Digital transformation, digital therapies, blockchain and artificial intelligence are central topics of HIMSS Europe & Health in Sitges.

HIMSS Europe & Health 2.0 promises to be the biggest digital health event in Europe this year. Organised by HIMSS Europe, an international non-profit organisation that advocates progress in health IT, and by Health 2.0, a platform that promotes start-ups which was acquired by the HIMSS last year, the event is expected to attract some 2,000 digital health professionals. At the same time, the event is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Health, Well-being and Sport.

Eric Gerritsen, Secretary of the Ministry, states: “The Ministry has joined forces with HIMSS Europe to stage an international event that will have a big impact on the digital health ecosystem. In Sitges, we will show how to transfer patient treatment from the hospital to the home, by transforming de-personalised technology into a people-oriented approach.”

Digital Doctor, the founder of Patients Included in the IT transformation of the NHS, is a keynote speaker

Speakers at the event include Dr Robert Wachter, known as the “Digital Doctor”, professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California (UCSF), recognised as one of the most innovative doctors in the US by the magazine ‘Modern Healthcare’. His book, ‘The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age’, is one the New York Times’ science bestsellers.

Also attending the congress is Helen Bevan, Chief Transformation Officer of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), who will explain how to direct digital transformation in the NHS. Bevan directs the Horizons team, a group that promotes new ideas to improve and radically transform health.

The pioneering doctor Lucien Engelen, creator of the ‘Patients Included’ concept and director of the Radboud REshape Innovation Center — an organisation that researches how to bring together technology with patient empowerment — will also be at the conference. #PatientsIncluded is one of the most used hashtags on social media sites to refer to patient empowerment.

Other speakers at the congress include: the CEO of HIMSS, Hal Wolf; Bayer’s Director of Digital Innovation, Eugene Borukhovich; the Vice President of HIMSS and Health 2.0 Indu Subaya; the Dutch Secretary-General of Health Eric Gerritsen, and Jorge González, the director of TIC Biomed, an association that promotes the use of ICT in health through companies. New speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.

Two complementary worlds in a single event

Pascal Lardier, director of the congress programme, sums up the culture of the event: “By joining together HIMSS Europe and Health 2.0, we are establishing the most impacting digital health event in Europe: an unmissable date for our community of pioneers. Running two complementary innovation-based events as part of the same congress is very exciting. This amalgamation will open up debate between those purchasing and those selling. The HIMSS community is geared towards administrators and managers of technology in hospitals, while Health 2.0 promotes a bottom-up movement based on start-up innovation. These two worlds need to communicate better to enable progress to be made in the transformation of digital health.”

The congress will feature an exhibition section of several halls with representation from various countries to present cutting-edge technological solutions in health.

Follow information about the congress on social media with the hashtags #HIMSSEurope18 and #health2con