More than thirty CEOs from CataloniaBio & HealthTech met at the HUB cambraDigital (Barcelona Chamber of Commerce) on 19 April to discuss the situation of health as an economic sector. Following on from the reflections raised at the first CEO Council of the year, at the beginning of February with Antón Costas as guest speaker, in which a vision of health was raised not only from a social point of view but also as an element in the growth and prosperity of a society, proposing that health should begin to be seen in economics as an accounting element and not just as a cost.

This time the special guest at the CEO Council was Boi Ruiz; Mariona Serra, vice-president of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, was in charge of welcoming and introducing the guest. Who was Minister of Health of the Generalitat de Catalunya between 2010 and 2016, before that he had worked as Director General of the Catalan Hospitals Union (1994-2008), and was also a member of the Board of Directors of Foment del Treball, between 2004 and 2010. He holds a degree in Medicine and Surgery and a doctorate from the University of Barcelona, and a diploma in Hospital Management from the Barcelona School of Management and Administration (EADA). He is founder and, currently, president of the international consultancy firm Know How Advisers, and director of the Chair of Health Management and Health Policies and of the University Institute of Patients at the International University of Catalonia (UIC).

Due to all his experience and the various positions of responsibility he has held in healthcare, Ruiz has extensive knowledge of health management and policies in this area. He began the session by defining the various aspects of activity in the health sector that make it economically valuable, accompanied by data. It is worth highlighting the fact that the sector is one of the leading employers in Catalonia, the fact that it is an important driver of foreign investment and that it is ranked as the fourth largest export sector in Catalonia.

Ruiz also stressed the economic responsibility of the health sector, in the sense that it has to maintain a healthy human capital. This starts with children, who must be healthy in order to receive education; adults, who must be able to work; and the elderly, who must be able to lead a healthy life in order to optimise health resources. Looking more broadly, he stressed the fact that, in particular, health centres are also areas of social cohesion and the indirect effects on the economy around hospitals, for example, only in the service sector.

From his knowledge of management, Boi Ruiz reflected on how to economically sustain a system that aims to meet the health protection needs of the population, which at the same time has to strive for innovation in its field, while maintaining a balance between costs and efficiency. In this sense, the debate focused largely on the instrumentalization of public budgets. Before opening an extensive conversation with the attendees, in which he spoke intensely about the incorporation of innovation and public-private collaborations, Ruiz highlighted the need to focus on strengthening the health industry in Catalonia, which, he said, has a very solid base. This CEO Council was also attended by guests from the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, as the event was organised jointly through the institution's Health Committee.