Full coverage: HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Event 2020

At HIMSS & Health 2.0 Europe 2020, panelist talk about retired individuals' role in the healthcare ecosystem and healthy aging.  

Technology’s being harnessed to help patients with chronic conditions get back on track with treatment during the pandemic. The HIMSS Digital Dialogue webinar, in collaboration with Philips, explored how digital solutions offered new routes to treatment.

Global health leaders are calling for urgent action to help combat climate change and reduce inequality to improve health around the world during the closing keynote of the HIMSS & Heath 2.0 European Digital event.

Provider buy-in is more important than ever, digital therapeutics stakeholders say.  

Panelists at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Conference discuss how digital health can help women learn more about their sexual health and wellbeing.  

With the explosion of social media networks in the past decade, gamification has become a powerful tool used to drive user engagement. When looking at healthcare apps, children have significantly benefitted from the fun and speedy elements injected into educational apps and games that might have previously lacked the immediacy and engagement needed. In the meantime, researchers and experts have worked on refining engagement design and enabling users to overcome negative associations they have with completing mundane health-related tasks. The panel discussion, Kids 2.0: Engagement and Behavior Change, at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Conference explored the making of award-winning games and the research and testing processes involved.  The panel consisted of moderator, Anna Sort, founder and CEO of PlayBenefit Spain, and speakers; Pamela Kato, owner of P.M. Kato Consulting US, Dom Raban, co-founder and CEO of Xploro, Saran Muthiah founder of Enrich My Care UK, Sveatoslav Vizitiu co-founder and CEO of Wello Romania. During the webinar discussion, the panellists discussed the most important factors to ensure measurable impact and intended outcomes when creating a game and improving treatment adherence. Pamela Kato said: “The most important thing to do before you start designing and developing your technology is to do your homework. And it's kind of boring. It's not as exciting as thinking, am I going to do a shooter game or simulation? “You need to figure out what problem you're going to target and look in the research literature and make sure that it's a big enough problem that you can impact and measure in a trial, and that there's a need for it. “I've seen so many situations where games didn’t work out. They didn't have the problem. So there wasn't really a lot of room for your game to make a difference.” Dom Raban, co-founder and CEO Xploro spoke about his experience of developing Xploro, a clinically validated digital therapy which uses augmented reality, artificial intelligence and games to deliver health information to young patients in a way which makes them feel empowered, engaged and informed whilst having fun. “About two years ago, we set up what we call our expert advisory board. And our expert advisory board is a group of children. Involving children has been absolutely central to our approach over the last five years,” explains Raban. “They're an amazing group, there's six of them and they have been through treatment for very serious illnesses. The other six have never been anywhere near a hospital. So they give us the full range of opinions. They always have access to the latest version of Xploro and they're always on hand to tell us what's working, what isn't working and come up with ideas for new features,” added Raban.  Creating a user-centred design Kato also shared the lessons learned working with user-centred designs for children: “One of the really important lessons is to just remember it’s hard for them to express things verbally. “What I try to do as much as possible is really try to use visuals when I talk to them, and to reduce the demands on them to have to explain things to me, but to show me by pointing at pictures of what they like. “You’ll also have the parents around and you can ask them what's going on as well. When you're interviewing and making technologies for young kids, you also have to know how to interview adults because they're also part of the solution inevitably.” Tackling the challenge of existing processes Saran Muthiah, founder of Enrich My Care UK, a digital platform that helps to manage the health and care needs of children with disabilities, spoke about the challenge of existing processes and getting through red tapes and organisational policies and barriers faced in the industry. “What we thought is how can we start mirroring what is the current practice, however, bring value through that. We have provided as an option that healthcare professionals do not necessarily need to be registered and become part of the platform, they can simply get through some validation, security, validation, and upload records immediately,” said Muthiah. “This also helps with automatically digitising the paper records, which is the agenda centrally both in the UK as well as in other parts of Europe. We feel that this is a good starting point. When they see the value, then we are able to get through those values and they want to be a stakeholder and want to subscribe to the platform and have better engagement with the patient.” Register now to attend the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Conference and keep up with the latest news and deveopments from the event here.

Global health leaders are optimistic their new consortium can crack interoperability as the pandemic has highlighted the need to work together. This positive outlook was expressed by two influential healthcare leaders during a closing keynote at the HIMSS & Heath 2.0 European Digital Event.

Leading stakeholders have called for a strategic re-orientation towards value-based care to improve clinical outcomes. This paradigm shift would entail moving from volume to value-based payments.

There have been endless claims that AI will transform patient care, freeing up clinicians to spend time with patients and cutting costs, but many investors are wary of grandiose promises and prefer to hear the truth instead.  

The COVID-19 outbreak accelerated the onboarding of digital health solutions, but what happens next?  In this session at HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Conference, Nordic healthcare experts discuss how best to leverage the progress made.   

