Last 27, 28 and 29 of May, Sitges hosted the annual congress of Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Europe & Health 2.0, an event centred on digital health and innovation in telemedicine. The congress received hundreds of professionals from around the world who shared their experiences in mHealth and people’s health, integrated care, value added strategies, big data, data analysis and real world data.
The characteristic feature of the congress was the focus of activities and presentations on the action and participation of all stakeholders involved in the health sector. It was also about facilitating the creation of strategic networking, about research and about the funding of projects.
AQuAS had a noteworthy participation with a presentation by Toni Dedeu at the “ETC Map of Excellence” session within the framework of the European Telemedicine Conference.
The adoption of the 2.0 solutions among health professionals from a disruptive perspective was also a lively debate which is still ongoing after the congress. How do we involve professionals?
To continue. In the field of assessment, the conference “Assessing Telemedicine Solutions” was focused on examples of European eHealth in which the assessment of technology was a key piece in the implementation of digital strategies in health.
On the one hand, representatives of the Odense University Hospital of Denmark outlined an innovative strategy to reduce hospital stays of premature new-born babies and to improve their weight gain and family experiences by using video conferences and digital support in the management of data.
On the other hand, the company Kaia Health presented a mobile application aimed at people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, monitoring both adherence to medication and the degree of day to day sedentary lifestyle. The factors for success most discussed during the session were, on the one hand, the collection of continuous and systematic feedback of patients, family members and professionals and on the other, the continuous and cyclical improvement technology.
As challenges, the conference speakers highlighted the assessment of economic impact and the impact on health as well as the design of strategies to guarantee the use of mobile technologies and applications by patients.
This confirms that it is becoming increasingly necessary to have a European framework of assessment in mHealth that provides an assessment framework of impact and a roadmap to improve the satisfaction of users beyond mere technological validation and certification of quality.
AQuAS has been developing a theoretical model of mHealth assessment, published in the JMIR mHealth and eHealth journal and at present it is in a second phase with the aim of transforming this theoretical framework into a practical model.
An exercise in consensus will soon be done by using the Health Consensus tool to agree on indicators of assessment and several focus groups to get to know of the qualitative assessment of patients, professionals and other parties involved in eHealth technologies.
It is estimated that this framework of assessment will be ready at the end of the year to respond to the present day needs of assessing the impact on users and their satisfaction of new health technologies.
The next European HiMSS congress, programmed for the 7 and 18 October, 2018, in Potsdam, Germany, will in fact be dedicated to discussing the social and economic impact of health technologies.
The annual congress (equivalent to that held in Sitges) will take place next year in Finland. You can take note in your diaries: Helsinki, 11-13 June, 2019, HIMSS Europe 2019 & Health 2.0 2019.
Post written by Elisa Poses Ferrer.
