The workshop  ‘Digital Health Softwares & Platform solutions’ was held in Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain) took place last 26th October as part of the CONNECTINGHEALTH project.  In cooperation with the Cluster Saúde de Galicia, the event was held within the RIES22 Conference. 

The workshop was  moderated by Sami Perälä (Development manager,Wellbeing technologies, SeAMK), Mika Uitto (Research & development specialist, SeAMK) and Inés Luján (Ecosystem and Membership Assistant, ECHAlliance). The participants identified a number of barriers to digital health today, such as: 

• Too much regulation of softwares
• Lacking time and the resources to use software solutions
• Challenges in integration of softwares & platforms
• Unequal access to softwares
• Challenges in purchasing procedures
• Lack of links between health services and the private sector and softwares

To the question “What are the enablers encountered by digital health softwares and platform solutions today?”, the participants of the event gave creative and unique ideas, including:

• Technology trainings: good user experience of softwares
• High skilled software developers & physicians interested in using technologies
• Users demanding more digital services
• Physicians with positive attitudes toward software solutions 
• Governments motivated to digitise services

In the final part of the meeting, the participants brainstormed ideas that could be in place by 2030 if there were no constraints and the main conclusions are that access to digital health would be easy and simple for the entire population, regardless of their age or level of familiarity with technology. 

The attendees also tried to create a positive and a negative scenario for 2030, where they  came up with many interesting ideas and some problems that we will have to face within digital health in Europe, such as the ageing population or the gap between people living in rural areas and those living in big cities. 

We would like to thank all the participants of the event for being part of CONNECTINGHEALTH. We look forward to welcoming you at the next events!

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