Full coverage: HIMSS & Health 2.0 Europe 2019

Practical tips from the InterSystems workshop organised at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference in Helsinki.

Healthcare IT News sat down with Dr Olzhas Abishev, Vice Minister of Healthcare of the Republic of Kazakhstan, at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference in Helsinki last month, to discuss what has been done in his country and the exciting future developments of digital health taking place with his team.

Despite a flurry of innovations and technologies for healthcare cropping up on the market, their use and deployment remains fragmented across the world, with barriers around poor access, a lack of interoperability and challenges in embedding these tools into workflows continuing to hinder progress. When looking at citizens’ attitudes, however, new research commissioned by Philips indicates that people would be more likely to use digital health technologies if they were recommended by a healthcare professional and if they had an “assurance” that their data would be kept secure. Furthermore, according to the study, being able to share the information tracked with healthcare professionals also plays an important role in the decision to use digital health tools, as well as their affordability. WHY IT MATTERS The Philips 2019 Future Health Index, published earlier this month, aims to provide an insight on the impact of digital technology based on a survey of 15,000 citizens and over 3,100 healthcare professionals in 15 countries (Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Poland, the UK and the US). Findings indicate that over 75% of the hospitals and practices where the professionals surveyed worked were using digital health records. However, challenges in deploying EHR systems were still reported, and the “common assumption” that digitisation could add more tasks from an administration standpoint to people’s jobs was also quoted in the research.  In addition, survey results show that 80% of professionals were able to share patient information electronically with colleagues in their organisations, but only 32% had the ability to exchange data with professionals from other facilities. This was due to a lack of access to data sharing systems, interoperability, concerns around privacy and security, as well as a preference for using paper or phones instead.  Meanwhile, 36% of citizens said they “regularly” shared health data tracked by using digital tools with the professionals caring for them, and that these provided "convenient" access to services and helped them feel “more in control” of their health.  “Two-way sharing of information is not only essential to deliver the right care at the right time, it also helps to improve the patient and clinician experience,” said Jan Kimpen, Philips chief medical officer. “Informed and empowered patients also take better care of their health, which contributes to the last element of the Quadruple Aim – lower cost of care.” ON THE RECORD Looking at a country breakdown, the researchers said China, Saudi Arabia, India and Russia were leading the pack when looking at the use of emerging technologies to ensure people remained healthy and improve the care delivered to patients.  “We know from the previous three editions of the FHI [Future Health Index] study that it is hard for countries with a developed healthcare system to change, simply because of the legacy,” Kimpen added. “So we should learn from countries with an emerging healthcare system that have leapfrogged in the adoption of digital technologies. Technology is no longer a limiting factor, the important thing for all of us is to be prepared for change.”  WHAT'S THE TREND In the 2018 study from Philips, researchers noted that adoption could be accelerated through education, after findings indicated that only 47% of the healthcare professionals and 24% of individuals surveyed said they felt “knowledgeable about connected care technologies”. They also called for both professionals and patients to be involved at earlier stages when developing solutions in order to help “secure buy-in”.

Alexander Berler, director for consulting services at Gnomon Informatics SA, looks at a new initiative that can help put the patient at the centre of healthcare in Europe.

