ratwani, Director of the MedStar National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare in Washington DC, will lead a dialogue on applying human factors engineering to patient safety. Following this, Juan Fortea Ormaechea, Director of the Memory Unit at Hospital Santa Creu i Sant Pau, will discuss how real-world data and big data are transforming research in diseases like Alzheimer’s. The first day will conclude with a roundtable examining how digital health can enhance patient care and services, with the participation of professionals from various fields.
The second day will be dedicated to the use of health data in clinical care and research, and its role in ensuring the sustainability of healthcare systems. The morning will open with a roundtable on innovation in data-driven care management, featuring Izabel Alfany, Managing Director of EIT Health Spain; Bernardo Valdivieso, Regional Secretary for Health in the Valencian Community; Javier Arcos, Managing Director of Fundación Jiménez Díaz; and Yolima Cossio, Director of Information Systems at Vall d’Hebron Hospital. The session will be moderated by Pablo Serrano, Deputy Director of Healthcare at the Cantabrian Health Service.
Next, Dipak Kalra, President of the European Institute for Innovation through Health Data, will join remotely to participate in a dialogue on the changes needed to transform healthcare organizations, accompanied by Rosa Mª Piñeiro, CEO of CUIDARred; Teresa Ramos, Director of Digital Health at Roche Farma Spain; and moderated by Santiago García, of the Spanish Patients’ Forum.
After a break, Nuria Mas, holder of the Jaime Grego Chair in Global Healthcare Management, will lead a dialogue on value-based digital health and healthcare system sustainability. The final roundtable will analyze the new horizons for research being opened by health data spaces, with the participation of 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 at 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 of Planning, Knowledge Management and Digital Health at the Government of Cantabria and co-director of the course. The closing institutional remarks 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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