There is nothing new in saying that technology has radically transformed the world. For example, they play an increasingly important role in the field of health, leading to an improvement in the quality and life expectancy of people and giving added value to health care throughout the process: from prevention to diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of diseases.
Health technology goes beyond the equipment and products present in health centers and hospitals. Masks, gauze, hearing aids, incubators, respirators, ultrasound scanners… These are health products that accompany the patient in their daily lives throughout their lives. Other cutting-edge solutions such as artificial intelligence, robotics, digital printing and digital health tools also fall under health technology. In short, any health technology is essential to have an effective, efficient, safe and modern national health system that offers quality care to society.
How to effectively acquire innovative health technology
The continuous development of innovations is useful if, once developed, they are available in the public health system. For this to be possible, certain challenges must be overcome, for example, by integrating advances in an agile manner. One of the keys is to optimize public procurement processes, since these public tenders are the main means of integrating technology into health centers and hospitals. “Health managers and leaders themselves warn of the inefficiency of the current regulations on public health procurement and the need to rethink the current resource management model,” says Pablo Crespo, Secretary General of the Spanish Federation of Health Technologies. Fénine.
On the other hand, experts propose that quality be prioritized over price in health technology purchasing processes, since higher quality technology provides better health outcomes, as well as medium and long-term economic results for autonomous health services.
Guide to Promoting Value-Based Public Purchasing of Health Products
Public-private collaboration is essential to ensure that the public health system has technological innovations. This is how Fenin understands it: “we must work from the sector with health managers to explore all the formulas that allow efficient access to innovation for patients and health professionals,” explains Pablo Crespo.
Due to this interest in improving the health and quality of life of patients, as well as making the National Health System (NHS) more efficient, this Federation has promoted the Guide for efficient public procurement of health technologies, prepared in collaboration with the greatest experts in contracting of health services in the autonomous communities. In this document, managers have been able to share their knowledge with the aim of improving the processes of acquisition of medical equipment and health products in hospitals and public health centers.
This tool offers concrete solutions, from the shared vision between the administration and the industry, to some of the challenges that arise daily in the processes of acquiring health technologies. More precisely, the guide is configured as a dynamic tool in order to be able to adapt to regulatory changes, new learnings and its own experiences in the daily life of contract services.
To ensure that innovative technologies reach the patient, the guide emphasizes value-based public procurement, as opposed to purely economic criteria. It is essential, experts say, that at least 50% of the award criteria are based on quality criteria– This ensures more accurate diagnoses, personalized treatments, greater system efficiency and greater safety for patients and healthcare professionals.
Likewise, the document highlights the importance of the role of innovations in environmental protection, integrating the concept of buy green. “The introduction of award criteria that promote the reduction of environmental impact in public procurement contracts for the acquisition of health technologies represents progress in terms of sustainability, encourages environmentally friendly measures in hospitals and recognizes the efforts made by companies in this area.” underlines the Secretary General of Fenin.
There are already autonomous communities that take as a reference the criteria included in this guide to modify and optimize their public tender procedures. “We must value the complicated and often thankless work carried out by the contracting and supply teams of health services and health centers to integrate health technologies efficiently and fairly, so we hope that this guide will serve as an element of help. this work”, indicates the secretary general of Fenin.
