View the Summit Recordings here!

Summary

Figures that speak for themselves: 3 days, 12 sessions, 400 participants, 50 speakers

The Digital Health Europe Summit 2021 brought together EU policymakers, funders, digital health experts and other stakeholders for inspiring and forward-looking debates. Topics ranged from real-life transformation through digital health (Day 1), via empowering citizens (Day 2) to scaling up innovation through health data (Day 3). 

Digital transformation is undoubtedly ongoing in the healthcare sector. However, it still lacks the right type of support, which can jeopardise the success of this process including the future European Health Data Space. The DHE Summit aimed to scrutinise the drivers and barriers of digital transformation through different lenses.  

The DHE Summit was a unique event which offered a very complex, multifaceted and diverse approach to the facts and challenges of digital transformation. Sessions zoomed in on infrastructure needs such as cloud computing, data connectivity and interoperability across borders. Experts discussed the ‘human factors’ of the process such as capacity building or citizen empowerment. A panel was dedicated to expected promising results and currently fatal diseases which medicine will be able to soon overcome thanks to health data-based research and innovation.  

Last but not least of all, a representatives of the European Commission shared with the audience what the future perspectives are and how all the efforts from different stakeholders will come into place to implement a common European vision on health data.  

Digital Health Europe is a project which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 826353. It provides comprehensive support to the European Commission and Member States to advance the Digital Single Market priorities for the digital transformation of health and care, as outlined in the European Commission’s 2018 Communication.

Agenda

Tuesday, 28 Sept., 9:00 - 12:00:
Real-life transformation through digital health

9:00 – 10:00 CEST – 1: Introduction to the topic

  • Marco Marsella (DG CNECT)
  • Policy context – Dr. Birgit Morlion (DG CNECT)
  • Keynote speech – Esko Aho (former Prime Minister of Finland)
  • Introduction to DigitalHealthEurope – Dr. Veli Stroetmann (empirica)
10:00 – 11:00 CEST – 2: Digital transformation through replication of European best practices in health and care
 
  • Strahil Birov (empirica)
  • Jon Switters (FUNKA)
  • Dr. Oscar Zanutto (Twinning “SoCaTel”)
  • Helena Biancuzzi (Twinning “OncologyInMotion”)
  • Mathieu Thébaud (Twinning “REHABLAB4ALL”)
  • Benjamin Cid-Bourié (Twinning “CISMED”)
  • Campbell MacLeod and Lasse Kaalby Møller (Twinning “CCEResearchInfrastructure”)
  • Júlia Altarriba and Dr. Rosana Magalhães (Twinning “AI4MultimorbidityConditions”)

DHE has been supporting healthcare providers and the wider digital health and care ecosystem in scaling up best practices through collaboration and partnership building. Learn about the different support services DHE offers, as well as some of the successes achieved thanks to DHE’s twinnings – small knowledge exchange projects which have resulted in adoption of innovation solutions across Europe.

11:00 – 11:15 CEST – Coffee Break

 
  • Donna Henderson (European Health Telematics Association)
  • Dr. Maddalena Illario (European Reference Site Collaborative Network)
  • Dr. Niamh Lennox-Chhugani (International Foundation for Integrated Care)
  • Dr. Gian Matteo Apuzzo (Central European Initiative)

Building on the learnings and the outcomes of the previous session, speakers will take stock of horizontal and vertical challenges of scaling-up in a sustainable way. As a response, those skills and capacities will be elaborated on which can help to solve and overcome these challenges. DHE has developed a capacity building framework that can support a wide range of digital health stakeholders to build their capacities in a hands-on manner. Discussion between DHE consortium partner networks will be triggered on how they deal with cross-border skills development, particularly in Central Europe.

11:55 – 12:00 CEST – 4: Day 1 Closing

  • Dr. Veli Stroetmann (empirica)

Moderator: Dr. José Martinez Usero (FUNKA)

Wednesday, 29 Sept., 14:00 - 16:30:
Empowering citizens through health data

14:00 – 14:40 CEST – 1: Patient-centred health and care

  • Diane Whitehouse (European Health Telematics Association)
  • Nicola Bedlington (European Patients’ Forum)
  • Lyudmil Ninov (European Patients’ Forum)
  • Ivett Jakab (European Patients’ Forum Youth Group)
  • David Magboulé (LabToMarket)

Digitalisation is undoubtedly changing health and care today. Digital health can be fundamental to enhance integration between health and social care and to better manage healthcare systems and services. The road to a full uptake of digital, however, is still very fragmented. If it is true that the COVID-19 crisis has greatly accelerated this process, it has also put under the spotlight once again how access to digital health is very much unequal, organised in different ways across Europe. Furthermore, digital health is not yet fully enabling nor based on collaboration between patients and healthcare professionals nor on co-design.

 

Thousands of Europeans have begun to share health data purposefully in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The debate around citizen-controlled health data sharing especially regarding adequate governance models has, however, been ongoing for much longer. This session explores citizens-centred data sharing. It starts with a COVID-19 use case, and complements it with the results from a large-scale survey on citizens’ attitude towards health data sharing. Finally, we will consider citizens’ and patients’ perspectives on the topic.

15:10 – 15:20 CEST – Coffee break

15:20 – 15:50 CEST – 3: Accelerating health data connectivity

  • Dr. Henrique Martins (DigitalHealthEurope)
  • Dr. Rainer Thiel (empirica)
  • Dr. Dipak Kalra (European Institute for Innovation through Health Data / European Institute for Health Records)
  • Sara Riggare (Uppsala University)
Lack of health data connectivity is still a problem across the EU. Heterogenous levels of connectiveness between health organisations and between health organisations and citizens/patients in Member States is still prevalent. Citizens are key actors to accelerate health data connectivity under two conditions. First, if tools are available to empower them and second, if the right climate of health data activism is created in society which can nurture citizens’ demand for health data interoperability.

15:50 – 16:20 CEST – 4: Data-driven health and care: Is the future federated?

