EHMA 2020 Conference Programme

Opening Session – Health Management: realigning systems, contexts and players

Welcome to #EHMA2020!

The EHMA Conference is the place for today’s and tomorrow’s healthcare leaders to learn and share experiences through interactive workshops, scientific presentations, and engaging debates. The Conference brings together Europe’s health managers to spread knowledge on innovative practices and excellent delivery of healthcare to ensure the health and well-being for Europe’s citizens and communities.

Institutional greetings:

• Prof. Federico Lega, outgoing President, EHMA

For the EHMA 2020 Co-hosts:

• Prof. Dr. Kees Ahaus, Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management
• Dr. Ernst Kuipers, Erasmus Medical Center
• Col. Henk Van der Wal, Ministry of Defence of The Netherlands

For the European Commission:

• Ms. Maya Matthews, Head of Unit Performance of Health Systems, Directorate-General Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE)

Alternative Payment Methods: Showcasing the Dutch Experiences

Hosted by Erasmus University Rotterdam

In the Dutch healthcare system of regulated market competition, competing health insurers contract with health providers in order to secure healthcare services for their insurees against the best possible conditions (quality, cost, accessibility). In order to accomplish these objectives, insurers experiment with alternative payment methods, such as bundled payments, shared savings agreements, and value-based payments. In this session, the speakers will share their experiences with alternative payment methods in the Dutch system. We will discuss these experiences from the perspectives of regulators and advisory bodies (NZa, RIVM), from health insurers (VGZ, Menzis) and from the perspective of scientific research.

Speakers:

• Dr. Misja Mikkers, Professor at Tilburg University & Chief Economist at NZa, The Netherlands
• Dr. Jeroen Struijs, Associate Professor at Leiden University Medical Center & Senior Researcher at RIVM, The Netherlands
• Marit Tanke, MD, PhD, Director of Strategy and Innovation at Coöperatie VGZ, The Netherlands
• Dr. Arthur Hayen, Senior Intelligence Analist at Menzis & Senior Lecturer at Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands
• Dr. Frank Eijkenaar, Associate Professor at Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Moderator:

• Prof. Erik van Raaij, Professor at Rotterdam School of Management and Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Value-Based Healthcare: What, How and Why

Hosted by University of Groningen

In this session, we will discuss the topic of Value-Based Healthcare (VBHC) from various perspectives.

During the session, we will provide several ‘provocative’ statements to kick-start the discussion. We aim for an open discussion where both panel members and the audience are free to express their ideas and opinions. Ultimately, this session should lead to a better understanding of what value-based healthcare is in the European setting, and how and why value-based healthcare is adopted by European healthcare providers.

Speakers:

• Dr. Esther Metting, Assistant  Professor  at  the  University of Groningen, The Netherlands
• Dr. Oskar Roemeling, Assistant  Professor  at  the  University  of  Groningen,  The Netherlands
• Ewoud Stapersma, MSc, Project Leader at Wilhelmina Hospital, The Netherlands
• Dr. Marjolein van Offenbeek, Assistant  Professor  at  the  University  of  Groningen,  The Netherlands
• Daan Westra, MSc., Assistant Professor at Maastricht University, The Netherlands

Horizon 2030: seven universal trends for future care

Hosted by NVTZ

During the session, we will have an interactive discussion on the seven universal trends for future care. In non-specific order, topics that will be addressed are: co-creation, right scale, living longer at home, less is more, fair and balanced remuneration, person-centred and positive health.

Speakers:

• Marius Buiting, Director, NVTZ, The Netherlands
• Matthijs Zwier, Quartermaker, NVTZ, The Netherlands

Vaccination and health systems sustainability: how to prioritise vaccines investment in a post-COVID world

Hosted by Sanofi Pasteur

Preventative approaches are fundamental in reducing the burden of preventable diseases. Historically European health systems have effectively prevented the spread of diseases and save costs through vaccination and immunisation programs. Nevertheless, more efforts are needed to systematically increase the reach of vaccination benefits across all communities throughout the EU Member States.  

