Current events

The eHealth Center - networking at Healthio

 
22/11/2018
Teresa Bau
UOC experts informed visitors to this innovative congress about the University's projects in eHealth

Healthio (16-18 October, Fira de Barcelona) is a healthcare sector event which, for the second year running, has brought together research, professionals and patients. This format is ideal for exchanging ideas and experiences and for establishing collaborations. This year, the congress attracted 4,500 visitors who were able to discover new, healthcare-related innovations, and was attended by hospitals, insurance companies, technology companies, researchers and patient associations.

Specialists from the eHealth Center took part in some of the agoras (debates) that were held. Consequently, Francesc Saigí, a professor from the UOC’s Faculty of Health Sciences, took part in the session “The future of telemedicine”, and Manuel Armayones, Development Director of the eHealth Center, participated in two sessions: “Promotion of health and activities of prevention” and “Minority diseases panel”.

Workshops, such as “Scratch at the hospital – Programming health”, were also held at the stand. This one in particular was given by data science expert Jordi Conesa, who is the eHealth Center's head of Health Data Science. He explained the UOC's project to offer Scratch to hospitalized children. Scratch is a programming language that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) created. It is addressed at boys and girls between 8 and 12 years old and aims to promote creativity and teamwork. Visitors to the stand were also met by various UOC experts, who explained the mobile apps and online interventions they have created to treat specific health problems: the ParkinSons App, for sufferers of Parkinson’s disease; COMJunts, an app for families of children suffering from minority diseases; Positive Thinking, an app for treating cervical and lumbar pain; DARWeb, an online intervention to help children suffering abdominal pain; and Social-Quit, an online intervention to persuade cancer patients to give up smoking. This last intervention, led by Antoni Baena, professor at the UOC’s Faculty of Health Sciences, is about to commence a pilot study with the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO).

For Alba Coma, Deputy Director of the eHealth Center, “taking part at Healthio has been a very positive experience. The people who attend the congress come from diverse, multidisciplinary backgrounds, which truly reflects the philosophy of the eHealth Center. It is important for us to work as part of a network and with experts from different disciplines in order to allow eHealth to grow and reach as many people as possible”. According to Coma, the fact that Healthio gives the patient a central role is also fundamental for the eHealth Center. She says, “At the eHealth Center we work on empowering citizens so they can take control of their health management. Our goal is people, not technology or gadgets."

With 4,500 visitors, over 300 speakers and 25 tracks divided into pathology or thematic areas, Healthio has become a platform for gathering all the members of the healthcare ecosystem. Organized by entrepreneur and physician Jordi Serrano-Pons, the event has brought the UOC’s work in eHealth to the attention of a large audience.