The ECHAlliance was a proud partner of the eHealth Summit 2021, the largest event for innovation and digital transformation in health held in Portugal, organised under the Portuguese Presidency of the EU. The event gathered hundreds of experts, professionals and stakeholders from the world of digital health, in more than 50 thematic sessions, committed to contributing to the promotion of greater use of information technologies in health, as well as investing in the training and enhancement of healthcare professionals.
The ECHAlliance organised two dedicated sessions in the event, both held on June 1st 2021:
- Scaling citizens access and sharing of health data – this session brought together speakers from the European Commission, Sitra and experts in the field of data sharing to discuss the ways forward and the policy priorities necessary to increase trust and better involve citizens, professionals, consumers and the industry towards the European Health Data Space
- Using Ecosystems to connect the dots and scale up EHealth between the Presidencies – gathered key champions from the already established legacy of ECHAlliance international ecosystem networks from the Finnish and German Presidencies to present and discuss both their experiences and identify key routes for potential collaboration in Portugal, Slovenia and France
The event was mostly held online, so the sessions may be revisited in the event website – still time to watch!
Scaling citizens access and sharing of health data
Are older adults more aware of the health data sharing context than youngsters?
Do health professionals trust patients regarding their data?
Are we providing citizens the right information on health data sharing benefits?
Do people have enough health, digital and data literacy to rightly unleash all data sharing potential?
This session, chaired by Tapani Phia, Advisor to SITRA & Ministry of Social Affairs and Health Finland, kicked start with provocative questions as these, brought up by four representatives of citizens, industry, healthcare professions and consumers, respectively:
- Carina Dantas (ECHAlliance),
- Bleddyn Rees (The Digital Health Society),
- Samuel Jacinto (SPMS) and
- Oliver Harrison (Koa Health)
After each provocative question, the three amasing speakers in the panel put forward their comments, highlighting recent findings, sharing the newest policy priorities and raised the veil on upcoming actions at the European level:
- European Commission – DG CNECT (Birgit Morlion)
- European Commission – DG SANTE (Ander Elustondo Jauregui)
- Sitra | TEHDAS Joint Action (Minna Hendolin)
A dynamic discussion, filled with hot topics such as literacy, patient an citizen access, trust, implementation hurdles and synergies with the European Health Data Space and the Data Governance Act.
Using Ecosystems to connect the dots and scale up EHealth between the Presidencies
ECHAlliance organised a session during the Portuguese EHealth Summit entitled “Using Ecosystems to connect the dots and scale up eHealth between the Presidencies” which brought together five of the Ecosystems from within the ECHAlliance network of Ecosystems to showcase how the ECHAlliance has worked with each of the successive Presidencies from Finland, Germany and Portugal as well as with the forthcoming Presidencies of Slovenia and France to build a lasting legacy of ECHAlliance Ecosystems within each country that help to scale up EHealth and connect the dots between the countries and their ecosystems.
The session heard first from Brian O’Connor on network of Ecosystems and our support for a wide variety of Presidencies over the last 10 years. We then heard from:
- Juha Paakkola from Health Capital Helsinki Ecosystem in Finland;
- Benjamin Stöcklein from the Medical Valley Ecosystem in the European Metropolitan Region of Nuremberg – Germany;
- Pedro Cid Ferreira from Digital Health Portugal Ecosystem;
- Urška Rauter Gaber from HealthDay.si Ecosystem Slovenia
- Anne-Claude Lefebvre from the French Biotech & Santé Bretagne Ecosystem.
All talked of collaboration and scale up opportunities within the network of Ecosystems and Brian O’Connor concluded with the announcement of our new Thematic Innovation Ecosystem network as well as news of a new ecosystem opening within Portugal as the presidency comes to an end and then another in France before the upcoming French Presidency.
