EHTEL Symposium 2018
Empowered Partners in Health through user-driven digitisation
Many members of the European Digital Health community met together at the 9th annual EHTEL Symposium. Conversations were anchored on the well-being of European societies. The symposium provided attendees with insights into how user-driven digitisation delivers benefits and empowers all health-related stakeholders.
The Symposium covered the three priority pillars set out by the European Commission in its 2018 Communication on digital transformation, including patients’ access, personalised medicine, and digital interaction.
Monday - Tuesday, 3-4 December 2018: Symposium Plenaries and Debates
Over the first two days, participants explored how user-driven digitisation – enabled by all those working to innovate in technologies and services – delivers benefits to empower:
- Consumers and Patients: through smart tools enabling health promotion and prevention linked to information – including health records – and resources in health and social care;
- Health care managers and providers: for next-generation care planning, integrating individual patient data, and big data using a population health approach;
- The health workforce: so that jobs gain from the use of carefully designed and adjusted digital tools, and employees are trained to use their digital skills to create meaningful documentation and workflows.
The EHTEL Symposium 2018 plenaries and debates focused on the following themes:
- Setting the Scene: Citizens/Patients and Health Policy Views: this session explored digitisation from the perspective of users such as patients/citizens and healthcare planners/authorities. Which users’ needs must be considered by “user-driven” digitisation?
- From Lightweight Wellness Apps to Managing Serious Conditions: attendees learned about state-of-the-art apps and games designed around patients, health, and wellness and that support the management of chronic conditions and secondary prevention.
- Creating Value from Well-Being Data: Enabling Care Innovations: this session focused on the potential offered by healthcare data’s secondary use for research, development, innovation and management to create better health perspectives for patients and citizens. Mining data provides new opportunities and requires compliance with European regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
- EU Vision for Better Medicine and Health Gains with Digitisation: participants explored the main policy issues and perspectives around service-oriented digital health infrastructures, according to the European Policy Agenda for Digital Health and Care, and the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027.
- Data and Well-Being in Practice: Co-Creating for Patients’ Benefit: participants discussed implementation scenarios for data-driven health and social care that can be supported by visual and interactive tools.
- Making Digital Healthcare Meaningful: Role of Health Work Force: this session looked at the best ways to train health professionals in digital health, and to educate digital natives starting to work in healthcare.
- Innovation Initiative: Living Labs for Digitisation in Healthcare: attendees learned how living labs support the digitisation of health and care, and how demand and supply sides can be brought together in co-creative ways.
- Leveraging Synergies of Machine Learning and Digitisation: this session was dedicated to Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning and how pervasive digitisation is emerging to provide meaningful new services in the health and care fields. In a forward-looking mode, the symposium debated how AI and machine learning systems could contribute to health and care policies related to digital transformation.
Wednesday 5 December 2018: Interactive Session - Matchmaking around Conditions for Successful Deployment
A spinoff workshop to the EHTEL Symposium was hosted at the EU Office of the Italian Region of Campania. This matchmaking event was organised by EHTEL and the Reference Site Coordination Network in collaboration with the WE4AHA and SCIROCCO projects. It was geared to health care managers who are modernising their health care system.
The workshop focused on people’s digital health needs, good practices in example regions, and the support offered by the SCIROCCO Self-assessment Tool, based on the SCIROCCO Maturity Model.
The workshop had three parts:
• Personas: modelling citizens’ and patients’ needs for digital services
The personas covered people throughout the life-course, with varied health, care and social conditions and living in different socio-economic and geographic settings. Understanding the personas led to the next step in designing a set of user scenarios.
• Field experiences in deploying digital services
Three Reference Sites from Andalucía (Spain), Puglia (Italy) and Turkey used the SCIROCCO Tool to assess systems and services in their local settings. Attendees were introduced to examples of digital services deployed in the field and at scale.
• Coaching and twinning on conditions for successful deployments:
using the SCIROCCO Self-assessment Tool
Attendees explored specific dimensions of the SCIROCCO Tool: evaluation methods; information and eHealth services; innovation management; population approach; removal of inhibitors; standardisation and simplification; and structure and governance.
Thirty people from 18 countries attended the event and worked in groups to investigate exciting new experiences of integrated care. Attendees benefitted from a mutual exchange of knowledge. They spotted some good opportunities to partner with others on integrated care-related activities. Many participants were keen to explore how health and social care data and records can be shared.
Information
For related information on the tools used and useful background, see:
Blueprint (personas): https://ec.europa.eu/eip/ageing/blueprint_en
Reference Sites: https://ec.europa.eu/eip/ageing/reference-sites_en
SCIROCCO: https://www.scirocco-project.eu