The biopharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim has put an end to a year of debate meetings in various Spanish cities within its "Ruta 86" initiative, a forum for conversation that has linked the legacy of the General Health Law of 1986 "with the social, ethical, and technological challenges of future Healthcare," in which prevention is emerging as an essential piece.
The last session took place at the Ateneo de Madrid, where the 40th anniversary of said law was celebrated and it was emphasized that digitalization and equity will be equally decisive "in the face of the challenge of longevity and chronicity" that the healthcare system will face in the coming years.
"In the past year, we have brought together public officials, experts, and representatives of society to reflect on the evolution of the Spanish healthcare system and the challenges that will shape future Healthcare," indicated the general director of Boehringer Ingelheim Spain, Nicolás Dumoulin, emphasizing the importance of cooperation among all stakeholders involved.
The purpose, he added, is "to continue building, together, that plural, universal, and equitable Healthcare that so defines our country." In the same vein, the general director of the Common Portfolio of Services of the National Health System (SNS) and Pharmacy, César Hernández, defended "a plural vision" to "improve Healthcare" and "that responds to the perspectives of the diverse parties that make it up," something he considers "one of the most important aspects."
"Having a broad and global vision helps those who have management responsibility over the healthcare system to do so in the best possible way," Hernández pointed out. Through a video message, the Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla, highlighted how the General Health Law has "laid the foundations" of the current healthcare system and recalled that "it was the seed for subsequent legislative developments."
The historian Rosa Lluch, daughter of the Minister of Health under whose mandate the law was approved, Ernest Lluch, and the Secretary of Health of the PSOE and spokesperson in the Health Commission of the Senate, Kilian Sánchez, also spoke at the event. Regarding her father, who was murdered by ETA, she stated that "he had the ambition to build a country in which everyone had, at least, the same capabilities and possibilities," highlighting that one of the features that best define the norm "is the sense of community."
Following a presentation by the journalist and writer specialized in data, Kiko Llaneras, on the evolution of the Spanish healthcare system, and under the moderation of journalist and writer Marta García Aller, a debate panel was held with the participation of the Professor of Microbiology at the University of Navarra, Ignacio López-Goñi; the Deputy Director of the Center for Demographic Studies, Elisenda Rentería; the nurse and scientific and health communicator, Esther Gómez; the jurist, political scientist, activist and writer, Noah Higón; and Hernández himself.
From a Reactive Model to Healthcare Focused on Prevention
The speakers emphasized that healthcare constitutes "a fundamental pillar of the Welfare State that has transformed daily life, social cohesion, and the perception of health as a non-negotiable collective right." They also described the transition towards a system that "protects health comprehensively, prioritizing prevention and public health over the traditional reactive approach focused on curing and treating pathologies."
In this context, they identified "several priority challenges for the coming decades," including "strengthening Primary Care as the core of the system that anticipates chronicity and accompanies the patient continuously" and "structuring innovation as a value chain that aligns the research ecosystem, institutions, and private initiative to ensure that scientific advances translate into a real and equitable improvement in access to care."
Likewise, López-Goñi, Rentería, Gómez, Higón, and Hernández propose "moving towards a prevention-centered model that adapts to population aging and chronicity; providing society with rigorous information and conveying the importance of science to combat health misinformation; avoiding territorial inequalities, especially in island or rural areas, as well as possible social and economic biases," and "leveraging digitalization without losing the humanization of the system."
Experts have also warned of "emerging challenges" such as "antimicrobial resistance and the interrelationship between human, animal, and environmental health (One Health)". "These threats, present in health crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic or the recent hantavirus or Ebola outbreaks, force the system to evolve towards a more collaborative, integrated model prepared to respond to complex risks," they have indicated.
To conclude, and after outlining a horizon "where technological development, digitalization, and the personalization of care contribute to an even more equitable, proactive, and humanized future Healthcare," the event closed with a performance by the NGO "Musicians for Health".