Getronics Editorial Team
In this article:
Empowering over 46 million citizens with interoperable digital health systems and enhanced access to rare disease care.
The Ministry of Health of Spain is the government body responsible for safeguarding the country’s public health system and developing national policies on health planning, care, and digital health services. Within this organization, the General Directorate for Digital Health and Information Systems plays a crucial role in driving technological innovation, integrating emerging technologies, and ensuring electronic interoperability across the National Health System (SNS) at both the domestic and European levels.
A Long-Standing Partnership with a New Set of Challenges
For more than 15 years, the Ministry has relied on Getronics to support a wide range of critical digital health initiatives. These have included the enhancement of systems for evaluating medicines and technologies, as well as the implementation of data analytics solutions to extract insights from the national health information repository.
In 2021, the Ministry launched a new set of ambitious goals. They needed to evolve, integrate, and maintain multiple core applications of the National Health System, such as the Individual Health Card, Interoperable Electronic Prescription, and the Digital Health Record, while also providing incident support and developing new functionalities. Additional systems like the SNS Terminology Server, European eHealth Node, SIFCOWEB, SNSFARMA, and the Hospitalisation Indicator System (ICMBD) also required attention.
Addressing Rare Diseases with UNICAS
In 2024, the Ministry entrusted Getronics with the development and implementation of UNICAS, a national initiative aimed at transforming care for patients, especially children, suffering from rare or ultra-rare diseases. These conditions affect a small number of patients and often lack clear diagnoses or treatments, creating major logistical and emotional challenges for families.
The UNICAS central node, deployed by Getronics, connects 30 hospitals and research centres across Spain. It enables real-time communication, telemedicine, and telemonitoring, helping healthcare professionals coordinate more effectively. Critically, it allows knowledge and data to travel instead of patients, reducing unnecessary hospital visits while enhancing diagnostic accuracy and therapeutic development.
A Strategic Digital Health Architecture
To support these goals, Getronics established two robust application development services for the Ministry. Staffed by over 50 consultants and developers, these services operate under a Service Level Agreement (SLA) model to evolve and maintain a broad ecosystem of applications, including TSI, RESNS, HCDSNS, stSNS, CEF eHDSI, SIFCOWEB, and SNSFARMA.
Technologies such as Java EE, Spring Framework, WebLogic, Oracle Service Bus and SOA Suite, Cl@ve, FIRe, and Oracle iPlanet are used to ensure flexibility, performance, and security.
A key milestone was the launch of a new Clinical History Portal, enabling Spain’s 17 autonomous communities to securely share relevant clinical information, accessible by healthcare professionals across the country, always with citizen consent and full visibility into who accesses what.
Additionally, Getronics introduced the FHIR standard to ensure modern, consistent data exchange across key applications.
Tangible Results
With Getronics’ support, the Ministry has successfully modernized and integrated its national health systems, providing seamless access for over 46.7 million citizens. Healthcare professionals and patients can now securely access medical records, regardless of the region where the data was generated, helping to avoid redundant procedures and ensuring continuity of care.
Getronics has also facilitated integration with Citizen’s Folder, a popular citizen-facing app that now offers simplified access to clinical reports, enhancing transparency and usability.
The infrastructure now handles more than 600 million health data messages per year, processes over 93 million e-prescription transactions, and supports more than 3,000 daily accesses to clinical histories.
Getronics has over 25 years of experience delivering applications and tailored solutions for healthcare providers across Europe and Latin America, and we continue to develop, improve, and expand our offerings to meet the evolving and increasingly complex needs of the sector.
