The Digital Health Society

From the 1^st of July 2017 to the end of the year, Estonia is assuming the Presidency of the EU Council (https://www.eu2017.ee). One of the top priorities defined by the Estonian Government for the Presidency programme is the development of the Digital Single Market (DSM) and the Digital Economy in Europe, bringing more services and benefits to EU citizens. The 5th right around the Free Flow of Data (beside the free flows of humans, services, products and capital), is a key challenge in order to enable the DSM in Europe. Health and social care services are also going through this digital transformation and the Estonian 2017 EU Presidency aims to move forward the deployment and the implementation of Digital health across Europe. 

In preparation of this, the Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia has appointed the European Connected Health Alliance (ECHAlliance) as its International Strategic Partner in order to develop the agenda of activities around the concept of the Digital Health Society (DSH) and launch a large collaborative work, an ecosystem, with the main EU key stakeholders representing policy-makers, citizens, health professionals, scientists, companies and payers. This multi-stakeholders group (already gathering 100+ organisations) is producing the DHS Declaration, a manifesto expressing the current main challenges for the Digital health deployment and, as it should be a collective movement, drawing ways and initiatives from each category of stakeholders to achieve it.

You can download HERE the latest version of the Digital Health Society Declaration.
The 1st contributing organisations, the Digital Health Society Group, are listed HERE

In addition to that, and in order to create roadmaps and move forward tangibly some key challenges, DHS Task Forces have also been created, gathering high-level experts and “doers” from whole Europe. The 1st created Task forces are around:

• Convergence on interoperability standards and Digital Tele healthcare protocol
• Data donors and citizen-controlled data governance
• Legal framework facilitating the free flow of data and the 2nd use of data
• Digital transformation & change management in health and social care organisations 

Each DHS Task Force and its leaders and experts will publish its conclusions in September 2017. It will include a call for commitments & actions for all stakeholders willing to move forward on these specific topics, following the roadmap and actions plan described by the Task Forces. People interested to be informed about one or several Task Force(s) can apply to the emailing list within the Consultation questionnaire (see below).

Webinar about the Estonian Presidency and the Digital Health Society
(presentations + video)

Presentation by Ain AAVIKSOO
Deputy Secretary General for E-services and Innovation at Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia
DOWNLOAD HERE

Presentation by Julien VENNE
Strategic Advisor at ECHAlliance
DOWNLOAD HERE

Recorded webinar (video)

The Consultation

The Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia and the the ECHAlliance have decided to launch in July 2017 a broad consultation across Europe around the Digital Health Society Declaration. You're then invited to contribute to the Declaration, expressing your point of view and sharing your ideas and experiences about the opportunities, the barriers to overcome and the existing (implemented) solutions that will allow the development of a real Digital Health Society and of the Free Flow of Data in Europe.

open until 30th of August 2017 

Contact: estonia-eupresidency2017@echalliance.com

Priorities of Estonia EU Presidency 2017 (video)

The Conference

The conclusions and results of this collaborative work will be presented at the conference Health in the Digital Society. Digital Society for Health, co-organised by the Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia, ECHAlliance and HIMSS Europe, in Tallinn, net 16-18 October 2017. 

The event will focus on how digital technologies and wider use of health data are changing our lives and the ways of healthcare. Through a combination of educational sessions, interactive workshops and valuable networking opportunities, the conference will not only showcase already existing digital health solutions, but also use-cases and technologies to demonstrate that citizen-centric health services and systems are genuinely valuable. 

The programme is built around 3 mantras:

• Building citizen-driven demand in eHealth
• eHealth supporting the value driven and sustainable health and social services
• eHealth as a driver of innovation and economic development

The sessions will present discussions around a broad range of topics, technologies and concepts such as: citizens access and control of their own health data, personalised health, Internet of Healthy things, blockchain, virtual reality, behaviour changes, smart cities, mHealth, cybersecurity, mental health, big data, interoperability and standards, prevention...

This multi-stakeholders conference will bring together the EU policy-makers (especially Member State ministers responsible for health and social affairs and regions), patients/citizens organisation representatives, large IT and healthcare companies and start-ups  healthcare professionals, hospital managers, researchers, insurers...

 Website: http://www.ehealthtallinn2017.ee 

Presentation of the venue (video)