The Health Innovation Playground

From Doctoralia to Llamalitica .. The Digital Health Trailblazer ft. Frederic Llordachs i Marquès | Episode 10

Frederic Llordachs trained as a doctor and hasn't seen a patient since 2011 — a badly broken arm sent him to business school instead of the wards. What began as a "pet project" called Doctoralia became the most-visited health website in Spain, spread across Latin America, and merged in 2016 to form DocPlanner, now one of Europe's few digital health unicorns. Then he handed it over and started again from scratch. In this episode Frederic walks through the whole arc: building a company almost by accident, hiring for character over talent, the failures he'd happily repeat, and why he left a 3,000-person corporate to build Llamalítica — an AI tool that pulls a patient's scattered records into one readable picture. Along the way he makes the case for why doctors aren't the innovators everyone assumes they are, what's quietly broken about a system that still calls people "patients," and where the doctor's job is actually heading over the next ten years. A rare conversation with someone who built the future of digital health once, sold it, and decided to do it all over again. Recorded in Barcelona. Also available on youtube as a video: https://youtu.be/WFGQ49MsAYY Connect on Linkedin: https://tr.ee/6cO-eGHQhQ

On Nurturing Barcelona's Health Innovation Ecosystem ft. Maria Ripol | Episode 9

Maria Ripol heads Open Innovation and Digital Transformation at Barcelona Health Hub, one of Europe's most active health innovation institutions, based inside the historic Hospital de Sant Pau. She didn't arrive there through a medical degree or a tech background, she came through international relations, public policy. In this episode we talk about what open innovation actually looks like from the inside; the daily reality of connecting startups, hospitals, pharma, investors, and insurers, and why that job is as much about managing expectations as it is about making connections. We get into what separates a health startup that is ready from one that isn't, why regulation might be less of a wall and more of a competitive advantage, and what AI is genuinely doing well in health versus where the hype is running ahead of the reality. An honest conversation with someone who has had a front row seat to Barcelona's health innovation scene and isn't afraid to say what she actually thinks. Recorded in Barcelona.

A Witness to Barcelona's Health Tech Ecosystem ft. Aline Noizet | Episode 8

Aline Noizet has been inside Barcelona's health tech ecosystem since the beginning, when wearables were just about counting steps and hospitals had no idea what digital health meant. Fifteen years later, she is one of the most connected people in the space, and in this episode she reflects on everything she has witnessed along the way. We talk about how the ecosystem was built and who built it, what makes a health startup succeed or quietly disappear, and what the full journey of a digital health product actually looks like from idea to reimbursement. We also get into femtech and why women's health is still fighting for the funding and attention it deserves, the real state of prevention and precision medicine, and where she sees healthcare going in the next ten years. A conversation with someone who has seen it all, and still believes the best is ahead. Recorded in Barcelona. Visit Youtube for a video version.

Get Your Tech to Patients: A Market Access Masterclass ft. Chus Castillo | Episode 7

Market access is the invisible bridge between a health technology being approved and a patient actually using it. In this episode of the Health Innovation Playground, we sit down with Chus Castillo — a biologist-turned-strategist with over 25 years at Roche, GSK, and Pfizer, now leading market access and pricing consulting at IGES Spain. We unpack what market access actually means day-to-day (hint: five key questions every innovator must answer), how the rules differ dramatically between Europe, the US, and China, and why pricing is no longer just a number — it's a tool of national policy. We also get into the quiet revolution happening in Health Technology Assessment, where social impact and environmental sustainability are starting to count alongside clinical evidence. For entrepreneurs: Chus is direct — your product will not sell itself, no matter how good your data is. Here's what you actually need. Recorded at IGES Spain, Barcelona This is the Health Innovation Playground , with Yousef H. Ahmed MD Substack: ⁠https://healthinnovationplayground.substack.com/⁠ [https://healthinnovationplayground.substack.com/%E2%81%A0] Connect with Yousef: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/yousef-h-ahmed-368b79103/⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/yousef-h-ahmed-368b79103/%E2%81%A0]

She Treated Patients, Built a Startup, Now She Transforms Hospitals ft. Dr. Anna Sala | Episode 6

Dr. Ana Sala, Head of Innovation at Vall d'Hebron Hospital, shares her unconventional journey from Allergy Specialist to Health tech founder to Institutional innovation leader. In this episode, Ana reveals why 90% of healthcare startups fail, the brutal truth about regulatory barriers in Europe, and why her anaphylaxis startup had to close despite proving the solution worked. She breaks down what innovation units actually do in hospitals, shares success stories from AI-powered pathology to CPR monitoring patches, and paints a vivid picture of healthcare's future—liquid hospitals, digital twins, and AI that lets doctors be human again. Whether you're a healthcare professional curious about innovation, an entrepreneur navigating the med-tech maze, or just fascinated by how medicine is evolving, this conversation is packed with hard-won insights from someone who's lived on both sides of the innovation divide. Follow Dr Anna Sala on Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annasalacunill/ Subscribe to our newsletter: ⁠https://healthinnovationplayground.substack.com/⁠ [https://healthinnovationplayground.substack.com/%E2%81%A0]