HIMSS and Health 2.0 Take the Most Influential Digital Health Conference to Finland

Over the course of the three days, the conference will focus on five overarching topics:

• Integrating health and social care
• Enabling homecare for healing and ageing in place
• Promoting a secure, ethical and actionable flow of data for prevention, population health management, personalized health and research
• Beyond the AI buzz: what can AI deliver today and are we really ready
• Opportunities and challenges of opening innovation

The three-day event is supported and organised in conjunction with a number of Finnish organisations, including: The Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, SITRA (The Finnish Innovation Fund), Business Finland, The City of Helsinki, The University of Helsinki, HUS Helsinki University Hospital, OuluHealth, Turku Science Park and Messukeskus Helsinki, Expo and Convention Centre.

Antti Kivelä, Director, Capacity Renewal, SITRA, said: "Finland is one of the leading countries in innovation, data and healthcare, and we look forward to sharing our journey at the conference next year. HIMSS and Health 2.0 always put the patient and the citizen in the driver’s seat when discussing health and care. This is a vision we fully support in Finland, and is one of the reasons we are delighted to be hosting next year's flagship digital health event."

The HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference will provide a unique opportunity to connect the players in the field of health and care. Networking and bringing like-minded professionals together is one of the main objectives of the conference.

Bruce Steinberg, EVP for HIMSS International, said: "The Nordic region is one of the most socially advanced and digitally mature regions worldwide. Taking our conference to Finland is an absolute privilege, and will give many of us the opportunity to learn from groundbreaking digital health transformation first hand.

"Bringing HIMSS & Health 2.0 under the same roof in Europe has proven to be the key ingredient for success. Health 2.0 attracts entrepreneurs, investors and healthcare business executives showcasing new product demos. HIMSS Europe brings high-level decision makers and thought leaders to the conversation. Together, in addition to engaging with each other, hearing about real best practices and learning new skills, delegates will get a unique chance to see some of the technologies that are making a positive difference to patients right now."

Pekka Sivonen, Director of Digitisation, Business Finland, added: "We currently have over 500 high-tech companies in the health sector as well as hundreds more in the ICT sector that develop solutions for healthcare; and this number is growing more than 10% annually. The Finnish healthcare reform is the most significant in history across the globe. In addition, we are redistributing all finances and pushing through 140 new laws, including a first-in-world law of the secondary use of social and health data and genome law."

"Currently 98 % of our health data is in digital format and in coming years 10 % of Finland’s population will be genotyped. We have a tremendous story to tell the visitors of the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference in June 2019," continues Dr. Minna Hendolin, Director Health and Wellbeing, Business Finland.

The conference is expected to gather thousands of professionals in the healthcare sector and the digital health start-up ecosystem. The event will feature world-class speakers who will address the hottest topics in digital health today. The event will also be a platform which will offer guidance and a roadmap based on future trends, with the common goal of improving healthcare through information and technology together.

For further information, please visit:
www.himsseuropeconference.eu

About HIMSS Europe

Founded in 1961, HIMSS encompasses more than 65,000 members, 650 companies and over one million HIT network of key influencers that drive innovation across the world.