More than ever, the global COVID-19 crisis has shown the imperative of a connected, secure and outcomes-driven healthcare ecosystem, and the HIMSS Digital Health Indicator can help.

However, it can augment people's routines and improve their day-to-day lives, said an expert panel at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 Europe Digital Conference.

The law may have to change to enable a healthy flow of European data according to a former European Commission Vice President. Jyrki Katainen was speaking at the HIMSS & Heath 2.0 European Digital conference today.

Shifting the focus from acute to preventative health and care is the ultimate aim for the digital transformation of health systems globally. Precision health integrates health insights and social determinants to improve clinical and financial outcomes.

Europe’s first GE Healthcare-powered Clinical Command Centre opened in 2019. GE Healthcare’s experience delivering Command Centres around the world tells them that providing caregivers with actionable real-time data is key to driving optimisation of healthcare.

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen unprecedented impact on global level, not just on an economic scale but also putting health systems around the world on their limits. At the opening panel of the HIMSS & Health 2.0 Europe Digital Conference titled Leveraging Digital Health to Predict, Prevent and Manage Future Health Crises, moderator Hal Wolf, President & CEO, HIMSS, together with the four panelists spoke about the impact of digital technologies on the COVID-19 responses in Europe, and the ongoing work that needs to be done ensure access and inclusivity in the provision of digital health. The acceleration of digital health transformation “COVID-19 has given impetus for countries to accelerate the adoption of digital health,” said Dr Hans Kluge, Regional Director for Europe, WHO, Denmark. Digital adoption had to be done at an unprecedented speed - telemedicine for the delivery of healthcare really got scaled up. He added that in the WHO European region, 30 out 53 countries have some manner of digital contact tracing for COVID-19 despite privacy challenges and issues around the use of secondary data. Dr Paivi Sillanaukee, Director General, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland explained that COVID-19 has accelerated digital health transformation in her country. She noted that the increase in online health information has been of enormous help in Finland and citizens have gained reliable, up-to-date information from these platforms. This also led to the decrease of in health line calls and required healthcare workers, which in turn has helped the health service system to cope better. “Two to seven per-cent of doctors were ready to offer video-consultations (prior to the pandemic), but now it’s closer to 60%,” said Dr Gottfried Ludewig, Director 'Digitalisation and Innovation', Federal Ministry of Health, Germany. The country’s contact tracing app called Corona Warn-App has seen about 17.5 million downloads and Dr Ludewig noted that the app has a connection to laboratories which offer COVID-19 testing, which helps inform people much faster than before after they have been tested. In addition, a digital ICU registry to help monitor bed capacity was also implemented and set up within four to six weeks – it would usually have taken two to three years.  Challenges in three broad areas While the COVID-19 pandemic has been a big catalyst in the rapid adoption of digital health tools, Dr Pravene Nath, MD, Global Head, Digital Health Strategy, Personalized Health Care, Roche, USA observed some challenges in three broad areas: access and administration, operations and personalisation. “In terms of access and administration, there was a widespread of telehealth in a short period of time but it is still very uneven, in terms of addressing all populations and the true seamless experience that’s needed to reduce friction during a time when there is limited supply,” explained Dr Nath. In operations, he said that demand forecasting, management of supply chain, capacity management is critical and the technology is ready for that. If these tech tools can be handed to healthcare providers, they can do operational decision making in real time with real data. Lastly, Dr Nath commented that there is still some way to go in digitally enabled, condition-focused (personalized) care – things like remote patient monitoring when coupled to a care delivery model that allows moving past the encounter. Dr Kluge similarly observed that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed significant shortcomings, particularly in the capabilities of countries to access real time data. From the WHO perspective, there is a need to step down from academic solutions and move towards pragmatic and implementable solutions, taking into account the specifics at the national and subnational context. Register now to listen to the session 'on demand' at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Conference and keep up with the latest news and developments from the event here.

‘Critical care in critical settings – the human factor makes the difference’ was the theme of the recent HIMSS Dutch Community webinar that was moderated by Conchita Kleijweg, manager expertisecentrum Nictiz. Dave Tjan, intensivist and medical manager Acute Care at Ziekenhuis Gelderse Vallei, Joyce Simons, senior managing consultant healthcare at Berenschot and Robert Stegwee, strategic consultant for Health IT, shared their valuable insights around their experiences.

The new triage tool was developed by Sana Digital, the innovation arm of Sana Kliniken AG, in cooperation with the startup Infermedica that brought its already existing version of a Symptom Checker into the cooperation. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated telehealth development in countries around the world, including Italy. In this session at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Conference, Italian healthcare experts reflect on the progress made in digital health.  

