Many factors must be taken into account to improve the healthcare experience. One of them, which has gained relevance recently, is innovation to improve the quality of life of patients.
Innovation in the healthcare field has to do with obtaining the best health results, improving the available scientific evidence and greater involvement and comfort for the patient. The fundamental thing is the result and the prognosis in terms of life, quality and well-being.
According to the “Survey on value and access to health innovation” by Hiris de la Sanidad, 87% of health professionals assure that the contribution of innovation to the health of the population has made it possible to bring technologies closer to people to improve treatment and changing the course of diseases.
In that sense, research to achieve innovation to improve the quality of life of patients should benefit both doctors and patients. For example, cutting-edge diagnostic, therapeutic or rehabilitative technology used to improve the prognosis, quality of life and well-being of the patient allows achieving an increasingly greater level of specificity and sensitivity in terms of diagnosis, as well as greater personalization and precision in the context of treatment. Also, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) improve the patient experience since they allow the development of more personalized, predictive, preventive, population-based and participatory medicine, in addition to influencing precision when approaching a patient.
The work done by CLOSER is a comprehensive example of innovation to improve the quality of life of patients. This project works to improve the diagnosis and prognosis of children with leukemia in Latin America, and reduce the survival gap between this region and Europe. To do this, it contemplates studying the different subtypes of leukemia diagnosed in Latin America and Europe; promote initiatives to simplify diagnostic procedures, making them more affordable, so that they can be easily applied in countries with fewer resources; include a training program to help healthcare professionals develop the skills needed in ever-changing diagnostic technologies; and involving patients in research (“patient empowerment”) to understand the real needs of patients, their families and caregivers.
At Cliclab, we contribute to the innovation aimed at the patient in this consortium in the area of communication and dissemination of the project, the design of an exploitation and sustainability plan, as well as the SROI analysis.
