Salut and Biocat launch the Catalan Health System Innovation Access Program (PASS) to accelerate the adoption of new technologies
The Department of Health and Biocat have launched the Catalan Health System Innovation Access Program (PASS), a pioneering initiative that will transform how innovations and technologies reach the Catalan healthcare system. Biocat, together with the Agency for Health Quality and Assessment of Catalonia (AQuAS) and the Catalan Health Service, will work to identify, prioritize, and support the innovations that bring the most value to the health system.
The main objective of PASS is to ensure that the most valuable innovations reach the Catalan health system efficiently and quickly. The program will help innovative companies to be more efficient and better prepared to integrate into the health system. In the words of Robert Fabregat, CEO of Biocat: "PASS is an ambitious program through which we want to streamline the implementation of innovative solutions, benefiting both the health sector companies and the system as a whole, with a clear focus on improving the quality of life of patients."
PASS is a direct response to the historical challenges faced by Catalonia, a region with a vibrant innovation ecosystem and a growing capacity to create startups and spinoffs. However, the incorporation of these innovations has been limited by a lack of efficient mechanisms and connections. The program aims to reverse this situation and ensure that the most promising innovations reach patients more quickly and efficiently.
PASS is based on three essential services to support the innovative community in Catalonia and help it be as prepared as possible to enter the system:
- Tool and program navigator: An online tool, publicly accessible from the Biocat website, offering a comprehensive catalog of resources and opportunities. The innovative community can find incubation and acceleration programs, tools to validate projects, and support to meet regulatory requirements, thus facilitating the path to integration into the health system.
- Innovation Platform: A directory that brings together the most ready-to-be-evaluated innovations, allowing contact between solution providers and health system agents. In this section, AQuAS will offer resources on health technology assessment and a self-assessment tool to assist in the value demonstration process before their adoption and implementation in the Catalan Health System.
- Support Unit: Led by a Biocat team, this unit offers personalized advice to the prioritized innovations by the system. Although the Unit is still in the development phase, CatSalut has already identified key areas where the incorporation of valuable innovation is particularly prioritized:
- Improving predictability and working according to care processes with clinical decision support elements.
- Obesity and associated chronic diseases (diabetes, cardiometabolic diseases).
- Frailty, clinical complexity, polypharmacy, and home care.
- Social and health integration.
- Diagnosis and treatment of neurosciences.
- Mental health.
- Advanced therapies.
AQuAS is also working in this area to identify the validation and evaluation phases of the priority technologies before adoption.
Meanwhile, the Catalan Health Service is defining and specifying the innovation entry processes into the Catalan healthcare system (SISCAT). This process is carried out transparently and participatively, involving the main actors in the healthcare system. The objective is to establish what is considered a value innovation that generates impact in SISCAT, identify the different entry pathways for innovation into the system, determine the main needs and demands where healthcare innovation can add more value, and define a methodology and criteria to analyze and evaluate candidate innovations for incorporation.
To achieve these objectives, the new Program for the Harmonized Adoption of Innovation in Care Services (PAHISA) is being developed. This program aims to structure the access of healthcare innovation within SISCAT through a harmonized procedure that facilitates the adoption and scalability of innovation. This will drive a continuous transformation of care services, optimizing the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery, and improving patients' health.
Four ecosystem companies with experience in other access models have been selected to start testing the Support Unit. The companies are ABLE Human Motion, a medical device company that designs, manufactures, and markets exoskeletons that improve mobility for people with disabilities; Doctomatic, a digital health company that uses AI tools to capture and digitize data from medical devices, allowing chronic patients to measure their parameters and share them with their healthcare professionals without having to travel; Goodgut, a biotech company working to provide therapies to improve the quality of life for patients with compromised digestive health; and Rob Surgical, a medical technology company developing surgical robots.
The Catalan Health System Innovation Access Program (PASS) is being launched at a crucial moment for Catalonia's innovation ecosystem. With this program, the aim is not only to increase the efficiency and integration of innovations into the health system but also to establish Catalonia as a leader in the implementation of advanced health technologies.
