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"eHealth and new professions. So, what now?" Event report

Photo:UOC

31/10/2018
Irene Aguilera

The symposium Salud digital y nuevas profesiones ¿Y ahora qué? La gran pregunta de los jóvenes sobradamente desorientados (eHealth and new professions. So, what now? The big question for exceedingly disoriented graduates), organized by the Asociación Salud Digital (ASD) in collaboration with the UOC's eHealth Center, took place at the UOC's centre in Madrid on 2 October.

This symposium targeted professionals working in education, health, biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as Health Sciences graduates, postgraduate students and consultants.

The symposium was presented by Jaime del Barrio, president of the Asociación Salud Digital (ASD), after which moderator Mar Torrella, a recent Psychology graduate and currently studying for her master's degree in General Health Psychology, introduced the speakers.

This was followed by the round table, “So, what now?”, at which the expert guests shared their experiences. Here is a summary of the speakers' main contributions and the questions that were discussed:

Ángel Pazos, full professor of Pharmacology and president of the University of Cantabria, highlighted that the market is demanding more skills and less knowledge. He also stressed that the training we give to students must encompass their course's digital environment.

Carme Carrion, professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences, programme director of the Master's Degree in E-Health and coordinator of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya's (UOC) doctoral programme in Bioinformatics, emphasized that people need to be trained to lead a disruptive change, a real change, and the objective we pursue is the empowerment of patients, citizens and practitioners.

Baltasar Lobato, director of the master's degree in Digital Transformation in the health and pharmaceutical sector at IMF Business School, a collaborating centre of Camilo José Cela University, explained that the programmes of studies have not changed at all in the last 25 years and one alternative for achieving change may be through the use of technology in education.

Óscar Gil, Senior Manager of Health & Life Sciences at EY, pointed out that MOOCs allow you to get the specific training you need; it might not be very detailed but it’s enough to be part of a work team and start a new project.

Víctor González, director of R&D at Atrys Health, said that, in the future, there will be no health that is not digital. He singled out the demand for professionals with a multidisciplinary outlook and leadership and integration skills.

Alejandro Rivero, director of R&D at Salumedia, explained that the health model is changing, as we are moving towards a model in which the patient is at the centre and must be motivated to do the right things.

Mercè Bonjorn, Marie Skłodowska-Curie PhD research fellow in the CATCH project at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) – Salumedia, agreed with Carme Carrion that it is very important to create a methodology for implementing solutions in the market. She also stressed that there is nowhere that teaches soft skills, they are acquired with time; they are not curricular and they help us solve complex problems and acquire critical awareness and creativity.

What skills, knowledge and abilities does a Health Sciences graduate need to have a competitive edge in the employment market?

The demand is for motivated, enthusiastic people who are able to communicate, work as a team and manage projects, who are enterprising, culturally rich, ethical, have relational and digital skills and have a good knowledge of English.

What are the market demands that currently need to be covered?

In general, the demand is for experts in blockchain, in integrating multi-structured data, software and hardware engineers, experts in artificial intelligence, and enterprising professionals who know computer language and mathematics.

Atrys Health is looking for experts in bioinformatic solutions, automated data processing for diagnosis and artificial intelligence algorithm processing, with a multidisciplinary, multicentre approach to oncology.

Salumedia is looking for hybrid profiles – health experts with a background in technology and business.

Is there a gap between demand and supply? Who meets it? How do they do it?

There is a shortage of professionals specialized in big data, analytics and deep learning. There is also a significant need for training in telemedicine.

There needs to be a revolution in the university world; classical degrees must integrate a digital vision.

Have master's degrees fallen into disrepute? “Before, a master's degree would guarantee you a job”, but now? Is it worth it?

Our health professionals are highly valued around the world.

Nowadays, no job is guaranteed. Knowledge is more important than a degree, but in order to get the mixed professional profile that the market is demanding, the master's degree is necessary because specific training is required in technology, ICT, image, business and medicine.

The symposium concluded with questions from the audience attending the debate, which were answered by the speakers.