At ISE 2026, the intersection of AV, digital infrastructure, and healthcare innovation was on full display.
Maria Ripoll Bartrolí, Head of Open Innovation at the Barcelona & Madrid Health Hub, spoke to UC Today about how technology is reshaping patient care, clinical workflows, and how the hub operates as a catalyst for collaboration across the healthcare ecosystem – bringing together startups, scale-ups, hospitals, big corporations, and investors to accelerate digital health innovation.
“We’re a nonprofit but private association dedicated to dynamizing the ecosystem in digital health,” she explained.
“Right now we have more than 600 members in more than 90 countries – startups, scale-ups, hospitals, big corporations like pharma and insurance, and investors.”
She noted that the hub’s work is especially vital given the pressures healthcare systems face: ageing populations, chronic diseases, workforce shortages, and rising patient expectations.
“We all want to live more, but I want to live better as well – so all these solutions end up reaching the patient or the professional to overall improve lives.”
AV and systems integration are underpinning many of the tools that make digital health viable – from secure video platforms and collaboration spaces to immersive simulation and data visualisation environments.
AV as a Critical Enabler in Modern Care
Ripoll Bartrolí highlighted practical ways AV is improving the healthcare experience, particularly by reducing friction between clinicians and patients. Startups are now using audio capture and AI to transcribe consultations in real time, allowing doctors to focus on patients instead of screens.
“We have startups that are listening to the patient when they come to a consult, so the doctor doesn’t have to be typing and not even looking in the eyes of the patient,” she said.
For AV professionals and integrators, this represents a shift: microphone placement, room acoustics, camera positioning, display design, and system reliability directly affect clinical workflow, patient trust, and outcomes. In this sense, AV has become part of the care experience itself.
Beyond Telemedicine: Digital Twins and Simulation
While telemedicine remains a prominent application, Ripoll Bartrolí pointed to emerging technologies like digital twins and simulation as the next frontier.
“We hear a lot about AI, and of course this is breakthrough,” she said. “But what is really innovative now is digital twins – to be able to test procedures, to test pills, to test digital things without having the patient suffering the consequences.”
These applications rely on advanced visualisation, high-performance displays, real-time data feeds, and immersive environments – all areas where AV and systems integration are critical.
Surgical planning rooms, medical education labs, and simulation environments now allow healthcare professionals to test and learn in ways that were impossible just a decade ago.
Integrating Technology into Workflows
Despite the potential, Ripoll Bartrolí emphasised that technology alone is not enough. Adoption depends on seamless integration into clinical workflows and earning the trust of medical professionals.
“One of the main barriers is to be able to integrate these solutions seamlessly, with the trust of the doctors,” she said. “And so that patients, who are at their most vulnerable moments, also feel at ease with what they’re being treated with.”
Resistance is understandable: after years of training and practice, doctors can be hesitant to change routines. But seeing successful implementations, such as AI-assisted consultation tools, helps overcome that hesitation.
“Studying medicine is so long, and then when you get into a habit of doing what you do and it works, you don’t really see a need for it changing.
“If they’re coming to your practice and saying you’re not going to be doing what you’ve done all your life anymore, that can be kind of resistant.”
For technology providers, integrators, and exhibitors, this underscores a key lesson: success in healthcare is not just about innovation – it’s about usability, reliability, and understanding how care actually happens.
Regulation: Barrier and Safeguard
Regulation is another important consideration. While often seen as a hurdle, Ripoll Bartrolí framed it as a necessary safeguard in an industry dealing with sensitive data and vulnerable patients.
“Regulation is expensive and it’s thorough and it’s slow, but it has to be like that,” she said. “We’re treating with patients. We’re treating with their sensitive data, and we have to be able to treat it correctly.”
For AV and IT professionals working in healthcare, this affects system design, cybersecurity, data handling, and compliance – all of which are increasingly intertwined with integrated AV/IT deployments.
Looking ahead, Ripoll Bartrolí emphasised collaboration as essential for advancing healthcare innovation.
“Everybody wants their product to be the best,” she said. “But sometimes we’re a bit blindsided by what’s next to us. I would like to see more collaboration – more success cases, more hospitals and companies working together on products that have really been successful.”
