At this year’s 4YFN, held within the framework of the Mobile World Congress 2026 in Barcelona (2-5 March), the SEARCH project took part in a session exploring the growing role of synthetic data in healthcare innovation.

The session, titled “When data isn’t real but the impact is: synthetic data to unlock new possibilities in diagnostics, treatment and personalised medicine,” brought together experts from clinical and industry perspectives at the Catalonia Health Innovation Ecosystem Pavilion.

The discussion featured Josep Munuera, Director of Radiology at Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, and Daniel Malagarriga, Associate Director of Data Science at AstraZeneca, and was moderated by Olalla Aramburu from Fundació TIC Salut i Social.

Speakers shared their experience applying synthetic data in real-world settings, from AI-driven imaging and biomarker research to regulatory data workflows. The conversation highlighted both the opportunities and current barriers to adoption. Key topics included the importance of building patient trust, the role of hospitals as key drivers of innovation, and the need to enable secure, cross-institutional data collaboration across Europe. These discussions closely align with the objectives of the SEARCH project, which aims to advance privacy-preserving data use through synthetic data and federated approaches.