  • Dr. Oliver Zobell (Research Centre Jülich)
  • Prof. Dr. Jan Baumbach (University of Hamburg)
  • Prof. Dr. Oya Beyan (University of Cologne)
  • Prof. Dr. André Dekker (Maastricht University)

In this session, experts will discuss solutions for on-demand access to federated datasets and to cloud computing resources, and how these have the potential to accelerate the digital transformation of health and care.

 

Thursday, 30 Sept., 14:00 - 16:30: Scaling up innovation through health data

14:00 – 14:20 CEST – 1: Keynote speech

  • Update on European Health Data Space – Ioana-Maria Gligor (DG SANTE)

14:20 – 15:15 CEST – 2: Better data to promote research, disease prevention and personalised health and care

  • Dr. Dipak Kalra (European Institute for Innovation through Health Data / European Institute for Health Records)
  • Birgit Bauer (Digital Health & Social Media Entrepreneur)
  • Dr. Emmanuel Bacry (Health Data Hub)
  • Tomaz Gornik (Better)
  • Jesper Kjær (Danish Medicines Agency)
  • Prof. Dr. Denis Horgan (European Alliance for Personalised Medicine)

This session will present the drivers, approaches and success factors for scaling up the availability and uses of health data to accelerate research and the delivery of personalised medicine. The DHE findings from several multi-stakeholder consultations and the assessment of several digital health and eResearch programmes will be summarised. Europe’s scalability and acceptability challenges will be presented and discussed by a panel of experts.

15:15 – 15:25 CEST – Coffee break

15:25 – 16:10 CEST – 3:  Ensuring innovation through health data – where to next?

  • Dr. Zoi Kolitsi (DHE)
  • Prof. Dr. Paul Timmers (European University Cyprus / Oxford University)
  • Nick Schneider (German Federal Ministry of Health)
  • Steven Vermeulen (EBRAINS)
  • Dr. Ilias Iakovidis (DG CNECT)
  • Dr. Tapani Piha (SITRA)

Since the first EC communication on the EDS, much has come into shape and more is to yet be defined for the health specific EHDS. The DHE Recommendations reflect a high degree of congruence on the important issues and challenges, albeit some discrepancies across the multiple stakeholder communities.  What is next? This session aims to peek into what might lie ahead through the lens of several perspectives, brought in by thought- leaders across a broad array of priority challenges.

16:10 – 16:30 CEST – 4: What’s next for Digital Health in Europe

  • Marco Marsella (DG CNECT)
  • Dr. Veli Stroetmann (empirica)

