The results of the preliminary market consultation for the medicine information challenge have been published

The Health Quality and Assessment Agency of Catalonia (AQuAS) has published the Final report on the results of the preliminary market consultation for the tender for artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions to provide information on medicines to patients, carers and citizens for the continuous improvement of the process. The document provides an overview of the proposals received, maintaining their confidentiality, and is published on the Public Procurement Services Platform.

The report concludes that the market has the technical conditions to develop an AI-based solution to meet the needs described in the Health/AI Programme challenge for medicine information. However, it mentions that due to the solution’s innovative nature, it will be necessary to minimise potential risks in certain aspects such as diversity, non-discrimination, equity, and social and environmental wellbeing.

The challenge received a total of 11 proposals presented by organisations with extensive experience in digital technologies applied to health, especially in the area of the medication use cycle and patient care. Most of the proposals have decided to use generative AI to produce answers. Although the proposed solutions’ technology components have been widely used in other environments, in terms of the specific needs of the challenge the proposals received are in the design or construction stages, so they have never been tested in controlled or real environments.

Apart from presenting the methodology followed, the report broadly summarises the shared aspects of the proposals in terms of output format, measures to ensure robustness and security, data privacy, governance, transparency, diversity, non-discrimination and equity, social and environmental wellbeing, account retention, infrastructure, and interoperability.

Challenge objective and next steps

The aim of the medicine information challenge is to develop an AI-based solution to provide medicine information to patients, carers and citizens. This should contribute to promoting drug treatment adherence, optimise results and avoid possible adverse effects caused by lack of information.

Both the consultation and the report are the result of the joint work of the institutions represented in the Health/AI Programme and the Centre for Artificial Intelligence in the Field of Medicine (CIAM): AQuAS, the Department of Health, the Catalan Health Service, the TIC Salut Social Foundation, and the Health and Social Consortium of Catalonia.

Now, with the information obtained in the open market consultation, the Health/AI Programme team and the CIAM are working to publish the public procurement tender soon.

Learn more about the challenge