Continuing the conversation around the role of vaccination on promoting sustainable health systems and securing sufficient budget allocation to vaccination is paramount to reaching this goal. This session will identify best practices in budgeting for vaccination and highlight a case study on the impacts of increasing national vaccination budgetary allocation. 

Speakers:

• Dr. Cristian-Silviu Buşoi, Member of the European Parliament, Romania
• Francesca Colombo, M.Sc., Head of the Health Division at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, France
• Dr. Dimitra Panteli, Programme Manager, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Belgium
• Prof. Carlo Signorelli, MD, PhD, Professor of Hygiene and Public Health at the University of Parma and at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele of Milan, Italy
• Tim Wilsdon, MSc, Vice-President Charles River Associates (CRA), UK

Moderator:

• Silvia Romeo, Project Manager, Young Coalition for Prevention and Vaccination, ThinkYoung, Belgium

Leading healthcare in a challenging environment

Lessons learnt from the COVID-19 crisis and the role of health management in the new normal

How is the COVID-19 pandemic shaping the future of health management? European healthcare has been put to the test by the COVID-19 crisis as never before. Already strained health systems are experiencing even more pressure and new vulnerabilities are surfacing. National health systems, hospitals, Governments and the entire health workforce have worked tirelessly to deliver emergency responses in a forever changing environment, and with many uncertainties. Although the initial shock is passing, the barrage of health management challenges are only increasing.

What are the next phases to ensure accessible and quality healthcare for everyone? How can we move out of this emergency response into a more stable phase? And what will health management look like in the post-COVID scenarios?

Keynote:

• Dr. Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, Director of the Division of Country Health Policies and Systems, WHO Europe

Speakers:

• Dr. Liisa Maria Voipio-Pulkki, Director General of Strategic Affairs and Chief Medical Officer at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland
• Dr. Aleksandra Torbica, Director, Centre for Research on Health and Social Care Management (CERGAS) & Special Advisor to the Chair of the WHO Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development, Italy
• Dr. Marjolein Tasche, Board member SFVG hospital and Board member Netherlands Hospital Union

Moderator:

• George Valiotis, Interim Executive Director, EHMA

Environmental sustainability in the health sector: a shared ambition and collective efforts

Hosted by MSD

The session will touch upon the topic of environmental sustainability in health systems, starting with the existing regulatory processes in place as well as current policy discussions down to the concrete implementation and actions by all stakeholders involved: industry, healthcare organisations, healthcare professionals, patients. Particular attention will be given to Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), described by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as “an increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all government sectors and society”.

Panel Discussion on ‘The Green Deal as the EU approach to implement the SDGs: how can the health – and pharma – sector contribute?’

• Dr. Kirsty Reid, Director Science Policy at EFPIA, Belgium
• Mr. Ferenc Marofka – DG SANTE, European Commission
• Ms. Jess McNamara, Vice-President of European Affairs
  at EPSA – European Pharmaceutical Students Association, Belgium

Panel Discussion on ‘Fighting against AMR: taking a science based and global approach to reduce the impact of antimicrobials on the environment’

• Dr Aimee Murray, NERC Innovation Fellow, Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, UK
• Mr. Kawaldip Sehmi, Chief Executive Officer, International Alliance of Patients’ Organisations (IAPO), UK
• Joan Griffith Tell, PhD, Director of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences, Corporate Product Stewardship and Science Group of Global Safety and the Environment, MSD, USA

Resilient health systems: evidence from the State of Health in the EU Country profiles

The idea of resilient health systems has been gaining traction among policymakers and is now particularly cogent in the wake of the challenges that countries are facing in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. In this workshop, we will present the resilience framework that was first developed three years ago and applied in the State of Health in the EU (SoHEU) Country Profiles. We will also discuss subsequent new work on health system resilience that is being undertaken by the SoHEU partners.