Visions of better healthcare for everyone versus apocalyptic predictions of dehumanised medicine. How can we prevent the dream of digitalisation for people’s good from turning into a threat or pure unrealistic futurology?  Can pervasive technology become invasive? Could AI turn against patients and health professionals? The more digital technologies accompany patients and physicians, the more opportunities for better outcomes, but also concerns, especially those related to data security. China’s social credit system raises many ethical questions, some chatbots available online are misleading, data gathered in social media can be used to influence political decisions, fake news distributed on the internet threaten human’s health and lives. The new generation of digital natives faces a tsunami of technologies. Maneesh Juneja, digital health futurist, is passionate about exponential technologies in healthcare. He suggests that we are moving from a world where it's very difficult to get data on someone's health outside of their doctor's visit to a world where organisations and governments might be able to monitor citizens’ health 24 hours a day, providing digital nudges to shift behavior and being able to book you in for therapy before you even realise you are falling sick. “Whether your concern with this future vision is privacy, security, or ethics, or all three, it's critical that we build the future with people, not for them. Trust is going to be even more important as the pace of change speeds up,” Juneja pointed out. The challenge is, how do we design these new services to be inclusive, respectful, and transparent. We are already experiencing lessons on how important it is to look forward, to build smart and suitable solutions. One hundred years after the industrial revolution, societies profit from the most significant technological progress in the history of humanity, but meantime, we have to face the side effect that threatens our existence – climate change. Similarly, technology is not neutral. Tamsin Rose, senior fellow at Friends Of Europe, said that data is the currency of the new digital ecosystem. “Like money, the more data you acquire, the more things you can do with it.  Right now, the big tech dragons are hoarding enormous treasure troves of data about each and every one of us. This is the dystopia that the insights from data aggregation don't benefit the people but are monetised to make profits,” suggested Tamsin Rose. We need a fundamental revolution of business models in the digital sphere. The added value that comes from data collected passively or actively shared. “Done right, this could empower the poorest and most excluded to have a share in the benefits of the digital transformation. Done wrong, we face being cogs in a system with no agency of control,” concluded Tamsin. Bogi Eliasen, an expert on the Future of Health at Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies, said that we have to focus more on what we want to make out of the technology and less on what contemporary technology can do. “We need to remember that ethics does change over time and place and thus try to develop some ethical frames that are better at grasping the accelerating tech development,” argued Eliasen. If privacy and anonymity are impossible to guarantee, transparency will become more important as a safety and security measure for personal security.  “We need to adopt a new social contract in the digital age, we have to set data free to create new valuable understandings and services,” summarised Eliasen. Artificial intelligence, algorithms, robotics – new technologies develop quicker than we, people, do. “We still don’t know what we are dealing with, but I think that instead of competing with AI, we will have to emerge with it. Technology is already now augmenting our skills,” said Teemu Arina, co-author of the “Biohacker’s Handbook.” The bad news is that as human species, we develop slower than the technology. On the other hand, we have to keep experimenting in search of innovations that can potentially improve our world. Unfortunately, there is always the danger that radical technologies created for a good purpose will influence our lives negatively. Artur Olesch is a freelance digital health journalist. .jumbotron{ background-image: url("https://www.healthcareitnews.com//sites/hitn/files/u2556/HelsinkiJumbotron.jpg"); background-size: cover; color: white; } .jumbotron h2{ color: white; } Full coverage: HIMSS & Health 2.0 Europe 2019 Healthcare decision makers, patients, clinicians, nurses, life science professionals, innovators and many more are set to convene at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference 2019 in Helsinki on 11-13 June.

Healthcare digitisation is a niche topic? No way. For four years in a row now, the Finnish digital health services have ranked among the top three of the most valued internet brands in Finland.

Digitisation can alleviate the challenges healthcare is facing. But this won’t happen automatically. Citizens and patients have to take the lead – as data owners and co-creators.

The ingredients of Finland's growing startup ecosystem include public-private partnerships, data research availability and a little bit of sisu.

Regional population health management networks are on the rise in some parts of Europe. They use digital platforms that increasingly try to bridge the gap between healthcare and social care.

