Current events

Salutogenesis: a unique approach to eHealth

Photo: UOC

08/10/2018
Teresa Bau
The eHealth Center is seeking a paradigm shift, focusing on where health begins

Salutogenesis is a term coined during the second half of the 20th century by Aaron Antonovsky, an Israeli American doctor and sociologist. The word comes from salus (health in Latin) and genesis (origin in Greek), and the concept is a counterpoint to the pathogenic view of medicine, which looks at the causes of illnesses. In contrast, salutogenesis focuses on how we keep ourselves fit and well, and this represents an important paradigm shift for the health world.

Inspired by institutions such as the University of Toronto's Institute for Global Health Equity and Innovation (IGHEI), the eHealth Center has made the salutogenic approach part of its founding principles and an important feature of its projects. Dr Manuel Armayones, a researcher and development director at the eHealth Center, views salutogenesis as "something that is necessary in eHealth, which focuses largely on technology but fails to include salutogenic principles. Our belief is that we need to bring this approach into e-health, to put people at the centre and let them work on keeping healthy themselves."

The importance of having the right resources

An important precept of salutogenesis is that people can make use of resources to improve their health and quality of life. Armayones pointed out "simply being aware of a health problem and evaluating the resources available to help you deal with it represents meaningful progress". The eHealth Center is working on various projects related to this idea. For example, it was involved in developing the COMJunts app, designed to help families with children suffering from rare diseases, offering them resources to improve communications with health professionals. The app was developed jointly with Pompeu Fabra University, Vall d’Hebron Hospital and the Spanish Federation of Rare Diseases (FEDER), and it was presented on 6 September.

Another project with a salutogenic focus is the eHealth center's collaboration with Salus, a health data citizen cooperative. In this case the goal is citizen empowerment through access and use of their data. Armayones clarified that "If people can access their data, they can make informed decisions about their health".

Armayones is the scientific director for a conference being run by COCEMFE (the Spanish federation for people with physical and organic disabilities), and explained "the salutogenic angle of this conference is that it's about making people more autonomous. We'll be building bridges between academia and business, so together they can come up with innovations that work in favour of disabled people's autonomy."

The eHealth Center is also preparing a MOOC offering quality information to professionals and patients who have expertise, in order to help their decision-making processes. The course is to be launched in April 2019.

The salutogenic approach the eHealth Center takes in its projects is innovative and relatively unique in the world of e-health. Our goal: to work towards a paradigm shift in health.