The Secretary General of Digital Health, Information and Innovation of the National Health System (SNS), Juan Fernando Muñoz Montalvo, has underlined that the future Digital Health Law aims "for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data to be integrated" into the healthcare system "with full ethical, security, and responsible data use guarantees".
During his speech at the "Fhuture Fharma" meeting, driven by the biopharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) in Seville, Muñoz Montalvo pointed out that the "purpose" of this regulation "is to equip the SNS with capabilities for more precise, more equitable, more proactive, and patient-centered care". The event was held at the Center for Translational Research and Innovation in Europe (CITRE), dedicated to R&D.
The meeting has brought together hospital pharmacists from all over the country with the idea of consolidating a stable forum for collaboration to analyze the challenges of Hospital Pharmacy in a context of digital transformation and the emergence of innovative therapies such as Precision Medicine. In this framework, Muñoz Montalvo has emphasized that the law, aligned with the implementation of the European Health Data Space (EHDS), will set the rules for the use of digital technologies in healthcare.
Likewise, the standard will define the bases for the secondary use of health data for research and innovation purposes. In this regard, he has emphasized that "Hospital Pharmacy is one of the areas where this transformation has the greatest potential: from supporting clinical trials to personalizing treatments, well-governed data is already a therapeutic tool".
Strategic Importance of Hospital Pharmacy
The deputy general director of Pharmacy of the Andalusian Health Service (SAS), EUTIMIO TERCERO, has wanted to highlight the role of these services by stating that "Hospital Pharmacy is not just medication, it is knowledge, organization, and clinical safety", and that "it is the point where innovation becomes real benefits for patients". He also highlighted the relevance of having cutting-edge facilities such as CITRE, which has now been promoting biomedical research for 15 years.
The director of the center, Kimberly Wilson, has explained that CITRE "represents a new way of doing biomedical research, in which the integration of data, technology, and biology allows for a significant acceleration of decision-making in the earliest phases of clinical development".
"From Seville, we contribute to reducing scientific validation times and increasing the precision with which we bring new therapies to patients," he added about this center, the only BMS center in Europe dedicated to preclinical research and early-stage clinical development. Currently, it plays a key role in the company's global R&D strategy, as it leads more than 60 percent of its Oncology and Hematology programs worldwide.
In this context, from the laboratory they have detailed that CITRE's work is oriented towards the development of innovative approaches supported by AI and data science, as well as decisively sustaining a diversified pipeline that includes CAR-T cell therapies, bispecific antibodies, and protein degraders.
One of the center's researchers, Andrea Giovanucci, has explained that the incorporation of AI into research processes is making it possible not only to detect new therapeutic targets with greater accuracy but also to shorten experimental validation cycles. In turn, the founder of NAKIAX consulting, Max Brosa, has reviewed the situation of the new European model for health technology assessment and its transition from a classic approach to a fully digital one.
"From BMS, we promote 'Fhuture Fharma' as a space for meeting, reflection, and inspiration to analyze the most avant-garde elements that are transforming the health environment today and impacting the Hospital Pharmacy of the future," stated the Director of Access and Government Affairs for Spain and Portugal, Mónica Ausejo, who added that it is "an open forum to debate digitalization, AI, regulatory changes, the economic and geopolitical context."