Visions of better healthcare for everyone versus apocalyptic predictions of dehumanised medicine. How can we prevent the dream of digitalisation for people’s good from turning into a threat or pure unrealistic futurology?  Can pervasive technology become invasive? Could AI turn against patients and health professionals? The more digital technologies accompany patients and physicians, the more opportunities for better outcomes, but also concerns, especially those related to data security. China’s social credit system raises many ethical questions, some chatbots available online are misleading, data gathered in social media can be used to influence political decisions, fake news distributed on the internet threaten human’s health and lives. The new generation of digital natives faces a tsunami of technologies. Maneesh Juneja, digital health futurist, is passionate about exponential technologies in healthcare. He suggests that we are moving from a world where it's very difficult to get data on someone's health outside of their doctor's visit to a world where organisations and governments might be able to monitor citizens’ health 24 hours a day, providing digital nudges to shift behavior and being able to book you in for therapy before you even realise you are falling sick. “Whether your concern with this future vision is privacy, security, or ethics, or all three, it's critical that we build the future with people, not for them. Trust is going to be even more important as the pace of change speeds up,” Juneja pointed out. The challenge is, how do we design these new services to be inclusive, respectful, and transparent. We are already experiencing lessons on how important it is to look forward, to build smart and suitable solutions. One hundred years after the industrial revolution, societies profit from the most significant technological progress in the history of humanity, but meantime, we have to face the side effect that threatens our existence – climate change. Similarly, technology is not neutral. Tamsin Rose, senior fellow at Friends Of Europe, said that data is the currency of the new digital ecosystem. “Like money, the more data you acquire, the more things you can do with it.  Right now, the big tech dragons are hoarding enormous treasure troves of data about each and every one of us. This is the dystopia that the insights from data aggregation don't benefit the people but are monetised to make profits,” suggested Tamsin Rose. We need a fundamental revolution of business models in the digital sphere. The added value that comes from data collected passively or actively shared. “Done right, this could empower the poorest and most excluded to have a share in the benefits of the digital transformation. Done wrong, we face being cogs in a system with no agency of control,” concluded Tamsin. Bogi Eliasen, an expert on the Future of Health at Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies, said that we have to focus more on what we want to make out of the technology and less on what contemporary technology can do. “We need to remember that ethics does change over time and place and thus try to develop some ethical frames that are better at grasping the accelerating tech development,” argued Eliasen. If privacy and anonymity are impossible to guarantee, transparency will become more important as a safety and security measure for personal security.  “We need to adopt a new social contract in the digital age, we have to set data free to create new valuable understandings and services,” summarised Eliasen. Artificial intelligence, algorithms, robotics – new technologies develop quicker than we, people, do. “We still don’t know what we are dealing with, but I think that instead of competing with AI, we will have to emerge with it. Technology is already now augmenting our skills,” said Teemu Arina, co-author of the “Biohacker’s Handbook.” The bad news is that as human species, we develop slower than the technology. On the other hand, we have to keep experimenting in search of innovations that can potentially improve our world. Unfortunately, there is always the danger that radical technologies created for a good purpose will influence our lives negatively. Artur Olesch is a freelance digital health journalist. .jumbotron{ background-image: url("https://www.healthcareitnews.com//sites/hitn/files/u2556/HelsinkiJumbotron.jpg"); background-size: cover; color: white; } .jumbotron h2{ color: white; } Full coverage: HIMSS & Health 2.0 Europe 2019 Healthcare decision makers, patients, clinicians, nurses, life science professionals, innovators and many more are set to convene at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference 2019 in Helsinki on 11-13 June.

In an interactive workshop on day 2 of this year’s HIMSS & Health 2.0 Europe Conference in Helsinki, representatives of healthcare institutions, cybersecurity experts, and patient representatives discussed about possible ways to alleviate the threat.

We still fail in medical data management and are not ready yet to convert data into knowledge, claimed the experts of the session “Health Anywhere, Anytime” organised this week at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference.

