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“Health is a sector with growing demand, highly qualified, very intensive in research, which creates quality employment and is capable of generating talent”
– What is Arahealth?
It is the Aragon Health Cluster. We were established in February 2013 and that same year we were accredited as an Innovative Business Group (AEI), which is one of our founding objectives. Currently we have 45 partners, of which 36 are companies that have a turnover of 6.500 billion euros and have more than 6.800 workers. They are joined by nine other collaborators in different fields. There are four main activities: pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, medical products, hospital equipment, and health and socio-health service providers. Arahealth works to improve the competitiveness of its partners through the implementation of high-impact collaborative projects, mainly in the areas of innovation and internationalization. To this we add, to a lesser extent, others such as training, employment or communication, all based on intense relationship management that allows us to develop a climate of knowledge and trust between partners and the creation of external networks at all levels.
– Arahealth is an example of the triple helix innovation model. What does this mean?
This is how we call the management model we use clusters. We are business associations with a light structure that seek to improve the competitiveness of a specific sector, in our case health, in a territory, Aragon. To improve this competitiveness, the organizational form of the clusters is made up of three arms: the knowledge, academic and research centers; several departments of the autonomous government and some institutions; and companies. The triple helix means creating environments favorable to innovation and internationalization using competitiveness strategies in which all three blades are involved. This ensures that we all work in the same direction, which favors the generation of wealth and regional specialization. The clusters that have been created in Aragon have been in sectors in which our region has a competitive business substrate. In the case of health, the potential we have is very clear.
– Why is it important for the cluster to have research centers like the IIS Aragón?
It is basic, and not only for a theoretical question of how the triple helix works. The IIS Aragón is necessary in our R&D&I projects in three main roles. The first is to have the appropriate scientists that allow the company to incorporate new knowledge to make the technological leap in its products or services and be able to continue at the forefront of innovation. Secondly, the IIS Aragón has access to the entire clinical research network and this is a unique value in our environment, since in some projects we need to come into contact with both health professionals and their patients. Finally, for these projects it is necessary to use scientific-technical services that are not available in the laboratories of our companies. For this reason, I believe that the relationship is fundamental and little by little it should bear fruit.
– What notable projects are you currently working on?
We have just held a conference where 21 partners presented individual or collaborative innovation projects. Last year we raised 2 million euros in aid from different innovation financing programs for companies. This year we have already consolidated the first 300.000 euros for two projects, and we have four or five more lines left where we will go, so we hope to exceed that figure this year. We are currently disseminating the results of 'Predictiva', which incorporates artificial intelligence and robotization to the process of manufacturing personalized insoles, led by Podoactiva. At 'Icuprint3D' we add additive manufacturing and predictive maintenance to the manufacturing process of hospital beds in a project led by Industrias Pardo. In the 'Neofar' and 'Pharmaintegra' projects, led respectively by Alliance Healthcare and Novaltia, different solutions of the so-called Industry 4.0 technologies are used in two different projects, whose ultimate objective is to digitize the pharmaceutical supply chain. In this line of 2021, our participation ends with a project led by Inycom, which applies artificial intelligence in pathological diagnosis, and with the second phase of the Novaltia project, which uses drones for pharmaceutical delivery in rural and difficult-to-access areas.
– The pandemic has not only served to give the health sector the importance it deserves, but has allowed it to grow significantly. In Aragon, new company establishments have been announced, with the consequent generation of wealth and employment. Do you think this trend will continue?
The pandemic has put the sector in its rightful place. Two truisms have been demonstrated: that there is no economy without health and that the health sector can generate important economies. This important link between economy and health, which already existed before, has become especially relevant after the pandemic. Without a doubt, it is a sector of growing demand, highly qualified, very intensive in research, which creates quality employment and is capable of generating talent. In addition, recently, it has coincided that in Aragon implantations of companies in the sector have been announced. This has to do, on the one hand, with our sectoral capacities of knowledge, academia, research and companies; and, on the other, with the push that the regional and municipal governments are giving to this activity with aid and facilities, in a clear commitment to the sector. We also have to assert our geostrategic position at the center of 90% of healthcare decision centers, the pharmaceutical industry, private healthcare, insurance companies, etc. In addition, we have a very powerful and qualified Aragonese health system and general basic conditions that enable the community to develop a competitiveness pole that intervenes in the digital transformation and other reforms that the sector needs to guarantee its sustainability. At Arahealth we have incipiently developed an idea called 'Aragón Medical City' that brings together all our capabilities and takes advantage of the opportunities that the sector now offers.
– Where is the future of the health sector going?
It is exciting. It is a pillar sector of the welfare state and has a long history of improvement and expansion of its functions. One of the main avenues for the future that we are seeing in recent years is the digital transformation of services and processes in all activities and the emergence of industry 4.0 in manufacturing companies. There are some very specific aspects, such as the use of big data and artificial intelligence for health monitoring and early detection of trends, and, on the other hand, for optimizing the dedication and precision of healthcare professionals, especially in the area of medical diagnosis. At the industrial production level, additive printing stands out in prototyping or for the production of all types of parts in short series. Processes continue to be automated and new robotic technologies that are increasingly more autonomous have appeared. Predictive maintenance is increasingly relevant and precise with the incorporation of sensorization, big data and artificial intelligence. In addition, distribution benefits from system interconnection, fleet tracking and sensorization to ensure legal requirements. We must also mention the European strategy to reinforce local production in the health sector, evident during the coronavirus crisis. Through the different economic mechanisms that have been put in place since 2020, aid has arrived that has been used to reduce the costs of the investments that companies have had to make to create or increase their production capacity, mainly for masks and blood tests. diagnosis vitro. Once again, it happens that the big market is public health systems, where the main factor is price. This has caused imported Asian products to continue to be purchased at more competitive prices. Nor does it seem that the public sector has found a mechanism that allows it to preferentially purchase local production. This whole situation has meant that companies have been forced to try to find their clients in the private market, which is smaller, and complement it with the international market, which is always more complicated and has higher costs.
