The Digital Health Validation Center at Hospital de Sant Pau, Farmaindustria and Fenin’s Innovation Platform hold a pioneering event on women, innovation, technology and health to advance real solutions that promote equity and female leadership in healthcare
Madrid, 25 March 2026. Promoting more inclusive healthcare innovation, one that incorporates women’s perspective, talent and leadership, was the aim of the event “Hackeando la brecha”, held this Wednesday in Madrid. This pioneering meeting on women, innovation, technology and health was organised by the Digital Health Validation Center at Hospital de Sant Pau, Farmaindustria and Fenin’s Innovation Platform.
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The event, attended by more than one hundred professionals from the healthcare, scientific and business sectors, focused on three key areas: the importance of incorporating a gender perspective throughout the entire innovation cycle in order to develop more inclusive and effective solutions; female leadership in healthcare; and the value of sharing transformative practices, highlighting role models and building collaborative networks.
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The institutional opening featured Maria Carol, Director of Social Environment and Governance at Hospital de Sant Pau; Fina Lladós, President of Farmaindustria; and Lourdes López, Vice-President of Fenin.
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Fina Lladós underlined that “technologies, data, artificial intelligence and digital health represent a major opportunity to advance equity” and highlighted three shared commitments: “We must continue to champion innovation as a strategic priority for Spain and Europe, promote female talent in all decision-making spaces and make technology an instrument of equity.”
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For her part, Lourdes López stated that “nearly 25,000 women contribute every day, from all levels of responsibility, to the progress of the Healthcare Technology sector and to the wellbeing of society. We must continue working to ensure a more equitable and diverse healthcare, scientific and research system, one that guarantees all women the opportunities and conditions of equality they deserve on their own merits.”
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Mar Gomis, Director of the Digital Health Validation Center Sant Pau, presented and moderated the event, which included inspiring talks by Belén Torrijos, Ambassador of the Eje&Con Health and Pharma Forum, and Lekhsmy Parameswaran, Founding Partner of The Care Lab.
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Gomis stressed that “in order to generate robust evidence on the use of healthcare technology and develop high-quality solutions, it is essential to incorporate women’s voices and the gender perspective into digital health research and technology development. Participatory initiatives such as this event, promoted together with key ecosystem players such as Farmaindustria and Fenin, allow us to move towards innovation that is more useful, more rigorous and more closely connected to citizens’ real needs.” According to María Carol, Director of the Social Environment and Governance Area at Hospital de Sant Pau, “this initiative is aligned with the objectives of our Hospital’s Health and Gender Committee.”
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One of the central themes of the event was the role of clinical research in advancing women’s health and in leading R&D for new treatments. This discussion was moderated by Amelia Martín Uranga, Director of Clinical and Translational Research at Farmaindustria, and featured Mª Rosa Ballester Verneda, Director of the Research and Innovation Unit and Head of IR Sant Pau; José Ajenjo, Local Innovation Lead at Sanofi; and Mª José Sánchez, Scientific Director of the Biosanitary Research Institute of Granada.
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Another debate focused on femtech technologies and was moderated by Adrià Juan, Innovation Officer at Fenin. Participants included María Cantós, CEO of Gestaverso; Emilia de Alonso, General Manager of Hologic Iberia for Spain and Portugal; and María de Martí, CTO of Mimark. The experts highlighted that femtech technologies represent a strategic opportunity to promote innovative solutions that improve women’s health and wellbeing, moving towards a more personalised, preventive healthcare system focused on women’s needs.
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Female leadership in digital health innovation was also the focus of an elevator pitch session moderated by Mar Gomis, in which various ecosystem initiatives aimed at strengthening women’s role in this field were presented. Speakers included Melisa Martínez, Vice-President of Women in Global Health Spain; Adrià Juan, from Fenin; Pablo Puerta, from GSK Spain; Ricardo Álvarez-Cienfuegos, from Plug and Play; Arantxa de la Peña, from Hospital de Sant Pau; and Laura Martínez, from Medtronic.
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Another distinctive element of the event was the participatory dynamic led by Gomis, aimed at jointly identifying the main challenges that will be addressed in the next session in November, reinforcing the initiative’s commitment to continuity.
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Through this event, the Digital Health Validation Center at Hospital de Sant Pau, Farmaindustria and Fenin’s Innovation Platform sought to open a stable space for collaboration to advance towards healthcare innovation that is more inclusive, more representative and more closely connected to women’s real needs. The next meeting, scheduled for November, will continue this shared work with a new session focused on the challenges identified during this first event. The event also had the sponsorship of GSK, Medtronic and Palex, whose collaboration contributed to the development of this initiative.
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MORE INFORMATION:
SANT PAU
kislas@santpau.cat
Phone: +34 616 39 16 09
Website: https://www.santpau.cat/es/
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FARMAINDUSTRIA
prensa@farmaindustria.es
Phone: +34 91 515 93 50
Website: www.farmaindustria.es
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FENIN
comunicacion@fenin.es
Phone: +34 91 575 98 00
Website: https://plataformatecnologiasanitaria.es/