Eye clinic visits have declined sharply in the COVID-19 era of social distancing, threatening the sight of thousands of people with neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Remote vision monitoring technology could be critical for supporting this vulnerable population.

Eight health tech companies, selected by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, will present their solutions at the event. The technology on display will include innovations in medical device manufacturing, remote medical treatment systems and medical software.

Takeaways from Alison Byrne, FGM specialised midwife at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS trust & University Hospitals Birmingham NHS trust, and Lina Chan, founder and CEO of Parla, who will be speaking at HIMSS Europe Digital.

In a keynote discussion today at the HIMSS & Heath 2.0 European Digital Event, healthcare leaders from Australia, India and the UK swapped tips and best practices.

With uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 ramifications, healthcare organisations need to establish resilient and agile systems going forward. The facilitation of clinical decision support solutions reduces unwarranted variability. 

An interview with Prof. Jan Semenza, lead of the health determinants programme, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, who will be speaking at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Event that is due to kick off on 7 September.

The UK’s Royal Marsden Hospital in London has developed an e-form solution using Hyland OnBase that captures and tracks COVID-19 symptom responses from cancer patients remotely, prior to an appointment or treatment visit.

Facing unprecedented challenges, many healthcare organisations and government institutions have turned to Watson Assistant, IBM’s AI-powered virtual agent to assist in responding to the deluge of inquiries from patients, employees, and the public at large.

Healthcare IT News sits down with US-based Rebecca Love – a nurse, entrepreneur, inventor, author, TedX speaker and the first nurse featured on Ted.com – ahead of her keynote session during the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Event that is due to kick off on 7 September.

Clinician burnout is a significant global challenge and healthcare technology can be both part of the problem and the solution. Join Nuance and a panel of European healthcare leaders to find out about initiatives to tackle burnout.

Data sharing and quick, precise decision-making are critical in all health organisations, especially when the coronavirus pandemic stretches their capacities to the limits. Four European hospitals share experience in digitalisation of Intensive Care Units (ICU).

The health app evaluation and advisor organisation will provide Sigma with review and accreditation services to advance its digital health apps.  

Industry leaders across medtech and pharmaceutical sectors applaud proposal for its forward thinking.  

The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS FT has now set its sights on achieving Stage 7 O-EMRAM.

Healthcare IT News spoke to nursing and informatics experts to find out how exactly nurses and midwives have led the digital transition.  

The initiative aims to drive digital transformation across the state and identify services in need of investment.

It was quickly recognised that the pandemic required tools to provide safe access to health and care at a distance. Scotland is demonstrating how a rapid telehealth transformation can be achieved says Nessa Barry of the Digital Health and Care Directorate, Scottish Government.

Duncan Selbie, chief executive of Public Health England, discusses the positive outcomes from the COVID-19 crisis, and suggests that the country will be better prepared for the future.

Health and care have been inexorably moving toward a new paradigm – one where the nature of the interactions is more personalised and they require the person to be more active in their pursuit of reducing risks that have an adverse effect upon the development of non-communicable diseases, says Dr Charles Alessi, chief clinical officer at HIMSS.

It’s clear that empty platitudes and slogans won’t do anymore to combat inequality in the industry. Now the most important question is, how can we take action in the UK towards improving inclusion and diversity both professionally and personally? 

An interview with Ifan Evans, director of technology, digital & transformation, Welsh Government Health and Social Services, who will be speaking at HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Event.

MobiHealthNews talks about the value of digital therapeutics, artificial intelligence and learnings from COVID-19 with Dr. Cesar Morcillo Serra, director of internal medicine in Hospital Cima Sanitas Barcelona, Spain.  

Digital health connector, Aline Noizet, takes a closer look at some of the emerging tools available to those suffering with increased mental health challenges during COVID-19.  

Dr Deborah Maufi, project manager at the Health[e] Foundation, and Dominnique Karetsos, co-founder of Healthy Pleasure Collective, give us their takes on how tech can empower women.

Without cross-border co-operation the potential of personalised health cannot be realised, acccording to Bogi Eliasen, director at the Health Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies and HIMSS Future50 leader, who will be speaking at HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Event taking place 7-11 September.

An interview with Professor Mahmood Adil, medical director of Public Health Scotland and clinical data & digital lead at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, who will be speaking at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Event.

A recent HIMSS Nordic Community webinar – moderated by Bogi Eliasen, HIMSS Future50 and director of health at the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies – addressed how Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Norway have enabled a sustainable human-centred health environment that influenced their crisis management during the pandemic.

Dom Raban, CEO of Xploro, and Pamela Kato, former CEO of HopeLab and owner of P. M. Kato Consulting, will be talking about their efforts at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Event (7-11 September 2020).

Covid med ed aims to train healthcare volunteers in skills to cope with the pandemic.