Moderator:  Dr. Petra Wilson

Speakers

Esko Aho
Chairman of the Board, Former Prime Minister
Cinia Oy / Adven Group
Esko Aho is Chairman of the Board of Cinia Oy and Adven Group and on the Supervisory Board of Sberbank.
Esko Aho is Chairman of the Board of Cinia Oy and Adven Group and on the Supervisory Board of Sberbank. He is a member of Europe, Middle East and Africa Advisory Council at JP Morgan. Mr. Aho was a Member of the Finnish Parliament 1983 – 2003 and Prime Minister 1991 – 1995. Under his leadership, Finland joined the European Union. After his political career, Mr. Aho was a President of the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and after that Executive Vice President at Nokia Corporation. He was an Executive Chairman of the Board of East Office of Finnish Industries 2013 – 2019. At present he is Senior Advisor at East Office. Furthermore he served as a member of the Executive Board at the International Chamber of Commerce 2013 – 2019. He acted as Chairman of the Board at ICC Executive Board Policy and Commissions Committee for four years. He is an invited member of Club de Madrid, an independent organization of former heads of state and government dedicated to strengthening democracy.
Ioana-Maria Gligor
Head of Unit
Digital Health and European Reference Networks, DG SANTE
Ioana Gligor is Head of Unit in DG SANTE, responsible for Digital Health and European Reference Networks.
Ioana Gligor is Head of Unit in DG  SANTE, responsible for Digital Health and European Reference Networks. Ioana worked previously on health issues in DG Employment, with a focus on the European Semester and European Social Fund. Before joining DG SANTE, she worked in the Secretariat General of the European Commission, in DG Employment and Social Affairs and she started her career in European Institutions in the Cabinet of Commissioner Orban. Before joining the EU institutions, Ioana worked in the Romanian Ministry of European Integration and was spokesperson for the Chief Negotiator with the EU. She studied political sciences and EU affairs, with a specialisation at the College of Europe in the law and economics of internal market. She has a PhD in international relations.
Marco Marsella
Head of Unit “eHealth, Well-being, and Ageing”
DG CNECT
Marco Marsella is Head of the “eHealth, Well-being, and Ageing” Unit in the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology.
Marco Marsella is Head of the “eHealth, Well-being, and Ageing” Unit in the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT) of the European Commission. From 2016 to June 2018, Marco Marsella was leading the Unit responsible for the Web Accessibility Directive, Safer Internet and Language Technologies. He has worked on policy development, innovation and research implementation in the areas of digital content, technologies for learning, e-inclusion and assistive technologies.”
Dr. ir. Birgit Morlion
Programme and Policy Officer
European Commission DG CNECT
Dr. ir. Birgit Morlion works on the digital transformation of health and care in the Digital Single Market.
Birgit Morlion is an engineer (PhD) with a mission to make digital health come true. In May 2017 she joined the eHealth, well-being and ageing unit of the European commission (DG Connect) where she works on the digital transformation of health and care in the Digital Single Market, more specifically with a focus on mobile health (mHealth), integrated care and active and healthy ageing. Before joining the Commission she was actively involved in eHealth research and facilitating the adoption of digital innovation in health and care in Belgium. She was part of the start-up team of the Flemish digital research and innovation institute iMinds; helping to bridge the gap between research and exploitation of results. She also occupied strategic advisory roles for the Flemish and the Belgian Ministers of health in the domain of medical data-exchange and patient access to his electronic medical records.
Dr. Ilias Iakovidis
Adviser on Green Digital Transformation
DG CNECT
Ilias Iakovidis, PhD, is an Adviser on Green Digital Transformation at the European Commission, DG CONNECT.
Ilias coordinates the EU wide initiatives to improve the energy and material efficiency of ICT. He is focused on maximising the benefits of green digital transformation for environment, society and economy. With works with European Green Digital Coalition to develop science-based methods to estimate the net impact of digital solutions on environment & climate. Ilias is working also on digitalisation for circular economy (e.g. digital product passport). Before 2017, Ilias worked on the EU eHealth and ICT for Ageing well agenda for over 20 years. Areas he pioneered include Virtual Physiological Human; Personal Health Systems and Electronic Health Records.
Dr. Tapani Piha
Senior Adviser
SITRA
Tapani Piha has worked at the Ministry of Health and of Foreign Affairs in Finland as well as at the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
Tapani Piha has worked at the Ministry of Health and of Foreign Affairs in Finland as well as at the WHO Regional Office for Europe. He worked in the European Commission from 2001 to 2018. His main assignments were heading the unit for digital transformation in healthcare and on health law. Back in Finland since 2019, he is advising the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Innovation Fund Sitra on digital health, use of health data and EU health policies. He works also as Special Adviser on digital health and healthcare in the Fipra International Network.
Prof. Dr. Paul Timmers
Research Associate, University of Oxford / Oxford Internet Institute
European University Cyprus
Prof. Dr. Paul Timmers is research associate at the University of Oxford (Oxford Internet Institute) and professor at European University Cyprus.
Prof. Dr. Paul Timmers is research associate at the University of Oxford (Oxford Internet Institute) and professor at European University Cyprus. He is also a visiting professor at Rijeka University, senior advisor to EPC Brussels, board member of Digital Enlightenment Forum and supervisory board member of the Estonian eGovernance Academy. He has been Director at the European Commission dealing with EU legislation and funding for cybersecurity, e-ID, digital privacy, digital health, smart cities, e-government. He was also cabinet member of European Commissioner Liikanen and until recently advisor to the European Commission, DG SANTE on digital health. He is CEO of iivii BV.
Dr. Veli Stroetmann
Head of Digital Health Research and Policy & Director
empirica
Dr. Veli Stroetmann is Director of empirica Communication and Technology Research and coordinator of DigitalHealthEurope.
Dr. Veli Stroetmann, MD, PhD, is Director of empirica Communication and Technology Research and Head of Digital Health Research and Policy. She obtained an MD degree from the Academy for Medical Sciences in Sofia and a PhD in Medical Informatics. Over the last 25 years, she has been coordinator and principal investigator for European Union funded studies and projects on digital health policies and strategies, market research, business modelling, impact and regulatory assessment, socio-economic impact assessment and evaluation. Currently she is coordinating a large EU Support Action “DigitalHealthEurope: Support to enabling the digital transformation of health and care in the Digital Single Market”. She led an EC study to support the scaling up of innovations in active and healthy ageing through twinning actions. She is also leading work to advance the European “Blueprint for Digital Transformation of Health and Care”, a key policy activity within the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing. Dr. Stroetmann is editor and co-author of numerous European policy and research roadmaps and articles on digital health strategies of EU Member States, semantic interoperability, eHealth innovation and scaling up personalised health services, learning health system, integrated care, digital patient research, in-silico medicine. She is an Executive Board member of the European Institute for Innovation through Health Data (i~HD).
Júlia Altarriba
COO
HumanITcare
Júlia Altarriba is the COO of HumanITcare and she is responsible for leading multiple projects.
Júlia Altarriba is the COO of HumanITcare and she is responsible for leading multiple projects, as well as organizing the different operations of the company. Her background includes a BA in Physics, an MSc in Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Biomedical Engineering and a specialization course on Project Management. She has vast experience in health since she has been part of the radiology unit of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona as a physicist.
