Evaluation and health economics

This line of research is based on two axes:

• Economic evaluation studies. With the aim of providing strategic campus projects and other innovation and research initiatives with an approach focused on health outcomes and the positive impact/return generated by the intervention under study. Various economic evaluation strategies are applied:
  • Cost/benefit analysis
  • Cost/effectiveness analysis
  • Cost/utility analysis
  • Cost minimisation analysis       
• Multidimensional evaluation of value-based health innovation projects. The group develops and validates its own methodology to evaluate the entire innovation/care transformation cycle of projects carried out in the territory. The aim is to develop and validate open-source support and evaluation instruments that facilitate the dissemination of the value-based outcome assessment culture.

Assistance transformation line: alliances and cross-cutting processes

Within the healthcare transformation strategy, and complementary to other areas such as digital transformation and health and innovation, the key objective is organisational innovation based on new forms of integrated, cooperative and networked work with other institutions or levels of care. These are projects aimed at responding to an undeniable reality of the health system, given the risk of leaving care services uncovered or insufficiently covered, which generates numerous dysfunctions in the system that lead, all in all, to a growing dissatisfaction both among citizens and among professionals.

This transformation process can be synthesized into:

• Creation of territorial services through strategic alliances with planning and sustainability criteria, in order to maintain equity of access to health services, greater excellence in care, adequate levels of quality and improvement in the satisfaction of professionals and citizens. A secondary objective of this network is to establish an efficient, equitable, and sustainable care model, alongside the evaluation of its cost-benefit outcomes.
• Integration of health processes from the perspective of value-based medicine such as:
  • The integrated model of attention to complex chronicity (ProPCC)
  • The biopsychosocial approach to the management of neglected diseases such as tuberculosis or schistosomiasis
  • The creation of integrated multidisciplinary units with AP and oriented to the care process
• Redesign of specific care processes.

Technological innovation

This line focuses on the study, design and evaluation of strategies and tools to promote technological innovation in healthcare environments. The main lines of work are:

• Health innovation management: development of models and tools to structure and optimize the management of innovation projects in health centers.
• Adoption and implementation of innovation: analysis of barriers and facilitators in the incorporation of new technologies and processes, as well as design of strategies for their effective implementation and scalability.
• Implementation and evaluation of innovative solutions: study and piloting of innovative tools, services and solutions in the field of health, including the analysis of their usefulness, acceptability, feasibility and clinical and organizational impact.
• Culture of innovation: research aimed at understanding the functioning of the different innovation cultures existing in the health context.
• Trends in innovation in health: monitoring and prospective analysis of emerging trends in technology, care models and health organization to guide the innovation strategy of the system.

Early-stage evaluation of new health technologies (early HTA)

This line of research focuses on the analysis of the potential value of new health technologies in early stages of development. The objective is to facilitate informed decision-making in the early stages of innovation, in order to guide the design, development and marketing strategy of these solutions. The areas of work include:

• Preliminary valorisation of emerging technologies: application of adapted HTA tools to assess the clinical relevance, potential impact and economic viability of new solutions before their implementation.
• Evaluation of uncertainty and expected impact: identification of evidence gaps and risk analysis associated with the introduction of new technologies.
• Collaboration with innovation ecosystem stakeholders: support for spin-offs, start-ups, and research projects in defining their value proposition and evidence generation strategy.
• Integration of early HTA into healthcare innovation processes: promotion of value-based and evidence-based decision models, from the initial stages of technological development.

Digital transformation and health

The Digital transformation line enhances existing research by providing technologies that facilitate data collection and, at the same time, it opens up new lines of investigation aimed at measuring how digitalisation impacts health indicators and user experience. The overarching mission is value-based healthcare. The active lines of research are: 

• Results, efficiency and impact on health: measuring the impact of the implementation of Telemedicine and other technological tools in different services together with a reengineering of processes.
• Accessibility and health literacy: measuring the digital divide and the level of health literacy in patients, the impact that actions have to improve health literacy, and identifying digital determinants.
• User experience: evaluation of digital interventions such as eSalut to measure the quality and effectiveness of health care from the perspective of patients.
• Biases: analysis of the accuracy of the data provided by patients and study of solutions to minimize them.
• Adherence: technological solutions such as eSalut allow us to monitor more exhaustively adherence to treatments.