On 25th October, the event organized by ATAM took place under the title SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND HUMANISM: Digital Transformation of social organizations.

The event was held at the Ciudad de la Imagen in Pozuelo de Alarcón, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of this social institution linked to Telefónica. Over 600 people attended the event. Among the attendees were numerous presidents, and executives from third social sector organizations, managers from the social and healthcare sector, social agents, technologists, healthcare professionals, and representatives from the most prominent patient organizations.

The conference was opened by Raquel Fernández, Director of People at Telefónica Spain, who highlighted the value of ATAM as Telefónica’s commitment to the most vulnerable for more than five decades.

Ignacio Aizpún, Director General of ATAM, reflected on the changes that have been taking place over the last fifty years because of the introduction of technology into our lives and the impact that the adoption of new lifestyles has on our health, a common thread running through the various speeches at the meeting.

Ricard Solé, an internationally renowned expert in the application of complexity sciences to the understanding of life, gave us a brilliant analysis of the way in which the technology we develop conditions our own reality, presenting the most cutting-edge advances in the field of biology and health sciences, and proposing future solutions to address the challenge of the sustainability of natural ecosystems.

Jim van Os is an acknowledged professor at the University of Utrecht and a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. In his speech, he presented a new paradigm of care for the mental health problems faced by today’s society in an environment of life transformed by technology.

Marta Bertolaso, professor of philosophy of science and human development at the University Campus Biomedico in Rome, taught us about the concept of intelligent systems, where true intelligence arises from the combination of the processing power of the machine and its combination with the interaction between humans.

Then, the development teams of the ATAM and ViveLibre clinical and technological innovation projects demonstrated in a truly inspiring way the attributes of a world-first technology that will underpin a new salutogenic paradigm of care for people with disabilities and elderly.

Finally, we attended a colloquium with representatives of patient organizations and scientific societies at European level who gave their views on the role of the application of technology as a vector for the transformation of social organizations.

Pedro Carrascal, Director General of the Platform of Patients’ Organizations, moderated the colloquium. Among the participants in this panel was Jim Crowe, who addressed the opportunity that digital technology represents for people with disabilities and explained the work of the European Association of Service Providers to People with Disabilities (EASPD) to promote innovation in the social sector, emphasizing the need to apply ethical criteria in the application of technology.  The talk also included the intervention of José Augusto García Navarro, president of the Spanish Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology, who stressed the importance of evolving from a model based on the construction of residences to one based on home care. Finally, Nicola Bedlington, special advisor to the European Patients Forum, spoke on the significant work of patient advocacy organizations.