Dr. Gian Matteo Apuzzo
Project Manager
Central European Initiative
Dr. Gian Matteo Apuzzo is an urban sociologist and EU policies expert, with a PhD in Social Sciences on urban exclusion and social foresight.
Urban sociologist and EU policies expert, with a PhD in Social Sciences on urban exclusion and social foresight, he has a long-time experience as a consultant, teacher, and researcher — matured in different countries and contexts. Since 2009 he has been working as senior researcher and project manager for the Friuli Venezia Giulia regional health system organisations on the topics of digital health, active and healthy ageing, integrated care, social innovation. Currently working at the Central European Initiative (CEI) as senior expert on health/social policies, he is the focal point of a CEI-WHO Task Force in response to COVID-19.
Dr. Emmanuel Bacry
Scientific Director
Health Data Hub
Emmanuel Bacry currently serves as the Scientific Director of the French Health Data Hub.
Emmanuel Bacry currently serves as the Scientific Director of the French Health Data Hub. In parallel, he is a Senior Researcher at CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) at Paris Dauphine University. For over 4 years, he served as  a Mathematics Professor as well as the head of the Big Data & Data Science Initiative at Ecole Polytechnique. National and international AI expert and general chair of various summer schools on AI and data science, Emmanuel Bacry is  also a member of several French and international scientific boards and committees. Emmanuel studied Mathematics at ENS (École normale supérieure de Paris) where he graduated in 1992. He additionally obtained his Accreditation to Supervise Research (“Habilitation à diriger des recherches”) in 1996.
Birgit Bauer
Patient Expert, Digital Health & Social Media Entrepreneur
Manufaktur für Antworten
Birigt Bauer, Patient Expert, Digital Health & Social Media Entrepreneur, Manufaktur für Antworten
Prof. Dr. Jan Baumbach
Chair of Computational Systems Biology
University of Hamburg
Since January 2021, Jan Baumbach is the chair of Computational Systems Biology (Cosy.Bio) at the University of Hamburg.
Jan Baumbach studied computer science at Bielefeld University in Germany. In October 2012, he moved to the University of Southern Denmark as head of the Computational BioMedicine group. His research concentrated on systems and network biomedicine. He was study programme coordinator of the Computational BioMedicine program from 2015 to 2017. In January 2018 he moved to the Technical University of Munich as chair of the Experimental Bioinformatics (ExBio), where he developed computational methods for systems medicine and novel federated AI approaches ensuring privacy by design. In January 2021, the lab relocated to the University of Hamburg where Jan Baumbach became chair of Computational Systems Biology (Cosy.Bio).
Nicola Bedlington
Special Advisor
European Patients’ Forum
Nicola Bedlington is the special advisor to the European Patients’ Forum, and was its first Executive Director and Secretary from 2006 to 2019.
Nicola Bedlington is the special advisor to the European Patients’ Forum, and was its first Executive Director and Secretary General from 2006 to 2019. Nicola was also the first Director of the European Disability Forum, (1996 to 1999). Prior to this, she headed the NGO unit within HELIOS, a European Commission Action Programme promoting equal opportunities for disabled people (1991-1996). From 2004 to 2006, she led the Environment and Schools Initiatives Secretariat (ENSI), an international government-based network set up by OECD focussing on Education for Sustainable Development.
Prof. Dr. Oya Beyan
Full Professor, Institute for Medical Informatics
University of Cologne
Prof. Dr. Oya Beyan is the director of the Medical Informatics Institute at the Medical Faculty of the University of Cologne.
Prof. Dr. Oya Beyan is the director of the Medical Informatics Institute at the Medical Faculty of the University of Cologne and leads a medical data integration center. Beyan’s research focuses on health data reusability, semantic interoperability, and data science with the goal of continuously improving health care through innovation and creating new knowledge. She focuses on the potential of data-driven medicine through the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning, without losing sight of fairness, equity, privacy, and confidentiality of individuals as well as social groups and communities.
Helena Biancuzzi
Independent Researcher
Ipazia Observatory on Gender Research / OncologyInMotion Twinning
Helena Biancuzzi, JD., is completing her Master’s Degree in business economics. In 2018-19, she was a research fellow at the Department of Economics and Statistics of the University of Udine, Italy. She is a Member of Ipazia, the Observatory on Gender Research. In 2019 and 2020, she was the winner of the European grant DigitaHealthEurope – in the context of Digital Single Market strategy. She authored several papers in the field of Public Management, particularly in the healthcare sector, co-production processes, and knowledge translation.
Strahil Birov
Research Consultant
empirica
Strahil Birov is the project manager of DigitalHealthEurope (DHE), with a special focus on facilitating the DHE twinning activities.
Strahil Birov is the project manager of DigitalHealthEurope (DHE), with a special focus on facilitating the DHE twinning activities among European healthcare providers, aimed as transferring knowledge and lessons learnt from one country to another. At empirica, Strahil has been involved in a wide variety of digital health projects and studies. His key work domains at empirica include policy development, public procurement of innovation (PCP, PPI) development of innovative ICT solutions (technical specifications, piloting and testing), impact assessment/cost-benefit analysis, market research, business modelling, process model development, online survey design and administration.
Benjamin Cid-Bourié
International Affairs Directorate
General Pharmaceutical Council of Spain
Benjamin Cid-Bourié is pharmacist in the International Affairs Directorate of the General Pharmaceutical Council of Spain.
Benjamin Cid-Bourié is pharmacist in the International Affairs Directorate of the General Pharmaceutical Council of Spain. Having joined the organisation in 2018, he is part of the DHE Twinning on CISMED, the information system that pharmacies have in Spain for reporting automatically and in real time the problems of short supply of medicines. Previously, he worked for the Council’s Medicines Information Centre where he was the primary source of information about the situation of medicines and medical devices. Benjamin was trained as a pharmacist at Universidad Complutense de Madrid and he holds a Master degree in market access.
Carina Dantas
International Projects Manager
ECHAlliance
Carina Dantas is CEO of SHINE 2Europe, Senior Project Manager for ECHAlliance.
Carina Dantas is CEO of SHINE 2Europe, Senior Project Manager for ECHAlliance, Management member of The Digital Health Society and member of the Standing Committee on Policy and Advocacy of the International Health Literacy Association. She is Chair of the COST Action NET4Age-Friendly, Coordinator of the Stakeholders Network on SHAFE and Vice-President of the European Covenant on Demographic Change. Carina is evaluator/reviewer for EC, Eureka, AAL, EIT Digital; member of the Expert Team developing the EU Ethics framework for the ICT Profession (CEN/CENELEC); Team Leader of expert  group designing the AAL Reference Guidelines for Ethics, Data Privacy and Security.
Prof. Dr. Andre Dekker
Full Professor “Clinical Data Science”
Maastricht University, Maastricht UMC+, Maastro Clinic
Andre Dekker, PhD (1974) is a medical physicist and professor of Clinical Data Science at Maastricht UMC+ and Maastro Clinic in The Netherlands.
Andre Dekker, PhD (1974) is a medical physicist and professor of Clinical Data Science at Maastricht UMC+ and Maastro Clinic in The Netherlands. His Clinical Data Science research group (40+ staff) focuses on 1) federated FAIR data infrastructures, 2) AI for health outcome prediction models and 3) applying AI to improve lives of patients and citizens. Prof. Dekker has authored over 170 publications, mentored more than 30 PhD students and holds multiple awards and patents on the topic of federated data and AI. He has held visiting scientist appointments at universities and companies in the UK, Australia, Italy, USA and Canada.
Nilsy Desaint
Director Public Policy Europe
MSD
