Turning the crisis into an opportunity: digital health strategies deployed at-scale during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Catalonia

UNSTRUCTURED: Digital health technologies offer huge opportunities to reshape the healthcare systems as we know them. From the adoption of electronic medical records to the mobile health applications and through every other disruptive technology, digital health solutions have promised a better quality of care at a more sustainable cost. However, the wide-scale adoption of these solutions is lacking behind. The most adverse scenarios often provide the opportunity to develop and test the capacity of digital health technologies to increase the efficiency of healthcare systems. Catalonia (North-East Spain) is one of the most advanced regions in terms of digital health adoption across Europe. The region has a long tradition of health information exchange among the public healthcare sector and is currently implementing an ambitious digital health strategy. In this comment, we acknowledge the crucial role digital health solutions play during the COVID-19 global pandemic to support of public health policies and report on the strategies currently deployed at-scale during the outbreak in Catalonia.