EMEA News

Erik Gerritsen, vice minister of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport in the Netherlands, had a simple message for delegates on the second day of the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European conference in Helsinki this evening: there is an urgent need to address the “global interoperability crisis” facing healthcare. Governments need to step up, Gerritsen said, and move away from the approach adopted in the past, where the health IT industry was left alone to try and "fix" the interoperability challenge. “What I see is a global market failure in achieving meaningful interoperability. "What I see now is that, with all our technological advancements, people are still dying because we are not able to get the right electronic information in the right place at the right time," he said. "And I see hospitals being forced to select a specific EHR system because their data is locked into their vendor’s closed ecosystem. "I see nurses and doctors burning out and leaving healthcare behind because the technology doesn’t work for, but against them," he added. "I see desperate patients starting lawsuits to be able to get their own medical data because healthcare organisations are not willing or not able to provide their data to them." His comments echoed the remarks of patient advocates at the event, as well as governmental figures from other European countries calling on all stakeholders to work together and ensure healthcare does not, as Gerritsen put it, continue to miss out on the “digital revolution”, with fax machines and paper still common in many organisations - and "extinct everywhere but healthcare".  Empowered citizens and healthcare professionals The problem, however, is not the lack of having a vision in place or the lack of usable technology; it's implementing and scaling good solutions, Gerritsen said. The vice minister emphasised that health innovation needed to be "accelerated" to ensure that the right care is delivered at the right time. For this to happen, there is a need for empowered citizens, with access to the tools needed to be in control of their own health, and empowered healthcare professionals.  The vice minister acknowledged, however, that government is often seen as “the opposite of inspiration, slowing down innovation with needless red tape and bureauracy”. But he added: "As governments, we have a responsibility to serve the interests of all our citizens, to ensure that everyone is able to participate in today’s society, no matter their background. “People don’t do whatever you say, but they will follow what they see you do." Norway health tech CEO receives achievement award The evening keynote also saw Kathrine Myhre, chief executive of Norway Health Tech, receive the HIMSS Future 50 European Achievement Award. Myhre is the founder of Norway Health Tech, previously known as the Oslo Medtech Cluster, which brings together over 200 members from the digital health industry, providers, local authorities, R&D organisations and investors. “To ensure the growth of digital health into its full potential, we need leaders who can constantly push to improve the quality in treatment and care by developing and industrialising world-class health solutions through members and ecosystems,” said Sean Roberts, HIMSS EMEA vice president. “Kathrine Myhre is one such thought leader and a role model.” HIMSS launches nursing informatics community HIMSS, owner of Healthcare IT News, also launched today its European Nursing Informatics Community, in collaboration with the Finnish Nurses Association, the International Council of Nurses and the European Health Management Association. "Throughout our ongoing engagement with healthcare providers and the broader European community membership, we have recognised that nurses are the closest to the gaps in care representing the human link between technology and patients," said Angela Velkova, HIMSS director of communities and strategic relations. "Therefore, digitally empowered nurses will directly translate in improved delivery of care to the benefit of citizens and entire communities."

A quick look at the FinnGen project.

Digitisation can alleviate the challenges healthcare is facing. But this won’t happen automatically. Citizens and patients have to take the lead – as data owners and co-creators.

Chase Farm Hospital (CFH), part of the Royal Free London (RFL) group, has been validated at Stage 6 of the HIMSS – owner of Healthcare IT News - Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) after an on-site assessment last week. Over 2,500 hospitals in Europe have been assessed on the EMRAM, an eight-stage model measuring EMR capabilities and tracking the progress of healthcare organisations against others around the world. The standards were updated at the beginning of January 2018 to reflect advances in the healthcare technology space, according to John Rayner, HIMSS Analytics regional director for Europe and Latin America.The Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) requirement, for example, is now part of the Stage 1 criteria, as opposed to Stage 5. “In addition, areas of compliance have been increased to raise the bar and to acknowledge the importance of having these critical services hospital-wide, rather than in a single clinical area. As a result of these changes, some hospitals are likely to find achieving the higher stages of the model more challenging than they did prior to January 2018,” Rayner told Healthcare IT News in November last year. In England, only two other NHS organisations are currently validated at Stage 6, Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) NHS Foundation Trust and Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and none at Stage 7. CUH was revalidated against the new Stage 6 standards last year. Like Cambridge, RFL is part of the flagship NHS global digital exemplar scheme, through which it says that it has received £10m in matched funding – with the trust also putting in £10m – for new technology. It is one of four NHS trusts selected to develop a so-called group model and help "share services and resources more effectively across hospitals", according to information provided by the trust.  “This digital approach is what the future of healthcare looks like and means a better experience for our patients and our staff. Now our aim is to further advance our use of technology so CFH can become a stage 7 hospital,” said in a statement Dr Chris Streather, chief medical officer of the RFL group. Rayner said the HIMSS Analytics team was “particularly impressed with the amount of progress that has been in such a short time” after the Cerner Millennium go-live in November 2018. The new hospital opened to patients in September last year following a £200m redevelopment. “I was particularly impressed with the degree of device integration within the operating theatres and the anaesthetic facilities. All the clinicians that we spoke with on the day maintained that the benefits of using electronic patient records far outweighed any benefits of working with paper systems. I left with the impression that there is commitment at all levels within this organisation to use technology to improve patient safety and the overall quality of clinical care,” Rayner added. Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication. .jumbotron{ background-image: url("https://www.healthcareitnews.com//sites/hitn/files/u2556/HelsinkiJumbotron.jpg"); background-size: cover; color: white; } .jumbotron h2{ color: white; } Full coverage: HIMSS & Health 2.0 Europe 2019 Healthcare decision makers, patients, clinicians, nurses, life science professionals, innovators and many more are set to convene at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference 2019 in Helsinki on 11-13 June.

Digital tools are flourishing in healthcare, but only a minority succeed in really empowering the patient. Why? Because digital care and shared decision making only work as a team effort.

Päivi Sillanaukee put emphasis on the need for international co-operation at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European conference.

A centralised digital pathology system implemented by the Northern Cancer Alliance is set to speed up cancer diagnosis for patients at nine hospitals by giving clinicians a single view of records and slides, regardless of location.

THE ROAD TO HELSINKI: At the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference, experts from Philips will showcase AI-powered health information management solutions.

Technology is helping to bring healthcare to the homes of the ageing population in Finland and nursing is at the forefront of this community-based care.