Nilsy Desaint joined the global biopharmaceutical company MSD in early 2015 as Associate Director, Public Policy in Belgium.
Nilsy Desaint joined the global biopharmaceutical company MSD in early 2015 as Associate Director, Public Policy in Belgium, specialised in oncology policy and corporate communications. Prior to MSD, Nilsy was Communications Manager at the European Association for Bioindustries (EuropaBio). She started her career in Public Relations agencies in Brussels and Montreal (Canada), advising a wide range of corporate clients, not-for-profit organisations and international bodies in the health and agri-food sectors. In the EU public policy team based out of Brussels, Nilsy leads MSD’s engagement on EU vaccines policy and is the co-chair of the Vaccines Europe Public Affairs Working Group. Nilsy has followed various digital health files, from GDPR implementation to digital transformation of health care and AI.
Tomaz Gornik
Founder and CEO / Co-chair
Better / openEHR International
Tomaz has a proven track record of delivering innovative turn-key solutions for large clients in telecommunications, finance and healthcare.
As a company founder, CEO and experienced manager of teams building world-class software products for more than 30 years, Tomaz has a proven track record of delivering innovative turn-key solutions for large clients in telecommunications, finance and healthcare. He is a co-chair of the openEHR International Management Board and regularly speaks at international conferences including TeleManagement Forum, HIMSS, Health 2.0, Mobile World Congress, ReWired.
Donna Henderson
President
EHTEL
In January 2021, Donna was appointed as President of the European Health Telematics Association (EHTEL). 
In her role as Head of International Engagement, Donna leads the Scottish Government’s Digital Health and Care Directorate’s International Engagement Team.  The Team’s objectives are to enhance Scotland’s reputation as a leader in digital health and care, facilitate knowledge exchange between other countries and regions, and promote economic opportunities for Scotland. Donna has been actively involved in European projects since 2012 and was Chair of the EIP on AHA B3 Action Group on Integrated Care from 2015 to 2018.  She is currently Project Co-ordinator for the EU Health Programme funded project SCIROCCO Exchange which has developed an online self-assessment tool for regions to assess the maturity of their health and care systems for the adoption of integrated care. In January 2021, she was appointed as President of the European Health Telematics Association (EHTEL).  She was also proud to be recognised by HIMSS as a Future50 Class of 2021 Government Leader in May 2021.
Prof. Dr. Denis Horgan
Executive Director
European Alliance for Personalised Medicine
Prof. Denis Horgan was a policy advisor in the European Parliament and worked with various international NGOs on health development projects.
Prof. Denis Horgan, is a former Director of the European Cancer Patient Coalition, who was also a policy advisor in the European Parliament and worked with various international NGOs on health development projects. In addition, he has published over fifty academic articles related to the area of personalised medicine.  Today, Denis is the Editor in Chief of the journal entitled Public Health  Genomics and he is the  Executive Director from the European Alliance of Personalised Medicine (EAPM). The mix of EAPM members provides extensive scientific, clinical, caring and training expertise in personalised medicine and diagnostics, across patient groups, academia, health professionals and industry. Relevant departments of the European Commission have observer status, as does your own organisation, of course. In the relatively short time since it was formed, EAPM has been in the vanguard of raising the profile and explaining the possibilities of personalised medicine in Europe.   In recent years this has created an observable institutional shift in policy due to the issues that the Alliance has put forward through its multi-stakeholder membership and bottom-up policy making.
Dr. Maddalena Illario
Co-chair
European Reference Site Collaborative Network
MD, PhD, Maddalena Illario is endocrinologist, Associate Professor at Federico II Department of Public Health.
MD, PhD, Maddalena Illario is endocrinologist, Associate Professor at Federico II Department of Public Health, and Coordinator of the R&D Unit of Federico II Hospital. She is co-chair of the European Reference Site Collaborative Network and was coordinator of Campania Region Division for Health Innovation until July 2020. Maddalena has been involved in several projects focusing on the digital transformation of health and care and is currently national referent for the Cost Action CA19136 – NET4AGEFRIENDLY. Since May 2015, she has been coordinator of A3 of the Action Group on Prevention of Frailty and Functional Decline of the EIPonAHA. In addtion, is coordinator of Campania Reference Site of the European Partnership on Aging Healthy and Active.
Ivett Jakab
President
European Patients’ Forum Youth Group
Ivett Jakab is a patient advocate and health economics researcher currently serving as the President of the European Patients’ Forum Youth Group.
Ivett Jakab is a patient advocate and health economics researcher currently serving as the President of the European Patients’ Forum Youth Group.
Lasse Kaalby Møller
Grant Writer, Ph.D. Student
Odense Universitetshospital og Svendborg Sygehus, CCEResearchInfrastructure Twinning
Lasse Kaalby Møller is employed as both Ph.D. student and Grant Writer at the Department of Surgery at Odense University Hospital.
Lasse Kaalby Møller is employed as both Ph.D. student and Grant Writer at the Department of Surgery at Odense University Hospital. Besides his own epidemiological research in early detection of colorectal cancer, he is also heavily involved in the Colon Capsule Endoscopy (CCE) initiatives. These range from the large-scale clinical trial “CareforColon 2.015” to the research database “GAIA” including pursuing international collaborations. His work in these initiatives centers on data management, development and implementation of IT-solutions and research-related tasks. His Grant Writer responsibilities include project management and facilitation of our funding activities mainly focusing on large external grants, such as Horizon Europe.
Prof. Dr. Dipak Kalra
President
i~HD / Eurorec
Professor Dipak Kalra is President of the European Institute for Innovation through Health Data.
Professor Dipak Kalra is President of the European Institute for Innovation through Health Data, which promotes the learning health ecosystem by developing solutions to scale up the trustworthy uses health data. Dipak has led multiple European projects, and developed ISO standards, in EHR interoperability, data protection, business models and the reuse of EHRs for research. Current projects include generating real world evidence in pregnancy and several disease areas, the design and governance of patient-centric clinical trials, multi-stakeholder perspectives and governance recommendations on the European Health Data Space, the collection of outcomes by hospitals and promoting the value of research to the public.
Jesper Kjær
Director Data Analytics Centre
Danish Medicines Agency
Having worked in the academic environment and pharmaceutical industry, Jesper Kjær has 20+ years experience in his field.
Director of the Data Analytics Centre at the Danish Medicines Agency. 20+ years experience in data management, analyses and data visualisation having worked in the academic environment and pharmaceutical industry, and he has also developed IT systems for the World Health Organization (HIV viral genetics) and University Hospital of Copenhagen (AI supported treatment). Supported HIV observational research by leading the development of data and data management standards widely used globally (HICDEP: HIV Cohorts Exchange Protocol and HIV-DDM: HIV Distributed Data Management). He has also led the development of risk-based monitoring IT at a pharmaceutical company and has headed activities in EU Framework Programmes (EuroSIDA, EuroCoord, COHERE, CHAIN etc), TransCelerate Biopharma (Patient Technology, eSource) and HL7 (Project Vulcan). Currently the Data Analytics Centre and the Danish Medicines Agency is involved in establishing patient level data analysis of both RCT and RWD to support the regulatory processes.
Dr. Zoi Kolitsi
Digital Health Strategist
i~HD/Eurorec
seasoned digital health expert with 20y+ history of eHealth policy support including a decade in the Greek Public Health Administration.
