Interview with: Raquel Ornat and Francisco Vigalondo - Aragón Innovation Office

This article is part of the “Behind the Scenes” series, in which the UNITE project partners introduce themselves and explain how they will contribute to the transformation of European healthcare.

What motivated you to join the UNITE project, and how does it align with your personal or professional goals?

What motivated the Aragón Innovation Office team to join the UNITE project is its strong alignment with Aragón’s ambition to become a leading European region in digital health innovation. Aragón has developed significant strengths in healthcare innovation, AI-enabled health services, health data analytics, research excellence, and public procurement of innovation, while also facing important challenges related to population ageing, rurality, and the long-term sustainability of healthcare systems. UNITE offers a unique opportunity to address these challenges through collaboration with some of Europe’s most advanced digital health ecosystems.

From the perspective of Aragón’s Innovation Office, the project aligns closely with our mission to strengthen the regional innovation ecosystem and accelerate the adoption of innovative solutions that improve both health outcomes and regional competitiveness. We are particularly interested in how digital technologies, artificial intelligence, telemedicine and data-driven healthcare can improve access to services, especially for older people and citizens living in rural and sparsely populated areas. These priorities are fully consistent with Aragón’s Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) 2021–2027 and the region’s health and wellbeing objectives.

Another key motivation is UNITE’s focus on translating research and innovation into real-world impact. The project creates opportunities to connect hospitals, universities, research institutes, technology centres, startups and companies through joint projects, living labs, pilot environments and innovation procurement mechanisms. This approach helps accelerate knowledge transfer, supports the growth of innovative companies, and promotes the development of new solutions tailored to citizens’ needs.

Ultimately, we see UNITE as an opportunity to strengthen Aragón’s international partnerships, enhance its participation in European digital health value chains, and contribute to the development of innovative solutions that improve citizens’ health, wellbeing and quality of life while generating sustainable economic growth for the region.

Can you tell us about your team's expertise and how it contributes to UNITE's mission of transforming healthcare through digital innovation?

What are the most pressing healthcare challenges in your region, and how do you believe the UNITE project will address them?

The most pressing healthcare challenges in Aragón are closely linked to its demographic and territorial characteristics. More than 22% of the population is over 65 years old, and many citizens live in rural and sparsely populated areas, making equitable access to healthcare services more difficult. At the same time, the healthcare system faces growing pressure from workforce shortages and the increasing demand for more personalised and efficient care.

Another major challenge is the increasing prevalence of age-related conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, neurodegenerative disorders and frailty. These conditions often require long-term monitoring, multidisciplinary care and frequent interactions with healthcare services. In a region such as Aragón, there is therefore a growing need for digital solutions that support prevention, early detection, remote monitoring and personalised care, helping citizens maintain their quality of life while reducing avoidable hospital visits and admissions.

Aragón also faces the challenge of translating its strong capabilities in digital health, artificial intelligence, health data and innovation into solutions that can be rapidly adopted by healthcare professionals and patients. Greater collaboration between healthcare providers, researchers, technology developers and companies is essential to maximise impact.

We believe UNITE can make a significant contribution to addressing these challenges. Its focus on digital health, AI, health data, remote care and innovation procurement is fully aligned with Aragón’s S3 priorities and healthcare needs. Through living labs, testbeds, pilot projects and joint procurement activities, UNITE will help develop, validate and scale solutions for healthy ageing, personalised medicine and more efficient healthcare delivery.

Ultimately, UNITE offers an opportunity not only to improve healthcare outcomes in Aragón, but also to collaborate with other European regions facing similar demographic challenges. Across Europe, growing numbers of older citizens live in peripheral and rural areas where access to healthcare is more complex. By scaling digital solutions for healthy ageing, remote monitoring and personalised care, UNITE can help ensure high-quality healthcare regardless of where people live, while strengthening the sustainability and resilience of healthcare systems across Europe.

How do you ensure that ethical considerations and patient privacy are prioritized in the development of new healthcare technologies?

We believe that digital health can only create value if citizens trust that their data is managed responsibly, securely and transparently.

This commitment is reflected in the creation of the Aragón Health Data Office, the first regional health data office of its kind in Spain. The Office was established to ensure that health data is governed through robust principles of quality, security, interoperability and ethical use, while supporting healthcare improvement, research and innovation. Its approach is aligned with the European Health Data Space and aims to enable more personalised care, better evidence-based decision-making and responsible health innovation.

