Access to the Catalan Health System

The main goal of the Catalan Health System innovation Access Program (PASS) is to accelerate the arrival of innovations developed in the BioRegion to patients. That's why, at Biocat, we provide services to the stakeholders involved in this process.

On one hand, we offer support and services to the innovative community to ensure the suitability of innovations for adoption by the healthcare system.

On the other hand, we identify and centralize the offer so that the healthcare system, as well as other organizations, can find the innovations they are looking for in a more agile and efficient way.

All of this is achieved through three services: the innovation platform, the instruments and programs navigator, and the prioritized innovations support unit.

1. The Innovation Platform: The innovations candidates to access the system, presented in directory format and which allows interaction and connection between users.
2. The Tool and Programs Navigator: A catalog of resources, programs and opportunities available to the innovative community.
3. The Support Unit: A Biocat team to support the activity of innovations that have been prioritized by the Healthcare System of Catalonia.

On the innovation registry platform you’ll not find only a centralized, harmonized list of medical and biotechnology solutions and products developed in Catalonia, but also be able to connect with providers you are interested in or even see which solutions have already been adopted by the healthcare system and their characteristics. This streamlines the processes and helps solutions that are already Improving patients' quality of life at one center reach the rest of the system faster.

Innovations that have been previously registered on the Innovation Platform and that are considered a priority for the health system will be advised by an Accompaniment Unit, which will provide personalised support to facilitate their implementation.

How?

• Ensure that the defined milestones are achieved.  
• Ensure communication and interaction with AQuAS, CatSalut and the different hospitals and health centres in the system.
• Facilitate priority access to ecosystem programmes and services (Biocat Navigator) according to innovation needs.

Catalonia has a research ecosystem that is known around the world for its healthcare processes and number of innovative companies. However, new solutions don’t always reach patients as quickly and efficiently as they should. To resolve this issue, in 2022, the Catalan Ministry of Health charged Biocat with coordinating a subcommittee of experts to draft an action plan to streamline innovation adoption in the healthcare system.

Some of the actions that came from this plan are being carried out by Biocat under the Catalan Health System innovation Access Program (PASS).

Agència de Qualitat i Avaluació Sanitàries de Catalunya (AQuAS)

The Agència de Qualitat i Avaluació Sanitàries de Catalunya (AQuAS) is working on the implementation of a series of actions and support guides that will allow us to move towards a demand-driven innovation governance model, based on the identification of the needs and priorities of the system itself, thus becoming the key driver that allows the health system to position itself as an early adopter without creating imbalances or inequalities.

In this sense, AQuAS will make available to all entities that access the PASS innovation platform material on the evaluation of health technologies, as well as a self-assessment tool to guide them in the process of demonstrating value prior to adoption and implementation within the health system in Catalonia. For the innovations identified and selected as priorities by the system, AQuAS will also work with the Biocat Support Unit to identify the different validation and evaluation phases that these technologies will have to undergo before being adopted.

Finally, with the aim of streamlining and reaching consensus on innovation evaluation processes within SISCAT, AQuAS is working on the creation of a network (X-CAT, Network of Catalan Evaluation Cells) that promotes the evaluation of health technologies from the centres of the health system itself, in order to facilitate the evaluation of decentralised territorial innovations, thus increasing the scope and strength of the capacity to support decision-making with shared evidence.

Servei Català de la Salut (CatSalut)

The Servei Català de la Salut (CatSalut) is working, through a transparent and participatory process with the main actors in the system, on defining and specifying the different processes for innovation entry into SISCAT so that it includes and incorporates, among others:

1. What we understand as innovation of value that generates impact in SISCAT
2. What the different innovation tracks towards SISCAT are
3. What are the main needs/demands of SISCAT in which care innovation can add value
4. What is the methodology and criteria for analysing and assessing innovations that are candidates for access to the system
5. A model based on the contribution of evaluation and evidence, which preserves safety, acceptability, equity and transparency.

With this objective in mind, the new Programme for the Harmonised Adoption of Innovation in Healthcare (PAHISA) will allow access to healthcare innovations within SISCAT through a harmonised procedure for their adoption and scalability, thus facilitating the adoption of innovations to promote a continuous transformation of healthcare services according to demand, optimising and maximising the quality and efficiency of healthcare provision and improvements in health.

Although this programme is still in its development phase, CatSalut has made a preliminary identification of the areas where the uptake of value innovation is a particular priority:

• Improving predictability and working according to care processes by providing clinical decision support elements.
• Obesity and related chronic diseases (diabetes, cardiometabolic diseases).
• Fragility, clinical complexity, poly-medication and home care Social and health integration
• Neuroscience diagnosis and treatment
• Mental health
• Advanced therapies