PhD Med. Phys.   A seasoned digital health expert with 20y+ history of eHealth policy support including a decade in the Greek Public Health Administration as a senior policy advisor.  Currently, the Digital Health Strategist at the Institute of Innovation through Health Data (I~HD), deeply engaged in diverse aspects of digital innovation in healthcare and co-leading work on the common European Data Space within the Digital Health Europe (DHE) CSA.  From her early career as a hospital-based medical physicist and founding member of the Institute of Biomedical Technology (INBIT), she also brings into her work a broad health professional, biomedical technology and quality management experience and expertise.
Prof. Mark Lawler
Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Digital Health
Queen’s University Belfast / European Cancer Organisation
Mark is an internationally renowned scientist whose work has been recognised by numerous national and international awards.
Mark is an internationally renowned scientist whose work has been recognised by numerous national and international awards. He was architect of the European Cancer Patient’s Bill of Rights which received The 2018 European Health Award, a prestigious award for partnerships that yield real health impact in Europe.   Mark’s work on Covid-19 and its impact on cancer services and cancer patients has received international attention. He co-chairs E.C.O’s Special Focussed Network on  Covid-19 and cancer, which launched its 7-Point plan to Build Back Smarter from Covid. He co-leads E.C.O’s pan European Time To Act Campaign to ensure that Covid-19 does not stop us from tackling cancer.  This work recently received the prestigious Royal College of Physicians Excellence in Patient Care Award.
Dr. Niamh Lennox-Chhugani
Chief Executive
International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC)
Dr. Niamh Lennox has 30 years of experience in evidence-based transformation in healthcare internationally as a clinician, academic and consultant.
Dr Niamh Lennox-Chhugani is Chief Executive of the International Foundation for Integrated Care and has 30 years of experience in evidence-based transformation in healthcare internationally as a clinician, academic and consultant.  She has worked with many NHS Trust leadership teams over the last 20 years to develop and deliver meaningful and impactful strategies. She promotes co-production as a way to engage staff and local communities in successful strategy and implementation success. As a subject matter expert on integrated care as part of wider healthcare reform, she has spoken at conferences, on panels, written papers, contributed as part of international teams to health system reviews. She has a PhD from Imperial College London in organisation change in healthcare.
Campbell MacLeod
Surgical Research Fellow
NHS Highland
Campbell MacLeod is surgical trainee based in the North of Scotland.
Campbell MacLeod is surgical trainee based in the North of Scotland. He is currently undertaking a PhD with the University of Aberdeen researching colon capsule endoscopy. Campbell also works with the national ScotCap team to make colon capsule endoscopy available to patients in Scotland to improve waiting times and access to investigations. He has worked clinically across Scotland and has an interest in how to triage and prioritise patients for investigations.
David Magboulé
Founder
LabToMarket
Late 2017, David founded LabToMarket to help startups and researchers across Europe launch their products in the market.
With a degree in Biology (University of Nottingham, UK, 2004), David has over 15years experience across the full scope of the health sector.He started as a Pharma Sales Rep at ITF-Farma, then an internship as InternationalBusiness Developer in Imbiosis, a Spanish Biotech, David later became MarketingManager for Spain & Portugal for Medical Imaging company Carestream in 2008. In2013 he moved to FUJIFILM’s ultrasound company, SonoSite. Since 2014, he’s beenworking as a strategy consultant for several industries.Late 2017, David founded LabToMarket to help startups and researchers acrossEurope launch their products in the market.
Dr. Rosana Magalhães
Clinical Research Assistant, Medical Writer, Rater/Psychologist in Clinical Studies
2CA-Braga (Clinical Academic Center – Braga)
Rosana Magalhães is a rater (clinical psychologist) in pharmaceutical industry clinical trials at Centro Clínico Académico in Braga.
Rosana Magalhães has a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Minho, with experience in the field of Neuropsychology. She is passionate about the human brain and its complex relationship with human behavior. Since 2017, she has been a rater (clinical psychologist) in pharmaceutical industry clinical trials at Centro Clínico Académico in Braga (Portugal). Her great interest in clinical research has lead her to dedicate much of her time to researcher-driven projects at this center, where she is also responsible for tasks as a medical writer and clinical research assistant. Her work is devoted to improve clinical research. 
Dr. José Martinez-Usero
European Projects
FUNKA
José Usero has extensive experience as project coordinator of European projects and several major European studies.
José Usero has extensive experience as project coordinator of European projects and several major European studies on the fields of eGovernment, eInclusion and AHA (Active and Healthy Ageing). Jose Usero has a PhD in Egov interoperability technologies and he is author of several books on ICT related topics and a wide range of scientific publications. From 2013, he is holding the position of Responsible for European Projects at FUNKA. He is also the coordinator of the H2020 Coordination Action supporting the EC in the management of the EIPonAHA and fully involved in many innovation and policy initiatives around digital transformation of health and care.
Dr. Henrique Martins
Associate Professor in Health Management, Leadership and Digital Health
University Beira Interior / University Institute of Lisbon
Henrique Martins is Associate Professor in Health Management, Leadership and Digital Health at University Beira Interior and ISCTE.
Henrique Martins, MD, PhD, MLaw, FIAHSI is Associate Professor in Health Management, Leadership and Digital Health at University Beira Interior and University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE). He is the past co-chair of the eHealth Network and was president of SPMS, Portugal’s Digital Health Agency for about 7 years. He is now co-leading ISCTE-HEALTH, member of several advisory boards, and member of the Board of Directors of HL7 Europe Foundation. He provides independent consultancy in Digital Health to International Organisations and Projects.
Lyudmil Ninov
Senior Programme Officer
European Patients’ Forum
Lyudmil Ninov joined the EPF team in April 2017 and currently has the role of Senior Programme Officer.
Lyudmil Ninov joined the EPF team in April 2017 and currently has the role of Senior Programme Officer. At EPF he oversees project development, planning and costs monitoring for H2020 and IMIprojects: COMPAR-EU, DigitalHealthEurope, H2O, PERISCOPE and PERMIT. Lyudmil holds a Bachelor degree in European Studies from the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” in Bulgaria and a Master degree in European Studies from the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands. Prior to joining EPF, Lyudmil spent most of his professional time working in the healthcare sector for the International Diabetes Federation’s head office in Brussels, managing various diabetes-related international projects. In EPF he has several key topics of expertise such as: self-management, patient involvement & digital health.
Sara Riggare
Patient Researcher
Uppsala University
Sara Riggare (MSc, PhD cand) is a patient leader and patient researcher at Uppsala University, Sweden
Sara Riggare (MSc, PhD cand) is a patient leader and patient researcher at Uppsala University, Sweden. In her work and research, she combines her engineering training with her experiences from managing Parkinson’s disease for over 35 years. Her research is focused on personal science, self-tracking, Quantified Self, and patient-led research.
Nick Schneider
Head of Division – New technologies and data use
German Federal Ministry of Health
Nick Schneider leads the division on new technologies and data use at the German Federal Ministry of Health.
