BRUSSELS – 15 December 2016: The 3rd Annual 
COCIR eHealth Summit took place under the umbrella of the European Commission’s European Summit on Digital Innovation for Active and Healthy Ageing, in partnership with the European Association Working for Carers (Eurocarers) and the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC).
As a strategic partner of the 2nd European Summit on Digital Innovation for Active and Healthy Ageing, COCIR Secretary General, Nicole Denjoy spoke on behalf of European industry at the Global Innovation Forum on 5 December. This event was organised by the European Commission, building on the G7 Ministerial meeting of ICT Ministers in Japan.
On 6 December, the Commission presented the ‘Blueprint on Digital Transformation of Health and Care’, along with Blueprint “Champion” organisations. These included COCIR members Agfa Healthcare, Philips and Orange as well as professional organisations, public authorities and civil society. Ms Denjoy also took part in the plenary session with other Blueprint Champions and representatives from the Commission, to discuss how to deliver the Blueprint vision and goals. Later, along with other partners of the Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA), COCIR attended the award Ceremony for the 74 European Reference Sites.
On 8 December, the 3rd COCIR eHealth Summit heard from high-level speakers and participants with insights on the value of Digital Health. They described how it supports integrated and patient-centric care, and the challenges of measuring its impact. In his opening remarks, Commissioner Andriukaitis highlighted digital technologies as providing new tools for modernising health systems. Commenting on the importance of integrated care, he said; “Integrated care is fundamental in pursuing successful health system reforms. I emphasise the need for a holistic approach, based on the real needs of citizens. This should focus not only on prevention and keeping people in good health but also on preserving their autonomy and functional capacity.”
Other speakers shared their insights on integrated care pathways, the potential of big data analytics and scaling up digital innovation across health systems to enable care coordination. There was also a panel discussion on the Blueprint’s vision, goals and the short and medium term priorities, as well as how Digital Health can help provide holistic, responsive care to a constantly growing ageing population. They also shared best practices in integrated care and reflected on effective approaches for working together and reconciling health strategy, organisation, processes, people and eHealth tools. Participants highlighted the importance of meeting user expectations, developing better business models and measuring the value of technology in terms of health outcomes, including patient reported outcomes and patient experience.
Reflecting on current trends, Paul Timmers, Director of the Digital Society, Trust & Cybersecurity Directorate at DG Connect, emphasised how the health and care community is increasingly seeking to partner with the digital sector to drive this transformation.
During the Summit, COCIR launched two eHealth papers, on Big Data Analytics and Integrated Care Workflows. These set out the opportunities and challenges for using the data analytics and technology to improve health systems performance and patients’ experience, advance biomedical research and deliver truly integrated care.
Nicole Denjoy, COCIR Secretary General, stressed that “In line with the Blueprint’s philosophy, as a partner of the multi-stakeholder Integrated Care Alliance and Blueprint Champion, COCIR is committed to working with other organisations to advance integrated and patient-centric care models, building multi-stakeholder partnerships for advancing integrated and patient-centric care models. For 2017 and beyond, we are committed to working with the Reference Sites and other stakeholders to deliver innovative Digital Health interventions at scale”. She added, “Along with our members and partners, we seek to use existing insights to build a framework for policymakers and stakeholders that helps implement their digital health strategies. This will create the political will and future leadership to drive investment across the health value chain and in digital health innovation.”
For more information, contact:
Nicole Denjoy
COCIR Secretary General
Tel: +32 (0)2 706 8961
denjoy@cocir.org
Colin Mackay
COCIR Communications Senior Advisor
Tel: +32 (0) 473 43 07 52