Erik Gerritsen, vice minister of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport in the Netherlands, had a simple message for delegates on the second day of the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European conference in Helsinki this evening: there is an urgent need to address the “global interoperability crisis” facing healthcare. Governments need to step up, Gerritsen said, and move away from the approach adopted in the past, where the health IT industry was left alone to try and "fix" the interoperability challenge. “What I see is a global market failure in achieving meaningful interoperability. "What I see now is that, with all our technological advancements, people are still dying because we are not able to get the right electronic information in the right place at the right time," he said. "And I see hospitals being forced to select a specific EHR system because their data is locked into their vendor’s closed ecosystem. "I see nurses and doctors burning out and leaving healthcare behind because the technology doesn’t work for, but against them," he added. "I see desperate patients starting lawsuits to be able to get their own medical data because healthcare organisations are not willing or not able to provide their data to them." His comments echoed the remarks of patient advocates at the event, as well as governmental figures from other European countries calling on all stakeholders to work together and ensure healthcare does not, as Gerritsen put it, continue to miss out on the “digital revolution”, with fax machines and paper still common in many organisations - and "extinct everywhere but healthcare".  Empowered citizens and healthcare professionals The problem, however, is not the lack of having a vision in place or the lack of usable technology; it's implementing and scaling good solutions, Gerritsen said. The vice minister emphasised that health innovation needed to be "accelerated" to ensure that the right care is delivered at the right time. For this to happen, there is a need for empowered citizens, with access to the tools needed to be in control of their own health, and empowered healthcare professionals.  The vice minister acknowledged, however, that government is often seen as “the opposite of inspiration, slowing down innovation with needless red tape and bureauracy”. But he added: "As governments, we have a responsibility to serve the interests of all our citizens, to ensure that everyone is able to participate in today’s society, no matter their background. “People don’t do whatever you say, but they will follow what they see you do." Norway health tech CEO receives achievement award The evening keynote also saw Kathrine Myhre, chief executive of Norway Health Tech, receive the HIMSS Future 50 European Achievement Award. Myhre is the founder of Norway Health Tech, previously known as the Oslo Medtech Cluster, which brings together over 200 members from the digital health industry, providers, local authorities, R&D organisations and investors. “To ensure the growth of digital health into its full potential, we need leaders who can constantly push to improve the quality in treatment and care by developing and industrialising world-class health solutions through members and ecosystems,” said Sean Roberts, HIMSS EMEA vice president. “Kathrine Myhre is one such thought leader and a role model.” HIMSS launches nursing informatics community HIMSS, owner of Healthcare IT News, also launched today its European Nursing Informatics Community, in collaboration with the Finnish Nurses Association, the International Council of Nurses and the European Health Management Association. "Throughout our ongoing engagement with healthcare providers and the broader European community membership, we have recognised that nurses are the closest to the gaps in care representing the human link between technology and patients," said Angela Velkova, HIMSS director of communities and strategic relations. "Therefore, digitally empowered nurses will directly translate in improved delivery of care to the benefit of citizens and entire communities."

At Health 2.0 Europe, pharma, patient and academic representatives weighed in on challenges of working together.

Consent-and trust-based services is what Europe could contribute to the global platform economy.

The EC2VC pitch competition saw startups and SMEs pitch their solutions in front of a jury of digital health investors from Europe and beyond.

A quick look at the FinnGen project.

Digitisation can alleviate the challenges healthcare is facing. But this won’t happen automatically. Citizens and patients have to take the lead – as data owners and co-creators.

Päivi Sillanaukee put emphasis on the need for international co-operation at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European conference.

Digital tools are flourishing in healthcare, but only a minority succeed in really empowering the patient. Why? Because digital care and shared decision making only work as a team effort.

The upcoming 'unmentionables' session at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European conference will see innovators look at the role of digital tools in 'destigmatising' depression, loneliness and sexual health.

THE ROAD TO HELSINKI: At the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference, experts from Philips will showcase AI-powered health information management solutions.

Technology is helping to bring healthcare to the homes of the ageing population in Finland and nursing is at the forefront of this community-based care.

Cross-sector collaboration creates enormous potential for people-centred healthcare innovations, but there are challenges to be overcome.

Healthcare leaders are concerned about security and data breaches and meeting GDPR requirements when leveraging the cloud for clinical decision support. At the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference, experts from Roche will discuss the latest advancements in cloud security.

THE ROAD TO HELSINKI: At the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference, Tieto will present the first openEHR-based information systems for Finnish healthcare.

Counterfeiting is a huge concern for the pharmaceuticals industry, with an estimated one in 10 medical products circulating in low and middle income countries (LMICs) falsified, according to the World Health Organisation.

