The Portuguese Physiotherapists’ Association held a working meeting focusing on the challenges associated with the collection, organisation and use of health data, against a backdrop of growing demands regarding interoperability, data quality, data security and the integration of artificial intelligence-based solutions.
The meeting was attended by the President of the Portuguese Physiotherapists’ Association, António Manuel Fernandes Lopes; the Coordinator of the Office for Studies, Foresight and Planning (GEPP), Nuno Cordeiro, and Professor Mário Macedo, PhD, in his capacity as head of the Sectoral Committee for Health (CS/09) of the Portuguese Quality System, under the Portuguese Institute for Quality (IPQ).
During the meeting, models of the complexity and demands of health records were analysed, as well as the requirements necessary to ensure semantic consistency, traceability and the reuse of clinical information. The discussion highlighted significant parallels with the work that the Portuguese Physiotherapists’ Association has been promoting in defining a professional record framework geared towards the practice of physiotherapy and the future implementation of the profession’s own ontology.
The discussion also provided an opportunity to explore in greater depth the challenges posed by the digital transformation of healthcare, particularly with regard to data quality, information governance, the use of artificial intelligence, and the need to adopt robust conceptual frameworks that ensure the appropriate representation of physiotherapists’ practice.
This initiative forms part of the Portuguese Physiotherapists’ Association’s commitment to developing tools that enhance the quality of professional records, promote knowledge generation and contribute to the development of health information systems, in line with the latest national and international best practice.