news
October 2013
Preliminary report on the European Health Forum Gastein 2013
The 16th edition of the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG) held under the main title of “Resilient and Innovative Health Systems for Europe” in the Gastein valley from 2nd to 4th October 2013 explored the relationship between austerity policies and necessary innovations in health care systems in order to keep them resilient.
- What are the key strategies to make health systems resilient?
- What are the most important innovations to promote health system performance and resilience?
- How can decision-makers best introduce and implement these innovations?
Key areas to target in order to make health systems resilient are policies, prevention and governance. There seemed to be a general consensus that consistent and sustainable policies were needed to make health systems more resilient. Furthermore, a need for a renewed commitment to health in all policies was called for. Another prominent outcome was a call for a good balance between regulations and patient involvement with the aim of putting patients at the center of care and using patient centered outcomes as the basis for evaluating health care performance. Also regarding prevention, the objective is a cross-sectoral sustainable model in order to enable and promote change.
Governance as a key dimension in creating resilient health systems was a recurring theme. Economic governance calls for health system reforms that ensure cost-effectiveness, sustainability and assess performance for the best use of public resources while keeping them transparent and ensuring accessibility as well as solidarity. A need for “tailor-made” governance structures was expressed in a session where conceptual dimensions of governance, such as transparency and participation were stressed as the foundation for the decision-making of health policy makers.
As the Greek Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiades said in the Opening Plenary: “This is not a crisis, this is the new reality”.
Concerning the most important developments needed for resilient health systems, three areas were identified: governance, technological and social innovations.
Regarding governance, a need to remove barriers between sectors was expressed whereby the crisis could also be seen as a window of opportunity to translate improved health policies into practice. This was picked up in the main theme of the EHFG 2012, “Crisis and Opportunity – Health in an Age of Austerity” and could include measures implemented jointly with other sectors which have a decisive impact on health. i.e. education, environment or employment. Also, we should harness evidence for policy decision-making and not neglect the potential benefits of task shifts and skill mixes. This seems to be important especially when strengthening primary care services.
Innovation in information technology ideally supplies accessible data in real-time to implement strategies faster. A need to discuss and assess the impact of these new technologies was called for, and innovative approaches were discussed in several sessions during the EHFG 2013 in a parallel forum on mHealth and a workshop on Big Data. Furthermore, Health Technology Assessment should not only performed once for new technologies, but be repeated over time - especially in times of financial constraint.
Social innovations should work towards breaking down the barriers mentioned above, such as between health professionals in order to rethink working routines in the health sector. We should also look into innovations that give more empowerment and support to patients and specifically to vulnerable groups during times of crisis. Innovations related to behaviour changes are the most challenging though crucial to implement as we need resilient people in order to foster and promote resilient innovation.
Patients, care, technology, assessment and involvement were the terms mentioned most frequently by the EHFG 2013 participants in response to the question of the most important innovations.
What advice should we give to policy makers regarding the implementation of these innovations? It is vital to understand that the three pillars do not work independently from each other. For technological innovation to support sustainable and resilient healthcare systems for Europe, governance reforms and social innovations are needed.
What was noted as being essential was the basic willingness for change and a continuous demonstration of improvements. Keywords which were mentioned prominently in this context: education, support, evidence, reform, leadership and change.
We need leadership to implement the ‘old and new’ measures to redefine the way we consider health by including the patient, the health professional, and the population as a whole. We also need an agenda to communicate the value of the reform sustained by information and good evidence, so that we can have a different approach to change.
