The Innovation in Health Award — Todos pela Sustentabilidade returns in 2026 for its third edition, establishing itself as a reference platform in promoting solutions with a real impact on the healthcare system in Portugal. Among the main novelties of this year, the institutional recognition granted by the High Patronage of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic stands out.
With applications open between April 7th and June 30th, it once again challenges the presentation of projects that contribute “to a smarter, more equitable and future-prepared system”, as described by Helena Freitas, the country lead from Sanofi Portugal, promoter of the award with the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon and NTT DATA Portugal.
This year’s edition maintains the four categories (Social, Economic, Environmental Sustainability and Digital Transformation) and a contingent dedicated to higher education students, encouraging new generations to get involved in this “ecosystem where innovation and sustainability are driven by visionary minds”, according to the president of the jury, Maria de Belém Roseira.
For Miguel Mascarenhas, who was one of the winners last year, “the country has unique conditions to assert growing leadership in this area. We have talent, knowledge, quality institutions.” Its winning project, DigestAID, is an artificial intelligence technology that aims to improve diagnosis in the digestive area and has already been validated in multiple clinical contexts, including by the United States FDA. Therefore, he states, receiving the Health Innovation Award was “the internal recognition of a project with external validation” and that “values a vision of the future: that of a country capable of generating knowledge, technology and clinical solutions with global impact.”
Established in 2024, the award has also “been consolidating an active network between academia, clinicians, managers, industry and civil society, promoting the sharing of good practices and supporting projects with a real impact on the lives of citizens”, describes the president of FMUL, João Eurico da Fonseca. This was the experience of the four students who developed ConversAI, an innovative conversation simulator in which the doctor/student can train, with virtual patients, their clinical, communication and decision-making skills. “The award put us on the radar of people and institutions that would hardly know us” and gave us credibility, considers Eduardo Félix.
Use data strategically
The focus of the 2026 edition – “Data that transforms Health” – will be debated at the Awards ceremony, on November 18th. Despite being a valuable system resource, data is underutilized. Óscar Gaspar and Francisca Vargas Lopes, members of the award’s advisory board, recognize that there is fragmentation and lack of coordination.
The president of the Portuguese Association of Health Economics highlights that “a leap in scale requires a strategy that goes beyond isolated initiatives, ensuring effective interoperability between levels of care and entities, at national level.” For the president of the Portuguese Association of Private Hospitalization, the effective use of data is also penalized by the lack of complete national registries (for example, the oncology register is published with a delay of 7 years): “We are still not exactly managing to have profound widespread changes in terms of the system.”
Ricardo Constantino, head of health and public sector at NTT DATA Portugal adds that “data is today the main factor in the integration of healthcare. When it is interoperable, well governed and used with purpose, it makes it possible to link prevention, diagnosis, treatment and continuous monitoring, placing the citizen at the center of the system. It is precisely this type of approach that the Innovation in Health Award – Todos pela Sustentabilidade seeks to recognize by accelerating more integrated, sustainable and results-oriented healthcare.”
The Innovation in Health Award has in its genesis precisely to contribute to change, through a “collaborative vision” and with the aim of “accelerating the transition from pilots to structuring policies”, highlights Helena Freitas. For candidates for the 2026 edition, the advice from previous winners is to think ambitiously, present concrete evidence and demonstrate the real impact on people’s lives.
Applications are open until June 30th at premioinovacaosaude.ptinviting everyone who is transforming healthcare in Portugal to be part of this change, together.