Nick Schneider leads the division on new technologies and data use at the German Federal Ministry of Health and is a passionate advocate for the EHDS and trustworthy AI for the benefit of EU citizens. He was born and raised in Latin America and studied medicine in Heidelberg. After health advocacy and research activity in Brussels, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the German Cancer Research Center, he joined the German Federal Ministry of Health, where he inter alia coordinated the negotiations to the EU General Data Protection Regulation and its implementation into health law on federal level.
Gözde Susuzlu Briggs
Project Coordinator
Data Saves Lives / European Patients’
Gözde is project coordinator for #datasaveslives initiative and digital health and health data related Horizon and IMI projects at EPF.
Gözde worked as a Web and Online Service Manager for 6 years at an international organisation in Belgium, Brussels. Prior to that, she worked at the same organisation as a communications assistant and managed website and online service projects. Back to business since March 2019 as a project coordinator for #datasaveslives initiative and digital health and health data related Horizon and IMI projects at European Patients’ Forum.
Jon Switters
European Project Manager
FUNKA
Since joining FUNKA, Jon Switters has specialised in European research and innovation projects in the field of digital health and accessibility.
Jon has over 15 years of experience in project management starting off his career at Pricewaterhouse Coopers (Madrid) working as a business consultant on projects with the Spanish Ministry of Housing, Banco Santander and Telefónica. For the past 10 years, Jon has been working as an EU project manager, collaborating with Malaga City Council for 6 years on EU funded sustainable development projects within the city and region. Since joining FUNKA, he has specialised in European research and innovation projects in the field of digital health and accessibility, helping to promote a more inclusive society.
Mathieu Thébaud
Manager
REHABLAB4ALL
For the past three years, Mathieu Thébaud has been the Kerpape REHAB-LAB manager.
Mathieu Thébaud is an IT engineer in computer science, with 3 years of experience in a software company in France. He works in the Electronic Lab of Kerpape as a R&D engineer. He is currently involved in PREDICT4ALL as the research engineer responsible for the development of an adapted word prediction in augmentative and alternative communication systems, with previous experiences in assistive software development. For the past three years, he has also been the Kerpape REHAB-LAB manager.
Dr. Rainer Thiel
Head of ICT Innovation in Health & Director
empirica
Dr. Rainer Thiel is Head of ICT Innovation in Health and Director of empirica.
Dr. Rainer Thiel is Head of ICT Innovation in Health and Director of empirica. He has an academic and applied sciences background in both policy studies/comparative political systems research and in socio-economic impact assessment with a focus on health systems and health technologies. He has been leading work packages on market research, deployment strategies and business modelling for a multitude of H2020 RIA on Artificial Intelligence in Health, with project budgets up to €15 Mill. For regulatory impact assessment studies commissioned by DG Santé and the European Medicines Agency, Dr. Thiel has managed and developed evaluation methodologies. A member of Health Technology Assessment International (HTAi), he has been publishing about validation and economic assessment frameworks for the application to innovative and disruptive health technologies and ICT Infostructures.
Danny van Roijen
Digital Health Director
COCIR
Danny Van Roijen is Digital Health Director at COCIR, the leading industry voice in Europe on digital health.
Danny van Roijen is Digital Health Director at COCIR, the leading industry voice in Europe on digital health representing the medical imaging, radiotherapy, electromedical and health IT industries. Coordinating the association’s digital health activities Danny focuses on European policy making, covering topics such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data protection, interoperability and mHealth. Danny is a member of the European Commission’s eHealth Stakeholder Group as well as the Stakeholder Cybersecurity Certification Group. On behalf of COCIR, Danny is chairing the Healthcare working group within the International Association for Trusted Blockchain Application (INATBA).
Steven Vermeulen
Chief Information & Infrastructure Officer
EBRAINS
Steven is a seasoned executive with more than 25 years of experience in different sectors, including healthcare and telecoms.
Steven is a seasoned executive with more than 25 years of experience in different sectors. He worked in telecoms, space, media, advertising, logistics and healthcare. Throughout a career that started as a scientist and evolved into technical (software), management and even marketing and sales roles, the common thread has been introducing and applying new technologies in the market. Steven has taken leading roles in several internal start-ups in large companies and has done a MBO of a company in France. Recently he has been involved in applying his experience in digital transformation and data projects in several SMEs in Belgium. In EBRAINS he is responsible for the infrastructure and thus able to combine his 2 passions: science and technology.
Diane Whitehouse
Principal eHealth Policy Consultant
EHTEL
As EHTEL’s Principal eHealth Policy Consultant, Diane Whitehouse is involved in digitally health-related projects.
Diane Whitehouse is EHTEL’s Principal eHealth Policy Analyst. Through EHTEL, she is involved in digitally health-related projects, such as DigitalHealthEurope – which explored patient-centred care in detail, SCIROCCOExchange, and vCare. Among its wide-ranging interests in health data and digital, EHTEL now focuses on hybrid care (mixed face-to-face and virtual health and care appointments) and explores hospitalisation at home and care at home settings. Until February 2007, Diane was a Scientific Officer in the ‘ICT for Health’ Unit of the European Commission’s General Directorate Connect and worked previously on ageing and social inclusion. 
Dr. Petra Wilson
Director
Health Connect Partners
Petra Wilson is co-founder and managing director of Health Connect Partners, a boutique consultancy on health policy.
Petra Wilson is co-founder and managing director of Health Connect Partners, a boutique consultancy which focusses primarily on helping clients understand the European health policy environment. Current projects being undertaken by Health Connect Partners include the review of cross-border patient mobility for the European Commission and supporting the development of a governance framework for the European Health Data Space. In addition, Petra also acts a senior advisor on health and life sciences at FTI Consulting and is engaged as EU Programme Director for the Personal Connected Health Alliance (a HIMSS innovation company).
Dr. Oscar Zanutto
Senior Project Manager
FABER
Dr. Oscar Zanutto (1972) is a psychologist of work and organizations. He has been working in ISRAA since 2000, nowadays coordinating FABER.
Dr. Oscar  Zanutto (1972) is a psychologist of work and organizations. He has been working in ISRAA since 2000, nowadays coordinating FABER, an Innovation Hub dedicated to EU-Projects on social innovation. He is the Senior Project Manager in several Italian national projects for the elderly funded by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. His skills are European projects management, organizational service design of care delivery for seniors. He also works as a consultant for social innovation projects for care provider organizations in the adoption of ICT solutions into new business care models. He is also a trainer in University Masters programmes for psychologists managed by Padua University. He is the author of “La leadership in RSA”, and “La Bussiness Intelligence in RSA” Maggioli Editore (2013).
Dr. Oliver Zobell
Programme Manager
Project Management Jülich
Since 2019, Oliver is partaking in EU project DigitalHealthEurope, focusing mainly on re-using health data for research.
After receiving his PhD in molecular biology from the University of Cologne, Oliver worked in academic research for several years. He then moved to the European Commission, to support EU politics in the area of bioanalytics standardisation. Since 2015, he is working at the Project Management Jülich, a leading German research funding agency within the Research Centre Jülich. He has managed publicly funded research programs on infectious diseases and microbiological resources, with particular focus on international cooperation. Since 2019, Oliver is partaking in EU project DigitalHealthEurope, focusing mainly on re-using health data for research.

