Paving a new, harmonized approach to the digital transformation of health systems in Europe and beyond, the World Health Organization European Regional Office and HIMSS jointly held a workshop for European countries at the European Health Conference & Exhibition on June 7 in Lisbon, Portugal.
WHO/Europe and HIMSS coached representatives from member countries in a session. They discussed how to design country-level action plans with measurable outcomes and identify current strategic assets to advance digital health. WHO/Europe and HIMSS last year cosigned a landmark Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on this goal. The workshop was a follow-up to an introductory virtual workshop held on May 24.
“The workshop has helped identify where the countries are on their digital health journey — whether they’re brand new to it, they’re in the middle of it, or are very advanced,” said Tom Leary, HIMSS senior vice president and head of government relations. “We can help them identify the market suppliers and who they can talk to, these nuance issues, to get them the absolute highest level that they can achieve, given the resources each nation has.”
WHO echoed the sentiment.
“This workshop has been useful to take stock of the progress achieved so far by these countries, but also have an open discussion on the challenges ahead of us,” said David Novillo Ortiz, Ph.D., regional adviser on digital health at WHO/Europe. “We need to be more open about how we address weak points in our shared efforts to integrate digital tools into health care, mainly related to better monitoring of digital health for policy decision-making and ensuring that we use digital solutions without leaving anyone behind.”
The WHO/Europe and HIMSS MoU supports implementing the regional digital health action plan for the WHO European Region 2023-2030 that was endorsed by WHO/Europe Member States last September. WHO/Europe and HIMSS have co-designed a Senior Health Leaders Orientation Programme for Digital Health, a series of three new and innovative workshops to build knowledge and capacity for developing and managing national data and digital health ecosystems.
HIMMS LAUNCHES GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS
HIMSS, an international advocate for digital healthcare transformation, is launching its Global Headquarters in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. HIMSS made the announcement at the HIMSS23 European Health Conference & Exhibition on June 8 in Lisbon, Portugal.
“Rotterdam is known as the ‘Gateway to the world’ and our new headquarters will help us better serve our constituents in Europe and around the world,” said HIMSS President and CEO Hal Wolf. “Our Global Headquarters underscores our ongoing commitment to reforming the global health ecosystem. I am proud of our accomplishment and excited about the future.”
Augmenting the Rotterdam location, the HIMSS Americas Headquarters is in Chicago and the U.S. is also home to six satellite offices. For its Asia-Pacific reach, HIMSS has a base in Singapore. HIMSS holds its flagship events each year in North America, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Europe. It is a thought leader, advisor and provider of solutions worldwide in analytics and maturity, innovation, professional development and research.
The Rotterdam headquarters gives HIMSS access to an expanding group of members and colleagues across the world, notably the World Health Organization, European Region. HIMSS entered into a Memorandum of Understanding in 2022 with WHO/E to accelerate adoption of digital health solutions.
The Netherlands is also excited about its latest international organization to call it home base.
“We warmly welcome the HIMSS’ choice of the Netherlands as its global headquarters,” said Abigail Norville, deputy secretary general of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport of The Netherlands and vice chair of the Global Digital Health Partnership. “Digital health is key to addressing the huge challenges facing health care today. This creates an extra opportunity for us to be at the center of the global digital health strategy.”
Plans for the global headquarters have been in the works since before the worldwide pandemic, and it gives HIMSS a more robust physical presence in a dynamic, diverse and centrally located European city. Rotterdam is also home to Erasmus University Rotterdam, a highly ranked international research university that conducts health information technology research. HIMSS also has regional offices in London, Berlin and Leipzig, Germany.
