17-19 November 2020 [email protected]

General Call for Abstracts

The General Call for abstracts is closed. With these sub-themes, we would like to continue and foster the discussion launched in Finland during #EHMA2019 addressing six ‘pillars’ of healthcare change in Europe and beyond. These six pillars – strongly interconnected and interdependent – will guide all debates and aspects of #EHMA2020, from the call for abstracts to the plenaries, from the interactive discussions to the partners’ sessions. For each sub-theme, one “focus area” has been identified to be put in the spotlight at the #EHMA2020, but each sub-theme also has a wider range of keywords and topics worthy of further discussion.

SPECIAL CALL for Abstract: COVID-19 and health management

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to show the importance of bringing experts together, exchanging practices and finding shared answers to tackle key public health issues.

The EHMA 2020 conference will provide participants with relevant contents that reflect the current developments in the global health ecosystem. For this reason, we have published a new call for abstracts specifically focusing on COVID-19 and health management. 


PhD Student’s session

Abstracts could have also been submitted under the Karolinska Medical Management Centre / EHMA Research Award (PhD Students’ session). The best papers submitted under this category will have the opportunity to compete for a € 1.000 prize during a dedicated session at the EHMA 2020 Annual Conference. Candidates should be young researchers in the final phase of their PhD studies or have recently completed a PhD. Only the PhD students may present the abstract (supervisors are not allowed to present the papers on behalf on their students). Abstracts do not have to be linked to the Conference theme but must be associated with a doctoral thesis in the field of health policy and management.

Criteria for Abstracts Grading

  1. State of Completion: The abstract must show substantial results indicating that the work has been or is nearly completed.
  2. Novelty: The abstract must contain innovative information and/or cutting-edge results or present a new topic or application in the field of interest; it should be attractive and/or provocative for a discussion with the audience.
  3. Advancement of field: The abstract should present a significant contribution to the field, and the authors must specify how the paper will contribute to the development of global knowledge.
  4. Quality: The quality of an abstract will be considered as an indication of the quality of the final presentation by the reviewers. Authors should prepare their abstracts with care, making sure that the reader will understand the background of the issue(s) and the objectives of the presentation.
  5. Relevance: Abstracts must be concise and coherent. Each abstract should state clearly its focus and its relevance to an international audience.

Notifications of Results

All notifications for the General Call for Abstracts were sent out by the beginning of April 2020. We will inform you whether your abstract has been rejected or accepted for the SPECIAL CALL on COVID-19 by mid July.

Please note the email address that you provide in the submission form will be used to inform you of the results of your submission. If you change email address after your submission, please contact the EHMA Secretariat at [email protected]. If the person who submitted the abstract is not the one who will be presenting, please add their email address.

Awards & Publications

During the EHMA 2020 Annual Conference the following awards will be assigned:

Papers presented at the EHMA 2020 Annual Conference are eligible for fast-track acceptance to a special issue of Health Services Management Research (HSMR) Journal. HSMR is a highly respected international peer-reviewed journal that publishes rigorous theoretical and empirical research on matters of interest to healthcare organisations and systems throughout the world. 

The process for publication in the HSMR Journal is the following:

  1. If authors are interested in being published in the HSMR Journal, they must select the appropriate box in the submission form. 
  2. The HSMR Journal Editor and Editorial Board will pre-select abstracts for consideration and further revision. 
  3. The authors of pre-selected abstracts will then be contacted to submit their full articles to be considered for publication according to HSMR guidelines.

Please note that the selection for publication in the HSMR Journal is independent of the general abstract assessment; evaluation is performed by different Committees. Pre-selection for publication in the HSMR Journal does not necessarily guarantee publication. The HSMR Journal Editor and Editorial Board are the only ones entitled to decide whether a pre-selected article will be published in the HSMR Journal. 

There is no obligation for your abstract to be considered for publication in the HSMR Journal. If you do not wish to be considered for publication, DO NOT tick the box when expressively asked by the Submission System.