For us, privacy and innovation are not competing objectives; they must advance together. Any use of health data for research, AI development or service improvement must comply with European and national data protection regulations, ensuring the confidentiality, security and rights of citizens while enabling innovation that benefits society. A key objective of the Health Data Office is to facilitate secure and ethical access to high-quality health data for research and innovation while safeguarding privacy and maintaining public trust throughout the entire data lifecycle.

We also place great emphasis on transparency, accountability and human oversight. When developing or evaluating new digital health technologies, we promote collaboration between healthcare professionals, researchers, technology experts and public authorities to ensure that solutions are safe, fair, explainable and focused on real patient needs.

Within UNITE, we see ethics and trust as key enablers of innovation. By combining advanced digital technologies with strong data governance and responsible innovation practices, we aim to support healthcare solutions that are not only effective and scalable, but also respectful of citizens’ rights and worthy of public trust.

How do you plan to engage with other consortium partners to ensure the smooth implementation of innovative solutions across regions?

At the heart of UNITE, collaboration is also a core principle of how the Aragón Innovation Office operates, guided by the Theory of Change methodology. We engage consortium partners through continuous co-creation, involving healthcare providers, researchers, technology developers, public authorities, patients and companies throughout the innovation process, from problem definition to scaling. This is particularly important when addressing challenges such as healthy ageing, remote care and healthcare access in rural and peripheral regions.

Effective collaboration also requires strong governance and mutual learning. Building on the principles of the Open Discovery Process and network governance, we maintain continuous dialogue with partners, share evidence and good practices, identify barriers and opportunities, and align regional priorities with UNITE’s common mission. This helps create trust, ownership and a shared vision across regions.

Another key element is experimentation. Through living labs, pilot projects, innovation procurement actions and testbeds, we can validate solutions in different regional contexts, learn from each other’s experiences and adapt innovations to local healthcare needs before scaling them more broadly.

To facilitate the implementation of innovative solutions across regions, we place great importance on shared governance, interoperability and common digital foundations. Inspired by mission-oriented innovation and the concept of Digital Public Infrastructure, we work with consortium partners to develop interoperable approaches to health data, AI-enabled services and innovation procurement. This collaboration helps reduce fragmentation and makes successful solutions easier to transfer and replicate in different healthcare systems.

These shared foundations must be supported by strong public governance, ensuring transparency, privacy, cybersecurity and human oversight. By combining collaborative governance, mutual learning and interoperable infrastructures, we can accelerate the adoption of innovative solutions while ensuring they remain trusted, inclusive and responsive to local needs. Ultimately, our goal is to build long-term partnerships that deliver better healthcare outcomes for citizens, regardless of where they live.

How do you plan to involve local stakeholders, such as healthcare providers or policymakers, in the success of UNITE?

Local stakeholder engagement will be essential to the success of UNITE. Drawing on the Aragón Innovation Office model, we believe that innovation is most effective when it is developed through continuous dialogue, co-creation and shared governance rather than through top-down implementation. We therefore plan to involve healthcare providers, policymakers, researchers, companies, patient representatives and innovation intermediaries from the outset of the project.

A key lesson from Aragón’s innovation ecosystem is that successful initiatives require strong coordination between stakeholders and mechanisms that translate strategic objectives into practical solutions. We will build on Aragón’s health innovation ecosystem, working closely with the Aragon Health Sciences Institute (IACS), the Aragón Health Cluster (Arahealth), the Aragon Institute of Technology (ITA), healthcare providers, hospitals, primary care services, universities, research centres, SMEs, technology developers and regional policymakers. By mobilising these actors through a continuous co-creation process, we will identify unmet needs, validate solutions and facilitate their implementation across different healthcare settings, with particular attention to the challenges of ageing populations and service delivery in rural and sparsely populated areas.

We also place great importance on mutual learning and experimentation. Through workshops, living labs, pilot projects and regular stakeholder forums, healthcare professionals and policymakers will be actively involved in testing innovations, sharing feedback and adapting solutions to their local context. This participatory approach helps build ownership, trust and long-term commitment while ensuring that innovations are both clinically relevant and operationally feasible.

Particular attention will be given to reducing fragmentation and ensuring that all territories can participate, including rural and underserved areas. Aragón’s experience shows that innovation can be limited by disconnected actors, complex governance structures and barriers to collaboration. To address this, we will promote clear communication channels, knowledge-sharing mechanisms and interoperable frameworks that make it easier for stakeholders across regions to collaborate and learn from each other.

Ultimately, our goal is to create a collaborative ecosystem in which local stakeholders are not only beneficiaries of innovation but active partners in shaping, implementing and scaling solutions across Europe.