“It is time to reimagine healthcare,” Prof. Robert Wachter, MD, at the openEHR 2020 Digital Event

The openEHR 2020 Digital Event: DATA FOR LIFE, organised by openEHR International and hosted by digitalhealth.net, took place on Tuesday, 24 November. 24 speakers shared their experiences, new ideas, and the future of the openEHR approach. Almost 800 people from 20 countries registered for the event.

In case you missed it, you can still register for the video recordings here

First, we would like to share a few exciting highlights. The event’s keynote speaker, prof. Robert Wachter, MD, Chair of the UCSF Department of Medicine, shared some bold thoughts, such as: “It is time to reimagine healthcare,” and “Start thinking about the world after the EHR.”

Other speakers also provided interesting recommendations for an improved approach to digital health, including:

• Aloha McBride, EY Global Health Leader: “We won’t be throwing the EHR out, but just shrinking the core, all while leveraging the investment and adding new applications.”
• Oliver Heinze, Acting Director of the Department of Medical Information Systems, University Hospital Heidelberg: “The era of EHR systems is over.”
• George Crooks, OBE, CEO, DHI Scotland: “Define services to join up silos into a holistic view.”
• Rachel Dunscombe, CEO, NHS Digital Academy: “Data is for life.”
• John Meredith, Lead Technical Design Architect, NHC Wales Informatics Service: “Without structured data, you’re just building technical debt into your applications.”
• Tomaž Gornik, Co-chair openEHR International and CEO of Better: “Healthcare should think about data first, applications second.”
• Ian McNicoll, Board Member, openEHR International: “Let the apps fit the user, and the data fit the patient.”

You can gain more interesting insights about digital health by registering for the video recordings of the event here.