What is the approximate stakeholder breakdown of your ecosystem?
Digital Health Portugal brings together people from a variety of Portuguese entities including patient associations, health service and technology providers, start-ups, Research and Development centres, Universities and Knowledge Centres, private and public investors, the national health service and also with the participation of the Ministries of Health in mainland Portugal and the autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores. You can take a look at our members here.
Who are the top 3 champions from your Ecosystem?
I will name 4 of them: COTEC, TICE.PT, Portugal Ventures and Glintt:
COTEC is the main Portuguese business association for the promotion of innovation and technological business cooperation, representing more than 16% of our GDP and 8% of private employment.
TICE.PT is the Portuguese National ICT Cluste-
Portugal Ventures is an investment organisation that has played a decisive role in the financing and growth of the national entrepreneurial ecosystem, investing around 146 million euros in 130 new companies.
Glintt is a reference company in the Iberian Peninsula in Technology Consultancy and Services, with over 20 years’ experience and solutions used in over 250 Hospitals, 500 Clinics and 14,000 Pharmacies in Portugal, Spain, Brazil and Angola.
What EU funding/collaboration are you involved with, or you would like to be part of?
We are currently involved in the following projects:
ALS LIFE SCIENCES PORTUGAL, S.A (25.7M) – SMARTgNOSTICS, which proposes a holistic approach to the problem of AMR (antibiotic resistance) by developing devices/solutions to target bacteria, AMR genes and antibiotic residues in various fields that make up the AMR cycle.
MEDICEUS DADOS DE SAÚDE, S.A. (28.2M) – Data4Life Project centred on the development of a digital health platform, based on the health data of the Portuguese population (in compliance with the GDPR) gathered in an integrated, secure and universally accessible database; using advanced data science techniques (Big Data, artificial intelligence), health data is processed to obtain new scientific knowledge of high economic value for the purposes of better health, better treatments, innovation in products and services and better public health policies.
PROLÓGICA – SISTEMAS INFORMÁTICOS S.A. (118.7M) – HfPT – Health from Portugal, which will focus on 4 areas: (i) development of smart health solutions aimed at the digital medtech segment; (ii) creation of a national smart health data repository of international reference; (iii) capacity building for the growth and sophistication of the clinical studies segment in the country; and (iv) creation of solutions that valorise the potential of the ecosystem for collecting and benchmarking clinical data and costs associated with healthcare provision.
DECSIS II IBÉRIA, LDA (28.4M) – D2. Digital Diabetes is based on a multidisciplinary and innovative project involving the fields of medicine, health economics, materials science, nanotechnology, engineering, data management and artificial intelligence, distributed among a group of industrial partners and knowledge centres, patient associations and healthcare providers, in order to develop simple, more differentiated, sensitive and selective diagnostic and monitoring methods that guarantee a holistic view of the disease, understanding its complications and thus accelerating the use of precision medicine with gains for the health economy.
TECHNOPHAGE, INVESTIGAÇÃO E DESENVOLVIMENTO EM BIOTECNOLOGIA S.A. (46.4M) – Bio-Hub includes the construction of a production unit with the aim of supporting the development of biopharmaceuticals, accompanying the entire life cycle of the product right through to its commercialisation.
BLUEPHARMA – INDÚSTRIA FARMACÊUTICA S.A. (47M) – CiNTech aims to create and train the 1st Technological Innovation, Translation and Industrialisation Hub dedicated to complex injectable medicines: innovative technological platforms capable of incorporating different therapeutic agents for oncology (small molecules, peptides, nucleic acids).
What are the key priorities and themes for your ecosystem?
Our key goals are:
- To encourage and support the generation of knowledge in a sector that intersects politics, technology and innovation.
- To enable policymakers to take the pulse of the demands and needs of professionals in the health ecosystem in Portugal.
- To create momentums through hybrid events, seminars, workshops and digital tools, for the sharing and discussion of ideas on issues related to digital health.
- To promote the internationalisation and financing of Portuguese companies in the digital health sector.
Our health key themes are:
- Longevity
- Digital Health for Palliative Care
- Real-World Evidence
- Health Data Quality
What is your primary strength as an ecosystem?
Portugal is a major beneficiary of European funds and there is a high quality of university and technical training of Portuguese health professionals (which leads to the problem of the Portuguese brain drain to other countries).
Portugal is used as a beta-tester for large multinationals (size and scale adjusted), has a high level of digital maturity and political stability.
Additionally, our main cities, Lisbon, Oporto and the autonomous region of Madeira, are in the top 20 most desirable cities to live in and create business (create in Portugal to export to the world).
Which are the main hospitals in your ecosystem and which are the most active in your ecosystems?
Public
The Centro Hospitalar Universitário de São João (CHUSJ) is located in the city of Porto and provides direct care to the population of the parishes of Bonfim, Paranhos and Campanhã, within the municipality of Porto, as well as the municipalities of Maia and Valongo. CHUSJ also acts as a reference centre for wider geographical areas, in the context of Hospital Referral Networks, or even for wider areas in specific cutting-edge areas, where it acts as a reference centre of excellence for patients from various other geographical areas.
Coimbra Hospital and Universitary Centre (CHUC) is the biggest Portuguese hospital having a comprehensive research, teaching and patient-centred care approach. Our mission is to deliver high-quality clinical care in a context of pre and postgraduate training with a strong focus on research, scientific knowledge and innovation.
The Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte (CHLN) is part of two important university establishments of reference in the Portuguese National Health Service, the Hospital de Santa Maria and the Hospital de Pulido Valente. Its mission includes important integrated functions in the provision of health care, pre- and post-graduate and continuing training, and innovation and research, making it an essential unit within the Portuguese health system.
Private
CUF is a benchmark institution in the provision of healthcare in Portugal and a partner in the country’s development, with over 75 years’ experience. It currently operates through the CUF network, with 23 private healthcare centres. Every day, almost seven thousand highly qualified employees work to provide healthcare that meets the highest medical and ethical standards in line with our values – respect for the dignity and well-being of the person, human development, competence, innovation and integrity – which are our best assets. The CUF network consists of ten hospitals, twelve clinics and an institute.
Lusíadas is a Portuguese healthcare group focused on providing excellent healthcare services and on caring. Our mission is to help people live healthier lives and to help the healthcare system serve everyone better. We seek to improve the performance of the healthcare system and, in general, the health and well-being of our clients and those close to them. We work with healthcare professionals and other key partners to widen access to quality healthcare services, so that people receive the care they need at an affordable price. We support the relationship between doctor and patient, and provide people with the information, guidance and tools they need to make choices and decisions about their health.
The Champalimaud Clinical Centre (CCC) is a state-of-the-art medical, scientific and technological institution. In this centre, interdisciplinary clinical care is developed alongside applied research activities and advanced medical and technical education programmes. The CCC focuses on personalised medicine, centred on the patient, which allows for higher efficacy levels in disease control leading to longer survival and better quality of life.
