EMEA

Norway Health Tech CEO Kathrine Myhre, winner of the HIMSS Europe Future50 award, says lessons from oil and gas industry successes along with Norway's pioneering culture help fuel the drive to maximize the healthcare system's potential.

Nearly 20% of Estonia's citizens are gene donors, which is useful when it comes to implementing precision medicine, says Kalle Killar, deputy secretary general at the Ministry of Social Affairs.

However, blockchain technology is still in its infancy, so expectations should be managed accordingly, says Dr. Abdullah Albeyatti, CEO and co-founder at Medicalchain.

Finland and Estonia use X-Road to enable the secure exchange of data, with opportunities to expand to the rest of Europe, says Petteri Kivimäki, CTO for Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions.

Mikko Vasama, general manager of Health Systems Nordics at Philips, says training, education and access to technology for patients are imperative, especially when working within a publicly funded healthcare system.

Zoltan Lantos, head of Social Innovation Lab at iAsk, says we need to learn more about consumers' behaviors before we maximize the global potential of the human and machine collaboration in healthcare.

Henning Schneider, CIO of Asklepios Healthcare Group, says while some German hospitals are already digitally advanced, he is excited to learn from the Nordic countries about improving interoperability and data exchange. 

Cancer patients who used digital solutions to stay connected to their caregivers and report symptoms lived 6-7 months longer, says Dr. Johanna Mattson, director of Comprehensive Cancer Center at Helsinki University Hospital.

Dr.  Markus Müschenich, MPH, managing partner at Flying Health, says integrating healthcare into self-driving cars will present a completely new global business opportunity for digital health companies.

Koen Kas, founder of Healthskouts, says the aim is to "die young, but as late as possible" by utilizing digital technology to remove barriers and offer patients new experiences to make healthcare delightful.