These days, in which the close relationship between healthcare and ITI would like to reflect on a parallel that I think should exist between both fields.
In the healthcare field, before a medicine reaches our hands, Laboratories are required to comply rigorously with standards, clinical trials, reviews and authorizations.. Once approved, this medication can only be purchased in pharmacies, regulated establishments that must have a qualified professional in charge.
And still, many treatments can only be prescribed by a doctorwhich assumes responsibility for its indication and monitoring.
This entire regulatory and professional framework exists for a very simple reason: People’s health and lives depend on it.
However, in the field of computing—which increasingly has a direct impact on the security and well-being of citizens—exactly the opposite occurs. Anyone can design, deploy or maintain systems that manage sensitive informationcritical decisions or essential infrastructure. And when something fails, as has recently happened in health systems, it is accepted with resignation.
But the examples are not limited to healthcare. IT is behind the control of air, rail and maritime traffic; of the judicial and penitentiary systems; of electrical networks, water supply, emergency management or electronic administration itself.
A design error, malpractice, or lack of professional supervision can have consequences as serious as a medical error. The difference is that, in computing, no one yet seems to have the ‘obligation’ to respond.
In recent times, Cybersecurity has become a fashionable topic, and it seems that anyone feels empowered to give lessons about it.. However, it is worth remembering that digital protection is not a game or an area for improvisation.
Jumping on the cybersecurity bandwagon without understanding its fundamentals is, in addition to being irresponsible, dangerous: A crucial area for the security of people, companies and institutions is trivialized.
It is true that in recent years there has been progress in the regulatory field with frameworks such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), NIS2 Directive —which reinforces cybersecurity in critical sectors— or the Artificial Intelligence Regulation (AI Act).
All of them are important pieces, but none addresses the root of the problem: the absence of regulation and professional recognition of those who designimplement and maintain the systems on which our digital society rests.
Because standards may define what not to do, but only qualified professionals guarantee that things are done right. And that requires a regulated profession, with responsibilities, ethics, training and supervision, just as it happens in healthcare or architecture.
We need, therefore, a ‘professional recipe’ also for computing. Because if we would not accept an uncontrolled medication reaching pharmacies, Why do we accept that a computer system without guarantees manages our health data, decides a court sentence or controls a flight?
Digitalization is not an experiment: It is the new vital fabric of our societies. And if in medicine we trust doctors and pharmacists, in technology we must trust—and demand—qualified, recognized and regulated computer engineers.
It is not about corporatism, but about responsibility. Because what is at stake today is not only the efficiency of the systems, but security, justice and, in many cases, people’s lives.
*** Fernando Suarez Lorenzo He is president of the General Council of Computer Engineering Colleges