INNOVATION IN HEALTHCARE WITHOUT BORDERS

16-17 April 2012 - BRUSSELS (Belgium)

The European Commission is organising in collaboration with several European stakeholders a conference on innovation that aims to bring together the key stakeholders involved in the innovation process of the healthcare sector in view of Europe 2020 and the Innovation Union Plan.

The main objective of the conference is to act as an innovation in healthcare policy forum involving the key actors and policy-makers in order to:

• Identify major challenges and build consensus  to address them,
• Develop initiatives and opportunities for Healthcare Innovation;
• Provide continuity with previous events.

2012 Conference sessions will develop two tracks:

• "Removing borders in the health supply chain" assessing priorities achieved to date and areas where additional efforts are needed;
• "Inequality and solidarity" exploring new challenges within EU and beyond.

Building on the events of May 2010 and March 2011, the 2012 conference is organized by the services of the European Commission (DG Research and Innovation, DG Enterprise and Industry, DG Health and Consumers, DG for Regional Policy), in consultation with other relevant DGs, major health associations and stakeholders.

Commissioner for Research and Innovation Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Commissioner Antonio Tajani, responsible for Industry and Entrepreneurship, Commissioner for Health and Consumers John Dalli and Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn are invited to be among the speakers.

The programme of plenary and parallel sessions will allow a large space for debate and networking. It will be complemented by a small "fair" where associations and support structures will provide information to participants.

More information:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/health/events_en.html

Information on the 2010 and 2011 conferences, including outcome reports:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/health/innovation-in-healthcare-2011_en.html

European Hospital ConferenceHOPE-EAHM-AEMH

18 November 2011 - DÜSSELDORF (Germany)

On 18 November 2011, HOPE was co-organising with the European Association of Senior Hospital Physicians, presided by Dr. Joao de Deus, and the European Association of Hospital Managers, presided by Heinz Kölking, the first Joint European Hospital Conference.

The morning was devoted to the European policy on health. Mars Di Bartolomeo, Minister of Health of Luxembourg, delivered the keynote speech. He first positioned the public health policy within the context of the most recent EU initiatives, and in particular “Europe 2020“ and “Digital Agenda“. He then delivered a lively description of what makes the European health policy and how it developed in the past ten years. Commenting Mr. Di Bartolomeo’s presentation Georg Baum, President of HOPE and Chief Executive of the German Hospital Federation, clearly showed how hospitals and healthcare services are more and more impacted by various European policies; several of them having limited regards to the specifics of the healthcare sector. Georg Baum concluded on the major incoming impact:  the Cross-border directive (the directive on the application of patients’ right to cross-border healthcare), the focus of the afternoon session.
 
The afternoon was indeed devoted only to the Directive and its current process of transposition. The Directorate General Health was represented by Mrs. Annika Nowak who presented the origin and context of the directive as well as current developments of the work with Member States on the transposition. Representatives of organisations in six countries where then invited to present the current transposition mechanisms and the issues already identified by their organisations in their countries.  Mrs Elisabetta Zanon presented the detailed analysis made in the UK by the NHS Office in Brussels. Dr. György Harmat  explained the point of view of the Hungarian Hospital Association, shared by the Hungarian Ministry of Health.  Prof. Robert Nicodème gave the perception of the French Medical Chamber.  Mrs. Miek Peeters of Zorgnet Vlaanderen had a very precise legal of the legal challenges for Belgium.  Finally Dr. Thomas Zilling shared the views of hospital managers from Sweden and Dr. Dimitris Kremalis from Greece.

The closing words by Dr. Raymond Lies, Past President of AEMH, captured the essence of the afternoon by identifying the challenges ahead of us.

Management in public health and healthcare organizations - From theory to practice

9 November 2011 - COPENHAGEN (Denmark)

Management in health is in crisis: budget cuts, human resources shortages, globalization, ageing population and new technology are only a few issues faced by healthcare organizations and public health policy makers. It is in dire needs of new solutions, methods, and strategies. We need to shift the many theories into effective and efficient practices.

The EHESP School of Advanced Studies in Public Health has organised with the help of HOPE and EHMA a conference on present and future issues, methods and strategies in Management in the field of Public Health. This conference offered the opportunity to listen to internationally renowned speakers and presenters and debated crucial problems in managementnetwork with scholars, professionals and policy makers.

This one-day meeting took place in Copenhagen on 9 November 2011 as a pre-conference to the 4th European Public Health Conference from 9 to 12 November 2011.

14th European Health Forum Gastein

The European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG) was founded in 1998 as a European health policy conference with the aim of providing a platform for discussion for the various stakeholders in the field of public health and health care. Since then the EHFG has developed into a key annual event, bringing together, politicians, senior decision-makers, representatives of interest groups, and experts coming from government and administration, business and industry, civil society and science and academia. These four groups of stakeholders with their perspectives constitute the four pillars of the EHFG.

The EHFG further considers the vertical organisation of societies and the EU by integrating regional, national, European and international levels and thus facilitating the exchange of views and experience amongst key actors and experts from the 27 EU members and the EEA countries, but also from the rest of the 52 countries of the WHO European region. Launched with major financial support from the European Commission, subsequent events have grown with the continued and extended co-operation of Commission services. In that regard the Forum can be considered as a pilot project and benchmark for any Commission civil society consultation proces.

More information and presentations:
www.ehfg.org

Pharmaceutical Pricing and ReimbursementConference

Organised by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies at the Department of Health Economics at the Austrian Health Institute (Gesundheit Österreich GmbH) in Vienna.

Main topics of the conference “Balancing pharmaceutical policies between equity and cost-containment – a critical discussion and lessons learned” : 

• pricing and reimbursement of medicines in the in- and out-patient sector;
• interface management ;
• the rational use of medicines from a global, international, European perspective.

More information and presentations:
http://whocc.goeg.at/conference

HOPE Agora 2011 concluding the
30th HOPE Exchange Programme

20-21 June 2011 - TURKU (Finland)

In 2011, HOPE Exchange Programme has been organised for the 30th time. Thousands of people from all over Europe - participants, host organisations, national and local co-ordinators - contributed to the success of this programme during three decades.

HOPE Exchange Programme 2011 started on 23 May and ended on 21 June 2011. Like each year, the 2011 programme has been closed by HOPE Agora, a conference and evaluation meeting. This year's Agora took place in Turku (Finland) on June 20-21, 2011. More than 200 people - HOPE exchange participants, national and local co-ordinators, HOPE members and guests - attended the conference. Host country Finland won the first prize offered for the best presentation. The second prize was won by the participants who stayed in Portugal. The third one was awarded to the health professionals who stayed in Denmark.

“Better health - A chared challenge for hospitals and primary health care” was the topic of the 2011 HOPE exchange programme as well as of the conference concluding it in Turku. Hundreds of health professionals involved in the management of hospitals and healthcare services were bringing back on this occasion the experience acquired during four weeks abroad.  HOPE report, built on those experiences, will be available later this year.

More information:
www.hope-agora.eu

More information on HOPE Exchange Programme