EHTEL and EuroRec symposium

The focus of e-health is shifting from connecting systems to connecting people, a symposium ahead of this year’s World of Health IT conference will be told.

The symposium, organised by the European Health Telematics Association and the European Institute for Health Records, will explore how to plan, build and deploy e-health as a means to achieve better integrated services.

The opening speaker, Angelo Rossi-Mori of Italy’s National Council for Research Institute for Biomedical Technology, will argue that many partial e-health solutions have been deployed to help managers, clinicians and citizens. Recently, the focus has been on connecting these systems to support highly structured activities, such as diagnosis or prescribing.

Now, however, the focus is shifting to connecting people and supporting them in activities such as continuity of care, in which many different professionals and citizens may have “parallel responsibilities.”

Rossi-Mori will argue this means that e-health systems should be based on e-health policies that are in turn based on priorities such as improving the care of people with chronic conditions or co-ordinating care for the elderly. He will also argue that professionals, citizens and the healthcare industry must all be involved in designing and supporting such innovative organisational models if they are to work.

Angelo-Rossi is one of four speakers at this year’s eHealth planning and management symposium 2008, which will take place on the eve of this year’s WoHIT event in Copenhagen in November.

The event is aimed at policy makers and managers anxious to use e-health to strengthen clinical processes, and will look at the strategies and plans that can be used to modernise health systems using new technologies, to engage stakeholders, to secure investment and demonstrate benefits.

Karl Stroetmann from empirica Communication and Technology Research in Bonn, will talk about the challenge of assessing products for impact, benefits and safety.

Karl-Henrik Lundell from the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions will talk about work commissioned by the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs to outline a national, normative information structure to be applied in all health and welfare businesses.

And Dipak Kalra, from University College in London, will talk about using clinical archetypes in tandem with SNOMED CT terminology to deliver interoperable electronic healthcare records. There will also be breakout sessions at which participants can explore issues in more depth.

Links

e-health management and planning symposium, organised by EHTEL and EuroRec. World of Health IT conference and exhibition.