In Brussels on the 30th January, 50 of the DHS Task Forces members met in the premises of the Northern Ireland Office in Brussels.
The DHS Task Forces are part of the DHS movement initiated last year during the Estonian Presidency of the EU Council, by the Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia and the ECHAlliance.
Last October, the Task Forces leaders presented the objectives and expected actions of each group and the DHS, as open platform, invited motivated stakeholders (policy-makers, health and social care providers, companies, researchers, patients/citizens groups, insurers, etc.), all innovators to join these Task Forces and the DHS movement.
Since then the DHS movement has been joined by 200+ organisations across Europe and beyond (USA, Canada, Australia, China). The DHS movement and its Declaration has been welcomed by the EU Council in its Conclusions of the 8th of December 2017 (see article 34 here).
The 4 Task Forces are targeting key enablers of Digital Health as described below, you can click on the links to read more or visit www.echalliance.com/digitalhealthsociety
- Convergence roadmap on Interoperability standards and Digital TeleHealthcare protocol
- Citizen-controlled Data governance and Data Donors
- Legal Framework for the Free flow and the secondary use of health data
- Digital Transformation and change management in Health and Social care organisations
This Brussels meeting has been the opportunity for the 4 Task Forces to design their action plan for the next months, through intense brainstorming sessions. The participants -national governments, regions, large companies, SMEs and start-ups, researchers, investors, patients representatives, healthcare providers, lawyers- have discussed on each topic the key activities that were needed in Europe to foster the deployment of Digital health and serve the interests of all parties. Rather than have a conference which could risk being a talking shop this approach ensured that a clear sense of direction could be established in order to capture the expertise within the Digital Health Society.
Moderated by their energic leaders (see here), a consensus has been found and a phase of reporting and consultation to the rest of the members of the DHS movement has been launched in order to finalise the DHS Action plan 2018. This plan will be announced in the following weeks.
The DHS members have also been updated on the creation of a legal entity, allowing the organisation to formalise its processes, participate to projects, incorporate resources and ensure its development.
Reaffirming the alignment of the DHS movement with the Digital Single Market strategy promoted by the European Commission and the multi-annual work plan of the European Member states within the eHealth network, the DHS members have also confirmed their willingness to support both initiatives, to propose contributions and to engage discussions in the next weeks.
If you are interested in finding more and get involved please visit the website www.echalliance.com/digitalhealthsociety
See the Photo Gallery here Watch all the short interviews videos here
