The 109th Tech Day took place on the 23rd of July, this time dedicated to the theme “Digital Health: What Changed and Are We Really Prepared?”.
Moderated by João Paulo Firmeza, Director of the Digital, Internet and Television Department at Altice Labs, this session was attended by Dr. Paulo Freitas, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Instituto Marquês de Valle Flôr and director, at the highest level, in the area of intensive care, medical emergency and internal medicine, at the Hospital Professor Doutor Fernando Fonseca (where he is a member of the respective Clinical Direction); Professor Hélder Araújo, Cathedratic Professor in the Department of Electrotechnical and Computer Engineering at the University of Coimbra and researcher at the Systems and Robotics Institute; Dr. Inês Ferreira, currently responsible for the IoT and Business Solutions area, at Altice Empresas; and also Dr. Inês Matias, a member of the pan-European network in the health sector, EIT Health, in which she is responsible for the business creation area, supporting startups in Central and Southern Europe.
For about 1h30m, the more than 90 participants got to know the opinion of the guests on some topics considered relevant in the scope of eHealth. With their contributions it was possible to clarify whether or not we are on the right path towards a digital health system, where technology helps patients and, above all, allows better management of available resources, greater geographical coverage of certain medical specialties and, above all, the improvement of preventive medicine.
Thus, after an introduction about the current context with regard to the world population and the weight that the increase in average life expectancy has in health systems, it was possible to hear Dr. Paulo Freitas, one of the pioneers in Portugal in the adoption of technologies associated with telemedicine, discuss the potential of technology when applied to urgency / emergency scenarios, diagnosis, as well as geographic isolation scenarios. Professor Hélder Araújo had the opportunity to share with the audience how his work is contributing to digital health services, as well as how research in this area has been evolving and contributing positively to the evolution of medicine in Portugal.
In turn, Dr. Inês Matias, after exposing some data on the exponential investment evolution in the area of digital health, was able to clarify the extent to which disruptive projects from startups, in very specific technological areas, are being accepted in a system as conservative as our national health system.
On the other hand, Dr. Inês Ferreira, following the presentation of the Medigraf and SmartAL solutions developed by Altice Labs, had the opportunity to mention not only the way in which this type of platform is accepted in the national market, as well as unveiling a little of Altice Portugal’s health strategy.
Both Dr. Inês Matias and Professor Hélder Araújo also had the opportunity to talk about which technologies will stand out the most and what better impact may have on the resolution of the real needs of health institutions, as well as to accelerate a true ecosystem of eHealth in Portugal.
The session was concluded with questions raised by the audience and the usual final summary, which featured the main ideas of each of the guests.