III Viamed-FutureMeds Conference: bringing the conversation back to Madrid

FutureMeds
23 hours ago
4 min read

Updated: 4 hours ago

On 12 May, the III Viamed-FutureMeds Conference will bring together physicians, researchers, patient voices, healthcare leaders and industry experts to examine how patient engagement, real-world data and artificial intelligence are changing clinical research in Spain.

In 2023, FutureMeds and Viamed Salud made a strategic investment. Spain was already the leading country in Europe for clinical trial activity, but the infrastructure connecting its hospitals, research professionals, patients and pharmaceutical partners was more fragmented than it needed to be.

The two organisations believed that if they could build a stronger research community in Spain, the impact would be felt in trial quality, recruitment speed, and most importantly in patients getting faster access to treatments they needed.

Two years in, the numbers give some shape to that ambition. In their first year alone, the partnership ran over 15 clinical trials. FutureMeds Spain became the first site in the country to enrol patients for acne vulgaris and flu vaccine trials, and was recognised by a major sponsor as the world's leading recruitment site in a Phase 2 celiac disease trial.

As part of the progress, more discussions took place in the country revolving around key questions such as

What does it actually take to keep a patient engaged throughout a trial, not just recruited into one?
How do real-world data and AI change the economics of clinical research and who needs to be involved in those decisions?
What does Spain need to do to hold its European position as competition intensifies globally?

These are the questions the III Viamed–FutureMeds Conference is designed to address.

“We started the conference in 2023 because we kept having the same conversations in separate rooms. Physicians talking to physicians, patient groups talking to patient groups. Putting everyone together doesn't sound radical, but it changes what's possible.”

- Rocio Diaz Sanchez, Managing Director at FutureMeds Spain

This year's theme

On 12 May 2026, the event returns to CEU University's Aula Magna in Madrid under the theme Innovation with Purpose: Patients and Data Transforming Clinical Research.

The phrase "patient-centred research" has become so common in the industry that it risks losing meaning. This conference is built around making it more concrete what it means.

The morning session opens with Anna Sala Cunill, Head of the Innovation Unit at Vall d'Hebron Hospital, one of Spain's leading research institutions, presenting on the challenges and opportunities ahead for clinical research. Her work sits at the intersection of clinical practice and innovation, and her perspective cuts through the noise that tends to water down these conversations.

That's followed by Annick de Bruin, Chief Research and Insights Officer at CISCRP in the United States, presenting data from their ongoing research into how patients actually experience clinical trial participation. Not how researchers think they experience it, how patients describe it themselves. The gap between those two things is often where recruitment stalls, retention fails, and trial quality suffers.

The morning closes with a roundtable on patient engagement: what works in practice, what doesn't, and what new models are emerging. Rocío Díaz Sánchez, Managing Director of FutureMeds Spain, will chair the discussion. Speakers: Annick de Bruin, Carmen Yélamos from the Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer, and Arkadiusz Kasperski, Head of Patient Engagement at FutureMeds Poland.

The data and AI session: useful, not theoretical

After lunch, the focus shifts to technology, but in a way that keeps clinical practice at the centre.

David Pérez del Rey, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and Director of the TriNetX–UPM Data Integration Partnership, will address the practical opportunities and limits of real-world data and AI in accelerating trials. This session is for research physicians and trial teams who are already working with data and want to understand what's genuinely possible, what's overstated, and what infrastructure they need to build.

The afternoon closes with a keynote from Amelia Martín Uranga, Director of Clinical and Translational Research at Farmaindustria, mapping out the 2026–2030 landscape: patient engagement, the European Health Data Space, real-world data and AI as the forces that will shape Spain's position in global research over the next five years.

Who should be in the room

The conference is designed for research physicians considering or already conducting clinical trials, hospital administrators thinking about research as part of their institution's future, patient advocates who want to understand how engagement models are evolving, and pharmaceutical and biotech professionals working on trial design and recruitment.

Last year's event brought together pharmaceutical executives, patient advocacy groups, researchers, healthcare professionals, hospital administrators, academics, and government officials in one place.

Discussions covered AI's role in optimising trials, Spain's competitive position within the EU's research landscape, and the contributions of patients and healthcare professionals throughout the research process. The quality of that conversation, across sectors, not just within them, was what made it work.

This year there are 300 seats.

Registration is open now: https://jornadaviamedfuturemed26s.eventbrite.es

The longer arc

Spain has firmly established itself as a prime clinical trials destination, ranking third worldwide and first in Europe. That position was built through public-private collaboration, qualified professionals, and a patient population willing to participate. Maintaining it requires continued investment: in infrastructure, in skills, in relationships across the ecosystem.

The 3rd Viamed–FutureMeds Conference is part of that investment. The work of building a research community is cumulative. Each year's event deepens connections, surfaces new questions, and moves the conversation forward.

"Spain has earned its place at the top of the European rankings. The risk now is assuming that holds without effort. The competition is real, and the window to push further is now."

- Rocio Diaz Sanchez, Managing Director at FutureMeds Spain