8 - 10 June 2016, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.The Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, the European Commission and HIMSS Europe have confirmed new sessions and speakers which will take place during eHealth Week 2016. News sessions will include supporting informal carers, sexual health in a digital society and robots for active and assisted living.
eHealth solutions to play a vital role to support carers
Informal carers play a crucial role in supporting people at home to maintain their independence and quality of life. At the same time, informal carers are limited in the support they can offer due to a number of external reasons, such as time constraints, travelling distance or others.
eHealth solutions can be indispensable for informal carers as well as playing a vital role in supporting patients and formal carers. The speaker line-up features Irek Karkowski (CEO, Sensara & Dutch Domotics), Martijn Vastenburg (Managing Director, ConnectedCare - HalloZorg) and Henk Herman Nap (Senior Advisor, Vilans).
Christina Roosen, VP for Public Affairs in HIMSS Europe, said: "We are excited to be able to announce such a diverse range of themes and topics which will be addressed during eHealth Week. Having invited the highest level of speakers to come and share their knowledge and experiences with us on topics which they specialise in will make our conversations more fruitful and valuable."
Young and vulnerable groups to benefit from sexual (e)health education
Sexual health is a discipline where the digitisation of communities has a major impact. Therefore, our digital age requires new ways to target and educate young people and vulnerable groups. In this session, speakers and participants will discuss the best online tools to improve sexual health trough means of eHealth and answer any questions or concerns around the topic. Speakers for this session include Marianne Cense (Researcher, Rutgers), Philippo Zimbile (Head of Department, Soa Aids Netherlands), Triin Raudsepp (Sexual Health Association, Estland) and Kaat van Bosstraeten (Project Manager, Sensoa).
To what extent should we embrace robotics in healthcare?
Robotics and domotics can add value to quality of life of older people and can assist them in healthy and assisted living at home. This is not only a matter of smart technology, but also depends on technology acceptance and ethical aspects. Possibilities of new technologies seem endless. But do we pay enough attention to the human aspect? What are the effects of technology replacing human contact? How should we deal with these issues?
In this session, speakers will identify areas where robotics and domotics are adding value to people's lives and practical guidelines will be shared. The experienced line-up of speakers who will be on stage for this session include Andy Bleaden (Project Manager, Silver Project), Wang Long Li (Co-founder, Tinyrobots), Robert A. Paauwe (Co-founder, Tinybots), Maja Rudinac (CEO, Robot Care Systems) and Tomas Ward (CEO, Bioserve).
Patients are key during the eHealth Week, from 8 - 10 June, under the theme "You, at the heart of transition". eHealth policies are changing. Until now, policies have mainly focused on institutions and IT systems: today, that focus is shifting and is now being placed on eHealth users. The people who are using eHealth are becoming increasingly involved in the discussion and being placed at the heart of eHealth policy-making.
For further information, please visit:
http://www.ehealthweek.org
About eHealth Week
eHealth Week 2016 is the leading eHealth event in Europe. It will be organised in Amsterdam on 8-10 June 2016, following the Dutch Presidency of the European Council (1 January - 30 June, 2016). The event is organised by the European Commission, the Dutch Ministry of Health and the Dutch Presidency of the Council of the European Union and HIMSS Europe. During eHealth Week 2016, over 2,000 international experts in IT and healthcare, public institutions, professional and patient organisations will be welcomed.
Under the theme "You, at the heart of transition", eHealth Week 2016 will focus on the people who are changing the healthcare system, and the first step forward is to give patients the power. eHealth policies are changing. Until now, policies have mainly focused on institutions and IT systems: today, that focus is shifting and is now being placed on eHealth users. The people who are using eHealth are becoming increasingly involved in the discussion and being placed at the heart of eHealth policy-making.
The Netherlands is one of the most digitally mature countries in Europe and is home to one of the three HIMSS EMRAM Stage 7 hospitals in Europe as well as having eight Stage 6 hospitals: it is an ideal place for the European eHealth Community to come together!
About the themes
Theme one: Empowering People
This theme is about self-empowering eHealth for patients and healthy citizens. The goal of the theme is to find out what the needs are of patients and healthy citizens if they want to be more active in managing their own health. This theme also explores how elderly people can continue to live independently and how eHealth applications can better meet the needs of users.
Theme two: Trusts & Standards
Proper legal frameworks are a precondition for healthcare providers, enterprises and member states to be able to exchange data. Legal clarity is also necessary to ensure trust among the public in eHealth solutions and applications. Proper standards and technical solutions are needed to make systems interoperable and connect the different actors. The objective of the theme is to exchange knowledge on how to promote and enhance trust in health IT systems and how to increase the use of standards in eHealth.
Theme three: Social Innovation & Transition
Often, much emphasis is placed on the technical aspects of eHealth. However, scaling up eHealth also requires a different mindset on cooperation, organisational and cultural innovation - organising healthcare in a smarter, more efficient and effective way. In this theme, the social aspects of implementation and innovation are key. What is needed - in addition to technical innovation - to ensure that user-centric eHealth solutions are deployed on a large scale? This theme will stimulate implementation, scale and use of eHealth and discuss where, why and how implementation and upscaling has been successfully achieved and how best practices can be replicated.