Aragon launches the first Health Data Office in Spain at the regional level

It will enable more personalized care and boost research, innovation, and healthcare planning.

El Government of Aragon has launched the first Health Data Office in Spain at the regional level with a comprehensive approach. This initiative represents a structural and strategic advance for the transformation of the Aragonese healthcare system. "The future of healthcare will be built on evidence-based decisions. And for that evidence to exist, we need well-governed, protected, interoperable, and useful data."

This was explained by the Minister of Health of the Government of Aragon, José Luis Bancalero Flores, who opened the presentation of this office, which was held in the Sala de la Corona of the Pignatelli Building in Zaragoza.

Among the participants were Claudia Pérez Forniés, Minister of Employment, Science and Universities of the Government of Aragon; Jorge Emperador, Technical Secretary General of the Department of Health; and several Directors General of the same Department, including Joaquín Velilla, Director of Digital Health and Infrastructure; Ana Castillo, Manager of the Aragonese Health Service; Elena Gonzalvo, Manager of the Aragonese Institute of Health Sciences; Marian Rincón, Director General of Electronic Administration of the Department of the Treasury; and Carlos Tellería, Head of the Health Data Governance Section and Head of the new Office.

The Minister of Health has detailed that the work of this Office will have as main beneficiaries to Aragonese public health y its users. He said it will improve patient care, ensuring a more personalized care, Speed y accurate; and will boost the research, the innovation and health planning, promoting evidence-based decision-making.

This will mean, for example, that a primary care physician can monitor the follow-up of patients who are part of chronic disease strategies, such as diabetes, ensuring that they attend the clinic for check-ups with the necessary frequency and knowing whether they are undergoing different treatments, adapting healthcare to the specific needs of each patient, enabling safer and more personalized medicine.

Another use case for the Aragon Health Data Office is research and innovation projects, establishing tools and platforms to facilitate access to quality, useful health data while respecting its ethical use. This ensures the security and right to privacy of the citizens who own said data, ensuring that their use is always for the benefit of society and without prejudice to any of the rights or conditions of citizens, either individually or collectively. 

The following will benefit from the Aragon Health Data Office: healthcare professionals and managers of the Aragon Health Service; the directorates general of the Department of Health; professionals and managers of the Aragon Institute of Health Sciences; and the various research and innovation ecosystems in health and biomedicine, especially not only at the regional level but also through multicenter projects at the national and European levels.

pioneer role

For all these reasons, the Aragon Health Data Office will position this Autonomous Community as a pioneer in the strategic management of health data, strengthening its role within the national and European ecosystem of innovation, research, and healthcare digitalization.

"With this initiative, Aragon is positioning itself as the first Autonomous Community in Spain to approach health data governance with a comprehensive, strategic vision aligned with Europe. This is not just a technical issue, but a decisive commitment to smarter, more efficient, and more people-centered healthcare," the Minister of Health stated.

The Aragon Health Data Office is unique in its regional scope due to its comprehensive approach to the quality data lifecycle, enabling secure and useful access to data for all potential stakeholders, both internal and external, public, private, and at higher levels, such as national and European.

While some Autonomous Communities have data offices, not health data offices, and those that are working on health data governance, they are focused on the hospital environment and its primary use, but not on the secondary use that allows for research and health management.

In Aragon, the new Health Data Office will be established as an administrative unit attached to the Technical General Secretariat of the Department of Health. Its creation responds to the need to provide the health system with a specialized and cross-cutting structure that allows for decision-making based on accurate, up-to-date, and contextualized information.

The Office currently has a multidisciplinary team of 10 professionals, coordinated by a Technical Office managed by Aragonesa de Servicios Telemáticos (AST). They are as follows:

• A project manager.
• A project manager.
• A Head of the Data Governance Section.
• A Data Architect.
• A Data Engineer.
• An expert in data exploitation and visualization.
• Two experts in data governance.
• Two operators.

This team is joined by technicians from the Department of Health, the IACS, and the Aragonese Health Service, who work in a coordinated manner under a common strategy.

Health data with a comprehensive view

Promoted by the General Directorate of Digital Health and Infrastructure and the Aragonese Institute of Health Sciences (IACS), in collaboration with the Aragonese Health Service, the Center for Integrated Management of Corporate Projects, and the Aragonese Telematic Services (AST), this new office will be the hub of a data ecosystem that will encompass the entire data lifecycle: from generation to exploitation.

All of these staff, although with different organizational assignments, work in a coordinated manner under a common strategy because the Data Office is not the result of a single department or unit, but rather the collaboration of multiple stakeholders who have combined efforts, shared knowledge, and built a common solution. This is, without a doubt, one of the project's greatest strengths.

This model is aligned with the European Health Data Area Regulation, approved this year, and with the forthcoming Spanish Digital Health Law, currently in the drafting phase.

The sources of funding are diverse. Several public agencies from the Government of Aragon have been involved. Specifically, funds have already been allocated for hardware and software infrastructure and specialized human resources. 2.130.000 euros.

Source: Aragon Today