Category: Evangeli Bista

Kapa3 at Athens Digital Health Week 2026 – The Role of Patient Digital Navigators in Healthcare Digital Transformation

As part of Athens Digital Health Week 2026, Kapa3, as a new member of the Hellenic Digital Health Cluster (HDHC), participated in the closed members and partners meeting as well as the panel discussion titled “Synergies to Bridge the Needs of Healthcare Services in Digital Transformation,” presenting the role of patient digital navigators and exploring how digital technologies can strengthen a patient-centered healthcare system.

The discussion focused on a key question: how can available digital solutions effectively address the real needs of the healthcare and social care system?

Special emphasis was placed on the importance of interoperability, evidence-based decision-making, transparency, and comparability, as well as connecting research and governance, promoting equality, and considering the impact of artificial intelligence in the modern healthcare ecosystem.

Kapa3 was represented by Evangeli Bista, who highlighted the critical role of patient organizations in successfully integrating digital technologies into the care journey.

As she noted:

“Digital health is not only about developing technological solutions, but about their meaningful integration into the patient’s care journey. Civil society organizations (patients, caregivers, friends, professionals) can play a crucial role as adoption partners, contributing to design, implementation, and evaluation. Through collaboration within the Cluster, an ecosystem is strengthened where innovation translates into real accessibility and continuity of care with maximum social impact. For the Cancer Patients Guidance Center – Kapa3, developing its role as patient digital navigators can only happen through such synergies.”

The panel also included representatives from Affidea Greece, Gnomon Informatics SA, and REA Maternity & Gynecology Clinic, who contributed their expertise to a productive dialogue on aligning technology, clinical practice, and data governance.

During the closed meeting, the need to strengthen joint research initiatives, interoperability, and systematic collaboration among ecosystem members was emphasized, ensuring that innovation translates into measurable value for both patients and the healthcare system.

For Kapa3, developing its role in the digital health ecosystem as patient digital navigators is a strategic priority. Through such collaborations, patient organizations are empowered to actively contribute to a more transparent, equitable, and truly patient-centered healthcare system, where technology serves as a tool for empowerment rather than an end in itself.

Cancer is increasingly becoming a highly manageable disease

In the Sunday edition of To Vima newspaper and Vita magazine (25 January 2026), the views of Ms Evangeli Bista, co-founder of Kapa3, were featured, shedding light on the landscape of modern oncology and the challenges emerging within the current Greek healthcare reality.

Ms Bista addressed the Greek context and highlighted the importance of digital technology as a cornerstone of modern health policy, particularly in the field of cancer care, where treatment pathways are complex, long-term, and deeply person-centred. As she noted, Greece has already made measurable progress: electronic and paperless prescribing, oncology registries, the National Electronic Health Record, and applications such as MyHealthApp are creating the conditions for more coordinated and transparent care. When healthcare professionals, as well as patients themselves, are equipped with appropriate digital skills, patient autonomy is strengthened, treatment outcomes improve, and inequalities—especially those affecting vulnerable population groups—are reduced.

The article is co-authored by distinguished scientists and collaborators: Maria Gazouli, Professor of Biology, Genetics and Nanomedicine at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and national representative on the Committee for Advanced Therapies of the European Medicines Agency; Manolis Saloustros, Associate Professor of Oncology at the University of Thessaly and President of the Hellenic Society of Medical Oncology (HESMO); and Christos Frantzidis, Assistant Professor of Informatics and Machine Learning at the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom.

The contributing experts underline that modern oncology increasingly approaches cancer as a largely manageable chronic disease, through targeted and personalised therapies. The use of innovative technologies—such as next-generation sequencing, mRNA vaccines, PARP inhibitors and cellular therapies—has significantly expanded therapeutic options. At the same time, prognosis is becoming more dynamic and individualised through the use of multi-omics profiling, machine learning algorithms and liquid biopsy techniques. Particular emphasis is placed on the early integration of palliative care and psychosocial support, which play a crucial role in improving patients’ quality of life. Finally, the importance of structured and coordinated healthcare services is highlighted, with the medical oncologist acting as a key coordinator of person-centred care.

Beyond documenting technological advances, the article opens a broader discussion on the digital transition in oncology care, addressing issues of access, meaningful use of data and the need for coordination across different scientific disciplines. Digital health is presented not as an end in itself, but as a tool that requires collaboration, institutional maturity and a shared vision in order to deliver real value to patients.

The overarching message is clear: every step, whether small or large, matters. Progress in oncology is not the result of isolated actions, but of collective effort. Through collaboration among scientists, healthcare professionals, organisations and patients, the conditions for meaningful and sustainable change can be created—always with the human being and their real needs at the centre.

Text / Adaptation: Ifiyenia Anastasiou for Kapa3