10 Takeaways from Day 1 of the #DHSSummit21 - Personal reflections from Bleddyn Rees our Chair

The Digital Health Society’s Chair, Bleddyn Rees, has summarised the 1st day of the Digital Health Society Summit 2021 with these 10 takeaways:   

1.    Must not waste the digital game changer created by the Pandemic. Pandemic biggest wake up call for digital health. A Crisis drives innovation. Time for big actions says the eHealth Network

2.    Substantial consensus amongst Europe’s leading health NGOs on what to do so great steer for the European Commission and the European Health Data Space.

3.    But must not leave anyone behind – digital must reduce exclusion from services not increase it

4.    Must avoid “Digital Hesitancy” says EPF – learn from vaccines hesitancy so major communications plan for all citizens explaining clearly the benefits of health data, the security protections and transparency in all languages and variety of communication tools (e.g. town hall meetings, paper not just on line)

5.    Global perspectives from the Global Health Connector included from India the scale of digital – 207million downloads of the COVID App containing details of 1,000million vaccinations! In many developing countries the choice is no healthcare or digital healthcare

6.    We need Human and Political Interoperability says Professor Rajendra Pratap Gupta !

7.    We underestimate the voice and importance of Citizens said speakers from both the Irish and French Ministry of Health.

8.    Opportunities for EU Presidency to create longer term alignment of digital health goals beyond the 18 month duration of the Trio of Presidencies.

9.    Ireland’s healthcare drives behind “shift left stay left” (in effect treat nearer the home and focus on prevention and keeping people well)

10.  Greater Collaboration is key  between Member States, between European Commission & Member States, between healthcare professionals and patients, between EU NGOs and all countries across the globe. Healthcare knows no borders!

Learn more about the DHS Summit21 here