Tell us a little about yourself. What does your job at Telefónica involve?
My work at Telefónica has always revolved around information technology and project management. In recent years I have been focused on bringing digital transformation to our major clients, companies and public administrations, and, more specifically, on the digital transformation of the health sector, which I understand is the concept behind the term digital health.
My responsibilities include the pre-sales area (preparing the offers that are delivered to customers) and project execution (delivering to the customer the value that we have committed to in the contracted offers).
In addition to my work at Telefónica, my knowledge of digital health has led me to become a member of the board of directors of the Asociación Salud Digital, a non-profit organisation aimed at promoting its expansion and knowledge in Spain, and also to be the coordinator of the digital health working group at the Official College of Telecommunications Engineers.
What does the advancement of technology mean for the healthcare sector?
We should see technology as an enabler for digital transformation. And there are many definitions of the latter, but I have my own: it is about transforming processes, work tools, the methodology of managing projects and the mentality of the people involved so that, through the use of technology, methods are made more efficient, a better user experience is achieved (customers, patients, healthcare professionals, etc.) and a new generation of native digital services is created that improve people’s lives and health.
It is not a question of incorporating technology for technology’s sake, because it is the fashion of the moment, but of creating a more accessible, human and sustainable healthcare system. More digital.
Which areas of the healthcare sector can benefit most from technological innovation?
All of them can be favoured. On the one hand, the clinical process has always been a technological process, in a way, since they started taking x-rays, for example.
Now what is produced in it are several qualitative changes, such as telemedicine or the emergence of artificial intelligence, which come to super-empower existing technology.
But, on the other hand, support processes (demand management, logistics, accounting, etc.) and management processes can also benefit, as services become data-based and managed from data. It’s a totally different vision from that of traditional healthcare, which is highly leveraged on human resources and the provision of services based on the consumption of healthcare professionals’ hours.
What are the main advantages of digital health?
I would summarise it in three. The first has to do with people’s health. It has been scientifically proven, with medical evidence, that certain processes in which technology is introduced generate better health outcomes for patients than traditional ones without it. Here we are gaining years of healthy life for people.
The second has to do with the user experience (that of patients, above all, but also of healthcare professionals). Digital transformation makes it possible to transform the patient experience by making healthcare services more accessible and closer to home.
The third advantage has to do with sustainability. Digital healthcare services are more efficient, and make it possible to bring these services to more people at a lower cost.
And what challenges do you face in the future?
The healthcare sector faces a sustainability challenge derived from the ageing of the population. The demand for healthcare services increases with age. And the population pyramid is inverting, with the baby boomers, more numerous, reaching old age.
This leads to a sharp increase in the demand for services that fundamentally pivot on the use of healthcare professionals’ time. In addition, this ageing has another side to the coin in the case of these same healthcare professionals, with a significant group that is difficult to replace and is close to retirement.
More demand for services and fewer professionals to provide them is an explosive cocktail. Here, digital transformation can be part of the solution, making provision more efficient and enabling healthcare services to reach more people with the same resources.
Another important challenge also stems from the fact that patients have changed. They experience digital transformation in other aspects of their lives and, therefore, they also demand it in the health sector. They used to go to the doctor’s after having searched for their illness on Google. Now they have asked Perplexity! This is a challenge for health professionals, who must be trained in digital technologies.
What impact can the advance of artificial intelligence have on digital health?
Artificial intelligence is having a major impact on the world of health. Its applications are multiple, starting with medical diagnosis, where AI algorithms are trained to find diseases in patients’ tests or biomedical measurements, reaching in some of them a reliability superior to that of professionals.
But there are many other applications, in fields such as public health (forecasting and managing pandemics), the pharmaceutical industry (improving the process of developing new medicines), coding electronic medical records, characterising tumours, and a long etcetera. The arrival of generative AI is going to change the world of healthcare: soon we will no longer see the doctor very busy typing on a computer while he is consulting with us. It will be an AI that will be recording all the data.
Who do you know at Telefónica that you would nominate for this interview that you consider to be excellent in their work?
I’m sure my colleague Sergio Fernandez García, who works in the health and social business development department, will give you another excellent perspective on this fascinating subject.
