WoHIT2016 | Photo credit. Pixbay
Major health IT event opens with recognition of most digitally mature hospitals
Barcelona, SPAIN, 21 November 2016: The World of Health IT (WoHIT) has opened its doors to over 1,000 healthcare IT professionals from across 25 different countries worldwide today. Covering a range of the hottest topics in the industry, from mHealth and cybersecurity to genomics and integrated care, WoHIT has gathered the whole of the European and global eHealth community together.
Steve Lieber, President and CEO of HIMSS and John Rayner, Regional Director of HIMSS Analytics opened the event, held in Barcelona, with recognition of European hospitals who have achieved an exceptionally high level of digital maturity. Tire Devlet Hastanesi in Izmir Hospital, in Turkey was awarded EMRAM Stage, which demonstrates the highest level of digital maturity in a hospital. It is the fourth hospital to ever be awarded in Europe following outstanding EMR integration in all clinical areas, with all medical paper records replaced by digital documentation.
Four other European hospitals were also awarded with an EMRAM Stage 6. Fundacío Hospital Comarcal d’Inca in Mallorca, Spain, Hospital de Cascais Doutour José de Almeida in Alcabideche, Portugal, Hospital Site du Sart Tilman in Liège, Belgium, and Fondazione Poliambulanza Istituto Ospedaliero in Brescia, Italy, all collected their certificates today and officially joined the exclusive EMRAM Stage 6&7 Community.
In addition to the EMRAM Awards, Lieber also launched the Kate Granger Awards for Compassionate Care in Europe, named after an English doctor who worked tirelessly to raise awareness around compassion in healthcare whilst undergoing treatment for cancer. The Awards will recognise individuals for seeing health and care “through the eyes of a patient”.
Keynote speakers such as Richard Daniels, Executive Vice President and CIO at Kaiser Permanente, who addressed consumer-centred care or Dr Zubin Damania, who dove into the ethical challenges of delivering compassionate healthcare, were amongst today’s highlights. A vibrant show floor featuring different workshops, speeches, and even a robot enabled delegates from across the globe to connect and engage in valuable conversations.
Lieber said: “This event is about giving attendees something truly unique and different – an innovative show floor and conference sessions with some surprises along the way– it should be an event unlike HIMSS has delivered before”.
Video games to create “epic wins” within the healthcare sector, World of Health IT event concludes
Barcelona, SPAIN, 22 November 2016: The Sort siblings - Manel Sort, Head of Studios, King.com, Spain and Anna Sort, CEO & Co-Founder, PlayBenefit – have advocated the potential use of video gaming in healthcare saying that it should create ‘epic wins’ within the industry.
Speaking during the final keynote that closed the World of Health IT event during their session “From Candy Crush to Healthcare - Lessons Learned from Consumers’ Engagement in the Game Industry” the pair suggested video games could be an engaging tool to improve healthcare and analysed the science behind video games.
Anna Sort said: “The lessons we have learned from the video game industry can be applied in a healthcare setting, to improve processes such as adherence to treatment, user empowerment, learning and behavioural change. It's fundamental to advance technology and health to create links between professionals in different fields, and that’s exactly what WoHIT is doing, generating interest amongst a diverse range of profiles and backgrounds.”
The session was one of many that took place at the World of Health IT, which concluded following over two full days of educational sessions, evening networking receptions, entertainment, innovation and examples of best practice in healthcare IT. An array of influential health and care leaders as well as front line clinicians and patients came together and engaged in fruitful discussions on how we can all join forces to improve healthcare in Europe through information technology.
Highlights: integrated care and closing the gender gap
One of the most highly anticipated sessions during WoHIT was hosted by the recently launched HIMSS Europe Women in Health IT Community. During this informal session, preliminary results from a HIMSS Europe survey were addressed, revealing that 57% of female European healthcare IT workers say that they have witnessed gender-related discrimination at work. The most common ways in which discrimination was portrayed was identified as being: a lower chance of promotion, unequal workplace treatment, and a lower salary.
Integrated Care was also key during the two-day conference. WoHIT hosted a whole track dedicated to this topic, which is said to be the top priority in 2017 for over 54% of European healthcare professionals (according to the HIMSS Europe Annual Survey). Interactive workshops and sessions have addressed standards for the ageing field and adopting a multi-stakeholder approach towards Integrated Care, amongst others.