Organisation Team

Carola Schulz
Research Consultant
empirica
Jessica Paul
Research Consultant
empirica
Tino Marti
eHealth Project Officer
EHTEL
Diane Whitehouse
Principal eHealth Policy Consultant
EHTEL
Chrysoula Mitta
Associate Director
The Lisbon Council
Charlotte Fabricius
Research Consultant
empirica
Alexander Cuartas-Acosta
European Projects Assistant
empirica
Daniel Schmidtmann
Research Consultant
empirica
Ingrid Weindorfer
European Projects Assistant
empirica
Anna Oleneva
European Projects Assistant
empirica
Francisca Leite
European Projects Assistant
empirica
Dr. Veli Stroetmann
Director
empirica
Strahil Birov
Research Consultant
empirica

Outcomes

The 12 sessions over the 3 days of the DHE Summit provided a platform for very rich expert discussions around on-the-ground digital transformation experiences, health data sharing governance models, federated systems, citizen empowerment, European Data Spaces and many other topics.

Find out what happened each day in a nutshell:

Day 1

On Day 1 speakers reflected on what fundamental conditions are necessary for digital health and care to flourish. DHE twinning representatives reported on their success stories, how they managed to adopt innovative solutions, fostered co-creation, co-design with patients and overcame standardised data collection challenges across Europe. DHE partner networks took stock of horizontal and vertical challenges of scaling-up, knowledge sharing and capacity building in a sustainable way, as well as the skills and capacities necessary to overcome the challenges incurred.

Read Day 1 summary

Day 2

On Day 2 panellists discussed about patient-centred and data-driven health and care. Useful hints, ideas and advice were shared on how to empower and engage with citizens. Participants got an insight into citizen’s willingness to share their health data. We heard about data activism movement and how to foster it. Finally, arguments were presented why and how federated datasets can contribute to more accurate AI algorithms and machine learning.

Read Day 2 summary

Day 3

Day 3’s principal scope was debates around the European Health Data Space (EHDS). The audience received an update on the status of the EHDS from the European Commission, furthermore a future outlook concerning EU and Member States’ collaboration in the field of health and how Europe can leverage the experience from the COVID crisis.

Read Day 3 summary