10 - 13 May 2011, Budapest, Hungary.Political leaders, Hospital and IT Leadership from across Europe will come together at eHealth Week 2011 in Budapest to advance the continent's digital health infrastructure. The four-day event will feature educational sessions, an exhibition, workshops and many networking opportunities. For the first time ever, eHealth Week will feature symposia on innovation-rich subjects such as Ambient Assisted Living; Health 2.0 and a Leaders in Health IT (LHIT) symposia for hospital IT Directors. eHealth Week 2011 is co-organised by the European Commission (EC), HIMSS Europe (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Europe) and the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
"Latest research indicates that 29 percent of EU citizens will be over 65 years old in 2050. And we have been battling the deepest financial crisis in decades. The grand theme of our time is the need to do more with less. eHealth is one of the best ways to face these challenges," says Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission and its Commissioner for Digital Agenda. "The European Commission has therefore put key actions on eHealth(1) on its Digital Agenda for Europe - which forecasts an increase of public investments(2) to 11 billion Euros funding to research and innovation. These key actions are some of the initiatives to be discussed at eHealth Week in Budapest."
The European Commission has funded eHealth research with more than 1,182 billion Euros for more than 20 years and has supported more than 450 projects.through its different framework programmes(3), establishing Europe as the global leader in the field.(4)
"We are looking forward to welcoming the delegates and visitors of eHealth Week to Budapest in the spring of 2011," says Hungarian Minister of State for Health, Dr. Miklós Szócska. "The health sector policies of the Hungarian presidency will focus on developing sustainable systems responding to social needs. We will underline the use of structural funds to modernize the healthcare infrastructure, as well as the importance of evidence based health policy decision making. We will discuss how the expanding human resources crises could be approached at EU level under the circumstances of increasing professional and patient mobility, demographic aging and tightening resources. Further on, we will propose closer cooperation on childhood immunization policies across EU member states and pay special attention to migrants' children. In all of these fields, eHealth plays a crucial role."[5]
Hungary will take over the rotating EU Presidency role from Belgium in January 2011.
Jeremy Bonfini, Senior Vice President for Global Services at HIMSS Europe said: "E-Health solutions can now provide care from the hospital to the home. It is the only way to reduce the strain on financial and human resources in healthcare - which is a major issue as nations struggle to recover from a major financial crisis. The role for eHealth in times of austerity will be a core topic of eHealth Week 2011 - to be addressed at the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Showcase and at the World of Health IT industry exhibition."
The European eHealth market is currently estimated at around EUR15 billion and growing at an annual rate of 2.9%. Among the companies that have already confirmed their participation in the eHealth Week 2011 industry exhibition are AGFA Healthcare, EPIC, Hitachi Data Systems, InterSystems, Microsoft and Oracle.
eHealth Week 2011 will bring together key stakeholders from Europe's healthcare, from the policy makers, to providers, insurances, research facilities, vendors as well as patient associations. It will host the eHealth Government Initiative, a formal body of healthcare state secretaries aimed at aligning national eHealth systems in Europe. The last edition of eHealth Week in March 2010 in Barcelona was attended by more than 3,000 delegates and over 100 industry exhibitors, making it the largest pan-European eHealth event ever. For more information please visit http://www.worldofhealthit.org.
Learn more about the European Commission - ICT for Health:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/health/index_en.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/information_society/index_en.htm
Learn more about HIMSS Europe:
http://www.emea.himss.org
Related news articles:
1. Digital Agenda for Europe chapter 2.7.2. from page 29
2. http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/benchmarking/index_en.htm
3. http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/
4. 20 Years of European Commission's support to the development of eHealth
5. eHealth is Worth it: The economic benefits of implemented eHealth solutions at ten European sites, Karl A. Stroetmann, Tom Jones, Alexander Dobrev, Veli N. Stroetmann à See example on page 43