Health Challenge 4.0: Virtual Health for a New Europe

This challenge is aimed at multidisciplinary profiles capable of integrating perspectives from technology, design, engineering, health, and the humanities, with an interest in exploring the impact of artificial intelligence and virtual systems on society.

Academic profiles:

Students of Design, Biomedical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Telecommunications, Service Design, UX/UI, Health Sciences, Psychology, Sociology, Data Sciences, AI and Robotics, or Future Studies.

Interest in social innovation, systemic thinking, and people-centered design.

The ability to analyze complex contexts and prototype conceptual or technical solutions will help you in the project.

If you are sensitive to the ethical, regulatory, and human aspects of technology applied to health, this is your final project!

Anna and Paula from Telefónica Spain's B2B Sector Solutions team present this challenge to you.

Within the current situation in the EU, there are several key challenges surrounding healthcare:

·      An aging population and the sustainability of nationalized systems.

·      Improving the quality, access, and equity of healthcare.

·      Strengthening the response to emergencies and new diseases, dependence on other countries.

Europe needs a reliable, adaptable, and scalable healthcare model. 

To this end, we want to explore the new technological framework: LLMs, computer vision, machine learning, digital twins, etc. in order to create Virtual Health models.

This AI framework has its own challenges: regulatory, systems integration, security and authentication, as well as adoption by healthcare professionals and patients, etc.

We propose that you develop a Final Degree Project (TFG) or Final Master's Project (TFM) that combines research and prospective design on the future of virtual healthcare in Europe.

The project should include:

1. Research into the current European healthcare ecosystem, identifying the main players, policies, regulatory frameworks, and technological trends surrounding digital health and artificial intelligence.

2.    Critical analysis of the challenges and opportunities posed by the transition to virtual healthcare models: trust, ethics, interoperability, user experience, sustainability, etc.

Conceptual proposal for a Virtual Healthcare 4.0 model, imagining how the digital healthcare systems of the European future could work—whether through platforms, immersive experiences, intelligent agents, virtual hospitals, or hybrid physical-digital environments. Scenarios such as “European Virtual Hospital,” “Ethical and Transparent AI Medical Assistant,” “European Patient Digital Twin,” “Interoperable Virtual Health Network between Member States,” or “AI and Spatial Data-Based Preventive Care” would be plausible frameworks.

The approach can range from service design, data engineering, responsible AI, or human-machine interaction applied to healthcare.