The UNE has received the 2023 National Informatics and Health Award, which is presented by the Spanish Society of Health Informatics (SEIS), for playing a key role in the creation and promotion of ICT standards for health, which is the basis for the development of Digital Health in areas such as interoperability, safety, efficiency and governance. UNE's Chairman, Alfredo Berges, accepted the award from the SEIS President, Luciano Sáez, in the presence of the Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla.
These awards, which this year celebrate their 29th edition, recognize the contribution of organisations and professionals to the development and implementation of Information and Communications Technologies in the field of healthcare.
The UNE has received the “Award for institutional or personal effort in research or innovation in Projects for the use of ICT in Health, or the internationalization of the activity of health informatics developed in Spain”. It is an ex aequo prize, shared with surgeon Pedro Tomás Gómez Cía.
In his speech, UNE's Chairman, Alfredo Berges, noted that “standards in information and communication technology for health provide solid support for the digital transformation of the healthcare sector, by combining criteria in areas as important as interoperability, safety, privacy, efficiency and governance”.
Similarly, Alfredo Berges reiterated the UNE's commitment to continue guiding the sector in its digitization process, by developing standards that help it overcome its main challenges, and he recalled that, for years, European standards have been used to demonstrate the quality and safety of medical products.
Standards for digital health
Recently, the UNE, in collaboration with SEIS, prepared the report "Standards for digital health", which identifies the standards related to digital health endorsed by the international standardization bodies ISO and IEC;, and the European bodies CEN and CENELEC. This work describes the landscape for technical standards, their importance and the benefits they provide.
In the technical field, since 2004, SEIS has managed the secretariat of the UNE Committee on Health Information and Communication Technologies (CTN-UNE 139), while actively promoting the dissemination and creation of a collaborative environment of ICT standardization for health through the Health Interoperability Forum. Since its creation over 30 years ago, this UNE Committee has drawn up 227 standards within the framework of international collaboration with the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
