Reimagining Portuguese Digital Healthcare

Abstract

(in Panel 01) Healthcare in Portugal is undergoing significant change, shaped by the ongoing integration of digital technologies and evolving expectations about care. This presentation explores how this transformation is taking place—not as a top-down directive, but through the day-to-day practices, decisions, and interactions of various actors embedded in the system. Through close engagement with professionals, designers, policymakers, and patients involved in digital health initiatives, the work traces how different logics, constraints, and aspirations come into play. Rather than presenting a singular vision of what healthcare should become, the focus is on mapping how diverse actors engage with, interpret, and respond to unfolding changes. These responses range from enthusiastic adoption to cautious experimentation or quiet resistance and often involve navigating uncertainties, adapting existing roles, and reconfiguring routines. The presentation also looks at how future-oriented thinking—through prototypes, pilot programs, and strategic frameworks—is being used to test possibilities and explore alternatives. In these settings, speculation becomes a practical tool for managing complexity and making decisions in the present. By foregrounding the situated experiences and insights of those involved, this exploration sheds light on the multiplicity of healthcare futures currently in the making in Portugal. It highlights not a definitive path but a dynamic process shaped by negotiation, context, and collective improvisation.