The second vice-president of Catalonia.health and director of GoodGut (HIPRA), Mariona Serra-Pagès, participated last week in the conference "CIMTI Connect: From innovation to adoption", organized by the Center for Medical and Digital Innovation and Technology of Catalonia (CIMTI), which brought together more than 60 professionals from the country's health innovation ecosystem.

Serra-Pagès was part of the conversation that opened the event, together with Ramon Maspons Bosch, innovation director of the Health Quality and Assessment Agency of Catalonia (AQuAS) and innovation and transformation director of the Department of Health, and Robert Fabregat Fuentes, director general of Biocat. The conversation was moderated by Xènia Alba, responsible for Coordination and Innovation at CIMTI, and the three experts shared their perspectives on the current state and future of health innovation in Catalonia.

The challenges that hold back the adoption of innovation

The meeting concluded that ignorance of the functioning of the health system, the lack of dialogue between entrepreneurial people and the system, and the absence of systematization of the adoption process are the main obstacles facing the sector. Among the highlighted conclusions are the need to develop a methodology and a road map for the implementation of innovative solutions, the importance of establishing a fluid dialogue between entrepreneurial people and the system, and the desirability of allocating specific funds and finalists to innovation, among others.

Closure and new call

The event was closed by Antoni Plasencia, director of research and innovation at the Department of Health, who highlighted the work of entities such as CIMTI to support innovative projects. During the day, the director of the CIMTI, Manel Balcells, also announced that the next REPTE 2026 Call will open in the autumn under the title "Health and climate crisis: resilience strategies", and will look for innovative projects that reduce the impact of the climate crisis on human health or the environmental footprint of the healthcare system.