The Interterritorial Council agrees to the creation of the Digital Health Commission, which will contribute to co-governance with the Regional Governments and interoperability of all projects in this area
News - 2021.6.30
This Commission will be made up of the Secretary General for Digital Health, Information and Innovation of the NHS and a representative of each Regional Ministry of the Autonomous Communities and Cities. This will include the newly created Subcommittee on Digital Health Services and Technologies, and the Subcommittee on Information Systems, which will be renamed the Subcommittee on the NHS Information System.
In the same vein, the draft "Digital Health Strategy", prepared by the Secretary General for Digital Health, Information and Innovation, has been presented for consultation and comments. The Strategy primarily focuses on four strategic objectives. On one hand, the aim is to empower and involve people in their health care and facilitate their relationship with health services, as well as to maximise the value of processes for better performance and efficiency of the public health system, supporting the work of professionals and the governance of organisations.
Work will also be done to adopt data management and governance policies that will make interoperable and quality information available and to create - along these lines - a National Health Data Space for the generation of scientific knowledge and the evaluation of services. Another aim is to adapt the evolution of the NHS to the demands of today's society, applying innovative policies oriented towards 5P (Population, Preventive, Predictive, Personalised and Participatory) Medicine.
The Strategy is structured along three main lines of action: the development of digital health services aimed at people, organisations and the processes that make up the health protection system, the generalisation of the interoperability of health information and the promotion of data analytics related to health and the health system.
This is expected to run from 2021 to 2026, fundamentally linked to the implementation of funds associated with the "Recovery Assistance for Cohesion and Territories of Europe (REACT-EU)" and the "Recovery and Resilience Mechanism". It is also relevant to point out the coordination and possible participation in other EU programmes such as Horizon Europe, Digital Europe and Europe4Health.
National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring
In the same plenary session of the Interterritorial Council, the project for the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring developed in the framework of the National Plan against Antibiotic Resistance (PRAN)was reported . The Ministry of Health is currently working on the development of a new Royal Decree (RD) that will create the National Public Health Monitoring Network, which will extend the action of the National Epidemiological Surveillance Network (RENAVE), and which will include healthcare-associated infections (HAI) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as health problems within the Communicable Disease Monitoring System.
The overall objective of this national monitoring system will be to contribute to the reduction of morbidity and mortality from infections due to resistant micro-organisms and to the prevention of resistant and multi-resistant pathogens. It will thus provide the information necessary to understand the situation in Spain in order to establish prevention and control measures.
National AMR monitoring will be integrated into RENAVE following the same information circuit as other communicable diseases and health monitoring problems in Spain, which are reported through the SIVIES technological platform. The Ministry of Health will participate in this monitoring through the Health Alerts and the Emergency Coordination Centre (CCAES), as coordinator of the National Epidemiological Surveillance Network, and the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII), through the CNE, as manager of the RENAVE, and the CNM, as the national reference laboratory.
Annual Report on Gender-Based Violence
Another item approved by the IC was the 2020 "Annual Report on Gender-Based Violence". In addition to the information for 2019, the report additionally includes a section with a preview of epidemiological data for the first half of 2020, in order to make a first approximation of the possible impact that the COVID-19 pandemic situation may have had on the early detection of cases of gender-based violence and, as a consequence, on the corresponding registration by the health services.
The same document incorporates the start of work on matters that should be contained in the first "Common Protocol for health action against sexual violence in the National Health System", so that it can be drafted during 2021.
Expansion of the common portfolio of NHS services
The Interterritorial Council has also agreed to include real-time continuous glucose monitoring systems (RT-CGM) in the common portfolio of NHS services for adult patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM1) and risk of severe hypoglycaemia (at least one episode of severe hypoglycaemia during the previous year or due to inadvertent hypoglycaemia), who are on intensive insulin therapy (multiple daily doses or with insulin pump), who require at least six finger pricks per day for self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) and who show adequate motivation to maintain good adherence to the device.
Endobronchial valves for persistent air leakage have also been approved for funding.
Designation of 21 new Reference Centres, Services and Units (CSUR)
The IC has also approved the agreement of the Committee for the appointment of Reference Centres, Services and Units for the designation of 21 new CSURs: Six for Systemic Autoimmune Diseases, three for Hereditary Angiodema, four for Primary Immunodeficiencies (adults and children), three for Autoinflammatory Diseases, one for Paediatric Vitreoretinal Surgery, two for Complex Cataracts in Children and two for Hereditary Retinal Dystrophies.
In addition, the designation of six NHS CSURs for comprehensive care of adults with congenital heart disease will be renewed.
Non official translation