Galicia is a region located in north-west Spain, with autonomous government institutions in areas such as health and education. Geographic concentration is very low, with many sparsely populated rural areas.
Population of Galicia is 2.7 million people, and is one of the most aged in Europe, a problem that is gradually worsening, reaching in 2022 an ageing index of 213,54 (214 citizens with more than 65 years for every 100 people with less than 16); within the elderly people, Galicia has a dependency rate of 42.28% (much higher than the Spanish average -30.96%-).
If we talk about healthcare landscape, the region is distributed in seven health areas, covering both specialized and primary care, in which 14 hospitals and 500 primary care centres are located. Despite this wide network, due to the high degree of population dispersion mentioned above, there are certain difficulties in the most isolated population centres in accessing health care, which sometimes makes it difficult for them to receive health services. In response, TELEA (a home care platform) was created, facilitating the patient’s telematic access to various care services and allowing them to monitor their care at home. Nevertheless, some network difficulties persist in some geographical areas.
Among the region’s resources, in Galicia a common and digital clinical history for all the healthcare network was implemented a few years ago, increasing the diagnostic accuracy and efficiency of the health service. In addition, all patients can access their history at any time from a mobile and web app developed by the Regional Ministry of Health.
From a regional approach, in Galicia there are patients’ associations that collaborate in health promotion; social services are also very important in this task, but they partially depend on the municipalities. The Regional Ministry of Health is also carrying out various policies in the promotion of health, such as the “Strategy for the Humanization of Healthcare”, the “Galician Plan for Home Hospitalization”, the “Primary Care Health Care Infrastructure Plan” or the “Galician Health Strategy 2030”.
In the field of health innovation and investment models, several Public Procurement of Innovation Health Plans have been implemented by the Galician Health Service (SERGAS). The Hospital2050 and InnovaSaúde Health Plans in 2012 with a total budget of 90 M.€ in order to implement the digitalisation of the hospital of the future. In 2016, the Health Innovation Plan focused on ageing called Código100 with the aim of living with quality of life until 100 years old. And currently, SERGAS is running the INNOVATRIAL project to develop an integrated system to manage clinical trials and the connection within the electronic health records.Galicia has been awarded with the First Public Procurement of Innovation awards in 2021 promoted by the European Innovation Council (EIC) and recognized as a 4 stars Reference Site on the strategic initiative EIP on AHA (European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing).
The Galician Health Knowledge Agency (ACIS) is in charge of carrying out the Invest4Health project as representative of the testbed region of Galicia. For more information visit: https://acis.sergas.es/