Over 360 eHealth professionals in Europe took part in the survey carried out earlier this year.

With HIMSS Insights eBook issue 7.5, we look at the digital transformation in healthcare from different angles: healthcare providers, health insurers, pharma/pharmacy, and healthcare systems. Download your copy of the eBook for free today to access the most insightful content and news.

A large-scale EHR implementation in Denmark has faced some resistance from clinical staff; medical doctors found it difficult and time consuming to input data by typing. A pilot project with speech recognition has now shown significant workflow improvements that can potentially reduce resistance to EHR adoption. Anne Werner Løhndorf, department manager for Public & Healthcare Technology in NNIT and Mette Lindelof, a neurology consultant from the Zealand region, will present the findings of the pilot project at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference in Helsinki. The largest IT project in Danish healthcare The Zealand Region and the Copenhagen Capital Region in Denmark have jointly implemented the Healthcare Platform – what is believed to be the largest IT implementation project of Danish healthcare ever. As a result, 44,000 healthcare employees and 2.5 million citizens will be provided with EHRs in the Healthcare Platform. During the last quarter of 2018, the two regions in Denmark have added speech recognition to support data capturing and workflow efficiency in the Healthcare Platform.  The pilot project looked at how speech recognition can provide better user experience for the clinical staff, more efficient workflows at the clinic, higher quality in the documentation and an improved patient interaction.     Twenty-one doctors and two nurses at a neurological department were selected to test speech recognition within the pilot project, which suggests that speech recognition will be able to avert some of the challenges that doctors experience, and at the same time support the collection and use of structured data. US study confirmed EHR optimization with speech recognition A previously conducted multi-year study in the US had come to similar findings as the pilot study in Denmark. The US study, conducted at the Vassar Brothers Medical Center, found that the EHR Net Promoter Score improved by 99 points after using speech recognition compared to previous input modalities. This illustrates the significant increase in user satisfaction with EHRs. Accordingly, 95% of users - primarily doctors, but also nurses and other medical staff - found the introduction of speech recognition for electronic documentation a good idea. Nuance Healthcare to showcase latest speech recognition advancements In Helsinki, delegates of the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference can see the latest speech recognition technology at booth 6D21. Nuance Healthcare, one of the world’s largest and most innovative speech recognition providers for healthcare, will showcase its Dragon Medical solution with artificial intelligence features. "We’ve added Artificial Intelligence to our speech recognition solution. This creates a completely new user experience. Gone are the days of voice profile trainings; Dragon Medical now delivers high recognition accuracy right from the start," says Milko Jovanoski, international marketing director for Nuance Healthcare. "Even more though, deep learning algorithms let it adapt to the user’s active vocabulary by inspecting texts the user has created in the past, both by adding custom words to its active vocabulary and by learning the typical phrases and text patterns the user employs," he added.   For the diary: The Health Anywhere Anytime session will take place on June 12 from 15:15 - 17:15 Nuance Healthcare booth: 6D21 This sponsored article is part of 'The Road to Helsinki' series, which highlights innovative sessions and technologies at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference taking place in Helsinki, 11-13 June 2019. Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

Dr Victoria Betton, founder and managing director of mHabitat, will be speaking about this and related issues at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European conference in Helsinki later this year.

Women are notoriously underrepresented in health tech, which can have detrimental impacts on the industry as a whole.

An interview with Siddharth Sharma, patient advocate speaking at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European conference in Helsinki this June.

Digital health experts discuss how technology is being used in every situation from helping refugees to providing consultations in self-driving cars.

Digital founders Saba Alzabin and Eirini Rapti speak to MobiHealthNews about how women’s health technology has evolved beyond fertility tracking apps.

Dr Afzal Chaudhry, consultant nephrologist and CCIO at Cambridge University Hospitals, details the trust's journey to moving away from paper-based processes.

Chief information officer Miikka Korja talks about Helsinki University Hospital's approach to adopting AI solutions in daily practice.