The Country Profiles are a joint initiative between the European Commission, the OECD, and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. They assess a country’s health system, looking at its effectiveness, accessibility, and resilience. During the workshop the presenters will briefly introduce the SoHEU cycle and then explain that the resilience framework used in the 2019 Profiles adopts a broader definition of resilience, covering the ability to respond to extreme shocks as well as measures to address more predictable and chronic health system strains, such as population ageing or multimorbidity. The framework consists of three dimensions, and their associated policy entry points and a list of indicators and policy measures, as building blocks for fostering resilience. Based on this framework, we will present the results of an audit of the most common health system resilience strategies and challenges identified from the 30 Country Profiles published in 2019.

A Panel discussion will follow, showcasing a variety of new work on resilience being done by the European Commission, OECD, and the Observatory. These new contributions to understanding resilience take into account the impact of, and country responses to, the Covid-19 pandemic, the most recent significant shock to health systems in Europe and globally. Panellists will highlight how policy-relevant elements of this new work can feed into improving the analysis and the evidence-base generated in the next editions of the Country Profiles for 2021.

Speakers:

• Guillaume Dedet, OECD
• Josep Figueras, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
• Anna Maresso, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
• Federico Pratellesi, European Commission, Directorate General SANTE
• Anna Sagan, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies

Moderator:

• Ewout van Ginneken, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies

A fresh look at hospitals: where do they fit in healthcare systems?

Hosted by Radboudumc

Health and healthcare systems in European countries and elsewhere are perpetually stressed – with rising demand and technical capabilities, yet always limited available resources. Within health systems, the institutions and facilities called ‘hospitals’ appear dominant, both in their delivery capability and costs incurred. Is this a problem? Should care delivery and resources be redirected to the primary level, and would good public health measures remove the need for such extensive health repair functions anyway? A group of authors from government, academia, finance and consultancy has recently completed a book offering some fresh thoughts on this (A. Durán & S. Wright (eds.), c, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).

What are hospitals?

The book at its heart is a polemic, seeking to reframe policy discussions on hospitals. It sets out a construct which links social concepts (governance), healthcare ones (models of care) and economic ones (business models). In this view, healthcare services turn expensive economic resources – people, buildings/equipment, energy, materials – into care. Hospitals concentrate the use and cost of these resources, and are characterised by their preponderant endowment of physical and human capital. Hospitals choose, or are assigned, certain parts of care packages within those of the wider healthcare system. They are organised to do this via implicit or explicit business models which, despite casual reasoning, may or may not duly get disrupted. These business models necessarily incorporate care models – the physical processes that patients follow, inside and outside the walls. The activity needs to be governed, far beyond just management. There are intimate connections between the proposed framework, and ownership types and payment mechanisms. We do recognise, however, that real-world systems are messy, dependent on context, and very often robust against reform.

What next?

There is widespread confusion in the health policy community, over even how to define what a hospital is. Often, definition is by means of attributes – arguments from correlation (“it is where the doctors are”) – whereas it should be a question of functions. More importantly, what is the “capacity” of a hospital? It is not measured by single parameters such as bed numbers, even if we all do it, but rather by the ability to do work within its system. Further, without being able to rigorously measure capacity versus demand for outcomes, how can we know how much to build or to maintain, or where, or of what type, or with what spare buffer (c.f. Covid-19)? This is a system modelling problem, and health policy analysis needs to develop ways of doing it.

Speakers:

• Dr. Antonio Durán, CEO, AllDMhealth, Spain
• Prof. Dr. Patrick Jeurissen, Professor, Radboud University Medical School & Science Officer of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports of The Netherlands, The Netherlands
• Dr. Stephen Wright, Independent Consultant & Honorary Professor, University College London, UK

Moderator:

• Laura Cande, Policy and Project Consultant at EHMA

Abstract Session: Efficiency & effectiveness

Conference sub-theme: Systems and organisational governance

Abstract to be presented during the session:

