Colleagues from HeRC joined an international line-up of prestigious speakers to discuss open innovation and future healthcare at the inaugural Digital Health Assembly.
Over three days (10-12 February, 2015) South Wales became the epicentre of open innovation in digital healthcare as 300 delegates from 20 countries descended on the city for the first annual Digital Health Assembly.
Organised by eHealth Industries Innovation (ehi2) and featuring The Farr Institute, the conference saw HeRC Reader in Health Informatics Dr Niels Peek join speakers from MIT’s Center for Digital Business, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Space Agency alongside top-level representatives from Siemens, IBM and CISCO.
In a packed programme that was split across three central themes of ‘Big Data’, ‘Empowering Patients and Staff’, and ‘Innovative Business Models’ the conference was designed to reflect the insights and experiences that are helping to drive efficiency in modern healthcare systems.
Dr Peek presented his research on computerised decision support management for chronic diseases to a full house as part of the ‘Big Data’ theme. Addressing issues of chronic disease management in an aging population Dr Peek showed how state-of-the-art computer systems can be programmed to automate alerts and reminders, give recommendations for suitable therapies and monitor a patient’s progression towards pre-determined health goals.
Dr Peek was later joined by HeRC Director Professor Iain Buchan, Professor Brendan Delaney from Kings College London, Chris Roche, Chief Commercial Officer at Aridhia and John Crawford from IBM Europe in a panel discussion in front a conference-wide live audience.
Discussing the challenges and opportunities that big data presents for digital healthcare, subjects discussed ranged from a need to move conversations away from big data to big sense-making. Other hot topics that were covered in the discussion included the ability of big data to develop a more personalised approach to healthcare delivery, the importance of creating learning health systems and the need to create trust, transparency and traction when using big data in health research. The session was brought to a conclusion with an energised debate on the use of electronic health records in eResearch.
Speaking at the end of the conference Professor David Ford, Conference Chair and Deputy Director of The Farr Institute @CIPHER said: “The Digital Health Assembly: Open Innovation conference has brought together a diverse and extremely impressive collection of innovative minds from the healthcare and technology sectors worldwide. The interest in the Conference and the calibre of the delegates and speakers that we have attracted is a great reflection of this exciting and important area of work”.
Planning will soon begin for the 2016 Digital Health Assembly.
Ends
For more information please contact:
Stephen Melia, Communications Officer, Tel: 0161 306 7876, Mobile: 07757 310213, Email: stephen.melia@manchester.ac.uk