Roadmap for 2017
Attendees and exhibitors will have three major HIMSS Europe pan-European events to look out for in 2017. On 10-12 May, eHealth Week will be taking place in Malta, in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and organised by the Maltese Ministry of Health – as part of their Presidency of the Council of the European Union -, the European Commission and HIMSS Europe. During the second half of 2017, two more events will be taking place: “Health in a Digital Society, Digital Society for Health”, on 16-18 October in Tallinn, Estonia, which will address the digital aspects of healthcare and will showcase some of Estonia’s most renowned best practices, and will by organised in collaboration with ECHAlliance and the Estonian Ministry of Health.
World of Health IT will be back next year for its next edition. The whole eHealth ecosystem will gather in Barcelona once again on exactly the same dates (21 and 22 November) and will host the highest level of speakers and the hottest topics in eHealth, together with offering an unmatchable networking experience for everyone.
HIMSS Europe looks forward to gathering the European eHealth Community at every gathering over the course of 2017.
São João Hospital Center in Portugal recognised at inaugural European awards ceremony for achieving outstanding ICT results
Barcelona, SPAIN, November 21, 2016: HIMSS Europe and Elsevier announced the winner and three finalists of the inaugural European edition of the HIMSS-Elsevier Digital Healthcare Awards at last night’s ceremony and dinner as part of the World of Health IT conference and exhibition, taking place on 21 and 22 November.
This winning project from the São João Hospital Center named is “HVITAL: Transforming Hospital Big Data into real insights that empower clinical teams to timely Act and Save Lives” has demonstrated its ability to predict up to 30% of ICU admissions, 7 days in advance. It has been described as being an advanced big data and analytics platform capable of monitoring and analysing in real-time, 24 hours a day, a massive amount of clinical data that is scattered across hospital systems, in order to automatically identify and promptly alert to patients at risk in the areas of infection and clinical deterioration.
The winner was selected amongst four finalists, which were shortlisted by our judging panel of influential healthcare professionals from across Europe. The Award itself is the result of a long-standing partnership between HIMSS and Elsevier. Established in 2013, the award has recognised over 97 projects from 79 hospitals, across 17 countries from the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions, and has now been extended to Europe to further highlight global innovations in healthcare. Open to all public and private healthcare providers, this Award recognises organisations for outstanding achievements in the implementation and usage of health information and technology.
The three remaining finalists were also recognised during the ceremony:
- 1st finalist: Devon Partnership NHS Trust, “Innovative visual solution that makes a real difference in delivering high quality and safe care”
- 2nd finalist: Health Regional System of Principado de Asturias, “Tele-Ophthalmology programme for screening the diabetic retinopathy in rural areas”
- 3rd finalist: Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, “Electronic alerting system for the early recognition of acute kidney injury (aki)”
The dinner was well-attended by prominent healthcare leaders, judges and nominees. Steve Lieber, President and CEO at HIMSS, and Tim Hawkins, Managing Director Clinical Solutions EMEALA, Elsevier, gave the welcome addresses before dinner commenced.
“At Elsevier we see that technology and the provision of easy-to-access data and best-practice clinical information can support health systems to improve patient outcomes and efficiency”, said Tim Hawkins, Managing Director Clinical Solutions EMEALA, Elsevier “We’ve been consistently impressed with the projects we’ve seen in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, and we’re delighted to bring this award to Europe. Congratulations to all the finalists, and, of course, the winning project – they’re truly representative of what can be achieved for patients and healthcare providers through ICT.”
H. Steve Lieber, President and CEO at HIMSS, said: “As part of the HIMSS vision to promote using IT for the betterment of healthcare, we are pleased to partner with Elsevier once again to bring this Award to Europe. The winner and finalists have demonstrated significant results in their projects by using digital solution to ultimately improve patient care.
“This Award validates, on an international platform, the hard work of the organisations that have achieved outstanding ICT outcomes. We hope that this will continue to encourage other organisations in this region to adopt appropriate technologies to improve care outcomes,” Lieber added.
The entries were evaluated by an appointed panel of judges:
- Philippe Kolh, CIO, CHU de Liège, Professor, University of Liège, CHU Liège, Belgium
- Francisco Perez, International Co-Chair, HL7, Spain
- Giovanni Delgrossi, Chief Information Officer, Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale di Vimercate, Italy
- Vicent Moncho Mas, CIO, Hospital de Denia, Marina Salud, Spain
- Seamus MacSuibhne, CCIO, eHealth Ireland, Ireland
- Elena Sini, CIO, Humanitas Research Hospital, Italy
- John Rayner, Regional Director, Europe and Latin America, HIMSS Analytics
- Dr. Peter Edelstein, Chief Medical Officer, Elsevier Clinical Solutions, USA