Read the Conversation
Conversation highlights:
- Digital health implementation has enabled remote robotic surgery and real-time diagnostic imaging between São Paulo and underserved regions, including the Amazon and indigenous communities.
- Brazil's healthcare innovation hub InovaHC has partnered with over 200 startups and major technology companies to develop AI solutions across the entire healthcare chain.
- The partnership with the UK's NHS provided a blueprint for implementing digital health programs nationwide, leveraging similarities between Brazil's SUS and the British healthcare system.
- Training and capacity building represent the primary challenge in implementing new healthcare technologies, requiring younger doctors to teach established practitioners.
- Interoperability programs are projected to reduce healthcare costs by 15% by eliminating duplicate exams and accelerating emergency care access.
- Digital health combined with AI offers the first opportunity for new technologies to reduce healthcare costs while improving access, reversing the traditional pattern of innovation driving up expenses.
EF: What are the biggest achievements you're most proud of seeing in the last 10 years?
GGC: During the pandemic, we accelerated the implementation of digital health technologies through our innovation hub, InovaHC. We launched a Digital Health program in partnership with the UK's NHS, starting our cooperation in 2020 and implementing the full program by 2023. Now we're rolling this out across São Paulo state and working closely with Brazil's federal government and Ministry of Health to implement digital health nationwide.
Alongside digital health, we're implementing AI across the entire healthcare sector. We've established Brazil's first 5G connectivity program in healthcare, connecting Hospital das Clínicas at the University of São Paulo with remote regions, including the Amazon and indigenous communities in central Brazil. Through 5G networks and satellite internet connectivity, we've demonstrated that good connectivity enables not just consultations but actual examinations. We performed an ultrasound in an indigenous community in Mato Grosso, with images transmitted and read in real time at our hospital. We've recently started a remote robotic surgery program as well.
Brazil is a large country with significant inequality. Regions like São Paulo are well-served, but the Northeast lacks specialists and infrastructure. Digital health can reduce this inequality by enabling specialists in São Paulo to support doctors in remote regions. We're also developing a national interoperability program with the Ministry of Health and the private sector to ensure patient data follows patients wherever they receive care.
In my specialty of radiology, we've improved access to imaging methods nationwide. Last year, we worked with the Brazilian government to implement the WHO resolution recommending global access to medical imaging. Brazil co-sponsored this resolution, and we're establishing programs to provide CT and MRI in underserved regions, which is essential for diagnosing cancer and chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease.
Our innovation hub, InovaHC, has become Brazil's most relevant healthcare innovation hub. We have strong partnerships with major companies, including. Our AI lab, established in 2020, works on projects improving AI utilization across healthcare from administration to diagnosis and clinical procedures. We have specialized labs for robotic surgery implementation and digital health, plus a startup hub that has supported over 200 healthcare startups. Around one-third of our medical students at the University of São Paulo are now interested in innovation and entrepreneurship, establishing an innovation culture in our medical school.
EF: What are the biggest lessons learned in implementing digital health programs in São Paulo and other remote regions?
GGC: The major lesson is that capacity building represents our biggest challenge. When we started implementing digital health in our complex, we always had the idea of creating a blueprint for export. We asked our medical community about digital health, and our medical team unanimously agreed it was very important. However, the major problem our group identified was capacitation. They knew it was important, but they didn't feel equipped to use digital health technologies.
We're experiencing the same problem with AI implementation. We have plenty of algorithms in radiology, but it's difficult to put these algorithms into clinical practice. Older radiologists have heavy workloads and need to produce reports. They don't have time to stop and learn new technologies. Our strategy, similar to digital health implementation, uses new doctors and residents who teach the established radiologists how to use these tools and AI. Education and capacitation remain our major challenges in implementing new healthcare technologies.
EF: How did the partnership with the UK's NHS influence your digital health approach?
GGC: The partnership made sense because Brazil's SUS healthcare system is based on the NHS model. Great Britain partnered with InovaHC specifically because when we designed our digital health program, it was for all of Brazil. The cooperation was built on the strong relationship between SUS and the NHS.
We exchanged experiences through three joint seminars. While our realities are very different, the partnership was valuable for both sides. I'm confident they learned about the importance of digital health in countries like Brazil, with many remote regions. The collaboration helped us develop our blueprint approach for nationwide implementation.
EF: Looking toward 2030, what key decisions do you need to make now to shape the future of digital health?
GGC: The major challenge we face in Brazil is healthcare costs and managing chronic disease expenses while being inclusive for patients who currently lack access to our system. We have a universal system, but many patients in different regions of Brazil, even in São Paulo state, don't have adequate access.
We're convinced the solution is digital health combined with AI. AI facilitates access, reduces costs, and eliminates bureaucratic work for doctors, making them more available for patient care. In radiology, AI can increase the number of reports radiologists can complete daily, improving efficiency. Together, digital health and AI can reduce costs while increasing efficiency and access.
However, while implementing digital health in academic institutions like the University of São Paulo is manageable, it's much harder in other Brazilian regions without academic support or well-structured healthcare systems. We need to work on infrastructure to provide minimum quality healthcare across all regions.
Our main objective for the next five years is to implement a comprehensive program combining digital health, AI, connectivity, and interoperability. We estimate that implementing interoperability alone will reduce healthcare costs by approximately 15% by avoiding duplicate exams and information while providing faster emergency access.
This represents a transformation in how new technologies impact healthcare. Until now, all new technologies have increased costs. Digital technology can reduce costs while improving access. Having served as Secretary of Health 15 years ago, I understand how difficult implementing changes in the public sector can be, but I believe new technologies can transform our system over the next five to ten years.