This is the time of the year when we take a moment to look back at the work of our HIMSS communities in Europe during the past 12 months and create new goals for the year to come. For a number of reasons, 2018 has made us proud and energized to make 2019 the best it can be.  “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much," Helen Keller This quote encapsulates best the drive behind the work of our Nordic community. We started with small steps in March during the Nordic Workshop at HIMSS18, discussing ownership and use of data within national health systems. The more we deep-dived into the philosophical questions of who owns the data and what the greater good (or threat) would be from its use – the more we realised that we are hitting nails while trying to drive down the road. The rhetoric shifted a few months later during the HIMSS Europe annual conference in Spain – from the ever-pressing “how” to “why” we need interoperability and what’s in for the patient. We “brought to life” patient Julie and Julie’s story of shuffling between Nordic countries all while trying to live a normal life as a young student diagnosed with diabetes Type 1. By looking into how we can help Julie and her condition, a momentum for the Nordics to step up as a region in view of EU Strategy for a Pan-European exchange of health data came to the surface.  In 2019, HIMSS Nordic Community will be showcasing their vision for interoperable and integrated Nordic health system by demonstrating the value for the patient when roadblocks are removed. Under the tagline “Today a Challenge, Tomorrow a Reality”, the Community is looking into enabling patient freedom to live and act in national and cross-border open healthcare ecosystems, which is the picture painted by EU eHealth project "Digital health and care" and Nordic Innovation’s “2030 Nordic Health System Vision". I take the occasion to invite every Nordic stakeholder to be part of the change and join the Nordic Delegation to HIMSS19 for an actionable start of the year.  “Think big, act now, start today” These were the words of Erik Gerritsen, Permanent Secretary of the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports, shared with the HIMSS Dutch Community during Community’s annual trip to the US. From beginning to end, 2018 marked an incredibly action- and outcome-oriented journey for the Dutch community. From Las Vegas to Sitges and Amsterdam – this Community always came in highest numbers and with unrivalled vivacity; no matter the global, Pan-European, or local context of the annual community meetings. In addition to “act now”, the Dutch were extraordinarily successful at matching those who own the problems with those who own the solutions – with the patient in the driver’s seat of innovation! This became ever more apparent with the merge of our two brands: “HIMSS” and “Health 2.0”. Namely, the HIMSS community centers on hospitals and healthcare systems while Health 2.0 is a grassroots movement with a great startup scene. The two worlds were first brought together in Europe with the “HIMSS Europe 18 and Health 2.0” Conference hosted under the patronage of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport of the Netherlands. The model raised the bar for digital health conferences in Europe, and even more so, it received its twin at the community level with “Patient Included” hosted by HIMSS Dutch Community and Health 2.0 Amsterdam. It comes as no surprise that the Netherlands was selected as the second most innovative country in the world for 2018 according to the Global Innovation Index (GII). From virtual hospitals to connected homes, the Community sees innovation as the panacea to scarcity of resources, especially of leadership, adoption, labour, and financial nature. The Community will be addressing these in 2019, during its first annual touchpoint in February at HIMSS19.   Another European community that will be coming along with a delegation to HIMSS19, is the HIMSS French Community. The French community programme will offer a sneak peek into the future, exploring the roadmap on how to enable data-driven decisions in healthcare and at the same time performing a reality check on where is France with structuring data to inform clinical pathways, AI performance and clinicians’ readiness. The discussion is set to continue during HIMSS Liege in April to include the patient and the local innovation ecosystem in designing solutions that are easy to implement and scale. “A rising tide lifts all boats” The HIMSS Italian Community celebrated its first anniversary in March earlier this year with the 2018 goal to provide thought leadership and bring onboard each of Italy’s 20 regions in the advancement of country’s digital health agenda. This, alongside an extraordinary sense of community, has shaped the Italian membership as one of the most active and engaging multi-stakeholder local HIMSS groups in Europe during the past year. From “GDPR Code of Conduct” to an advanced postgraduate course in Health Information Management Systems by ALTEMS, the Health Information Systems laboratory at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC) and the HIMSS Italian Community, this Community has been one of the most prolific and entrepreneurial communities at HIMSS. The November meeting saw more than 100 delegates get together in Rome to tackle various topics around data and IT security, the continuum of care, and international cooperation. It also marked the launch of an Italian chapter of the Women in Health IT Community, and the graduation of the first generation of students of the aforementioned UCSC-ALTEMS programme. UCSC-ALTEMS is now accepting applications for the 2019 class of the Healthcare Information Systems course before 19 February next year.  The Community’s next gathering in Milan in March 2019 will address issues about the role of women and leadership in healthcare IT in Italy to then help shape community actions, which will include an Italian Pavilion, planned for HIMSS Europe 19 and Health 2.0. The three-day event is supported in conjuction with the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, SITRA (The Finnish Innovation Fund), Business Finland, The City of Helsinki, The University of Helsinki, HUS Helsinki University Hospital, OuluHealth, Turku Science Park and Messukeskus Helsinki, Expo and Convention Centre. On that note, mark in your calendars 11-13 June 2019 to be in Helsinki, Finland and see all the communities that HIMSS has forged internationally come together to foster the development of a health care IT ecosystem and advance sharing of best practice examples. And that’s a wrap. To a great 2019 ahead! Angela Velkova is the HIMSS EMEA Director for Communities and Strategic Relations. Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.  .jumbotron{ background-image: url("http://www.healthcareitnews.com/sites/default/files/u2556/HIMSSSignJumbotron.jpg"); background-size: cover; color: white; } .jumbotron h2{ color: white; } HIMSS19 Preview An inside look at the innovation, education, technology, networking and key events at the HIMSS19 global conference in Orlando.  

For many, self-monitoring is becoming a new philosophy for life, argues digital health journalist and blogger Artur Olesch.

Women are notoriously underrepresented in health tech, which can have detrimental impacts on the industry as a whole.

The project was showcased in the latest issue of the HIMSS Insights eBook, published at the beginning of April.

Since opening its doors to the first patients in September this year, the New Children’s Hospital in Helsinki, Finland is using a unique combination of art and play, recognised as key elements for a “healing environment", and the latest technologies available to support the children that it provides services for and their parents. With a total budget of €183m, €40m from the state of Finland, another €40m from the hospital district of Helsinki and Uusimaa, and €38m raised by a Foundation created for the new facility, the hospital is cultivating a culture of innovation – and the HIMSS Insights team went to find out how.  In an interview published in the first issue of the new global Insights eBook series, Professor Pekka Lahdenne, Head of Digital and Innovative Services at the hospital, who specialises in Paediatrics, explained that an “efficient ICT infrastructure was a priority for future development of a modern hospital”. Webinar: Patient Engagement: Transforming the Patient Experience with Innovative Digital Services “A lot of effort was invested in ensuring that the ICT platform would provide capabilities for future developments,” Professor Lahdenne said.  The full interview can be read here. A site visit at the hospital will be organised during the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European conference taking place in Helsinki, Finland, on 11-13 June. Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

HIMSS Insights speaks to Mikel Hernaez, director of computational genomics at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois.

Patients, clinicians and technology vendors must work together to drive the adoption of digital health at the heart of national models and systems, researchers say.

THE ROAD TO HELSINKI: How can health organisations provide patients and staff with actionable insights - at the right place, the right time and under a secure environment? At the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference, Microsoft for Healthcare will present its ecosystem of partner and cloud solutions that empower health organisations to reimagine the way they address health challenges.

The collaboration between Estonia and Finland was showcased in the newest issue of the HIMSS Insights eBook.

Dr Saif Abed, founding partner of health IT consultancy firm AbedGraham, looks at how interoperability could "break healthcare".

Examples from Scotland, Finland, Sweden and Brazil were showcased at a recent event in Helsinki.

Kas will be speaking at HIMSS Liège and the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European conference later this year.

Patients are driving a new shift in health care, with expectations for greater access to personalised, convenient services growing.

A quick look at the FinnGen project.