• How do healthcare providers interpret and use national audit data for improvement
  Dr Grazia Antonacci, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom; National Institute of Health Research – Applied Research Collaboration North-West London, London, United Kingdom.
• Setting up innovative housing projects for older people in a highly regulated environment: The institutional work of rebellious managers
  Dr Marianne van Bochove, Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
• Observance of implementing the financial and targeting agreement between Vienna General Hospital and Medical University of Vienna with an innovative monitoring system (2016-2024) – results after the third reporting year
  MMag Andrea Schweiger, Karl Landsteiner Society, Institute for Hospital Organisation, Vienna, Austria

Abstract Session: Digital Transformation

Conference sub-theme: Digital Transformation

Abstract to be presented during the session:

• vCARE – Rehabilitation for Secondary Prevention based on Virtual Coaching
  Dr Massimo Caprino, Casa di Cura Privata del Policlinico, Milan, Italy
• Introducing Acute Kidney Injury alerts and electronic fluids prescribing systems in a hospital setting to improve patient outcomes
  Dr Panos Michael, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow, United Kingdom
• The human side of digital transformation: Empirical evidence from the Austrian hospital sector
  Dr Arleta Franczukowska, Danube University Krems, Krems/Donau, Austria
• Social assistive robots for elderly
  Dr Isabelle Fabbricotti, Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• Integrated personalized care for patients with advanced chronic diseases to improve health and quality of life (ADLIFE Project)
  Mrs Dolores Verdoy, Kronikgune, Barakaldo, Spain

Moderated by Dr. Elly Breedveld, Director at Stichting Perspekt, The Netherlands

Abstract Session: Integration

Conference sub-theme: Integration

Abstract to be presented during the session:

• A values framework for integrated health services: a quantitative European study
  Mr Nick Zonneveld, Vilans, centre of excellence for long-term and social care, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Tilburg University / TIAS School for Business & Society, Tilburg, The Netherlands
• Integrated Healthcare and Social Welfare for 200 000 inhabitants – Case Päijät-Häme
  Mr Olli Tolkki, Vice President, Nordic Healthcare Group, Helsinki, Finland
• Facilitating and constraining influences of an Electronic Health Record on collaboration among medical specialities
  Dr Marjolein Van Offenbeek, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
• The impact of payment models on network performance: a systematic scoping review of structure, process and outcome measures
  Mr Thomas Reindersma, MSc, Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• The burden of breaking down silos to build teams
  Dr Odessa Dariel, EHESP, Paris, France
• Change-oriented organisational citizenship as a key factor in promoting client-safety in service integration – health and social care professionals as undervalued advocates?
  Sanna Laulainen, Acting Professor, University of Eastern Finland, Finland

Moderated by Dr. Axel Kaehne, Reader Health Services Research, Medical School, Edge Hill University, UK

Abstract Session: COVID-19 & Health Management

Conference sub-theme: COVID-19 & Health Management

Abstract to be presented during the session:

• Health Care Crisis and the Primary Health Care Supply: Survey for General Practitioners and Primary Care Physicians during COVID-19 in Austria
  Dr Alexander Braun, University of Applied Sciences Krems, Krems, Austria
• Uncertainty work in an emerging pandemic: an ethnography of healthcare
  management in a Dutch university hospital amidst the start of the COVID-19
  pandemic.
  Dr Bert de Graaff, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
• The advantages of being in control of medical technology during times of crises
  Ir René Drost, NAMCO, The Hague, The Netherlands
• Leadership in the psychiatric services in the era of COVID-19
  Ms Elina Laukka, MSc, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland

Moderated by Prof. Dr. Kees Ahaus, Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management

BOOK LAUNCH – Everything you always wanted to know about European Union health policies but were afraid to ask

Hosted by European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies

What does the European Union mean for health? What can it mean for health?

The second edition of the book ‘Everything you always wanted to know about European Union health policies but were afraid to ask’ answers these questions. It provides a broad review and analysis of European Union public health policies to mid-2019. It begins by explaining the basic politics of European integration and European policy-making in health, including the basic question of how the European Union came to have a health policy and what that policy does. Thereafter, it moves on to the three faces of European Union health policy.

Join representatives of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies for this book launch and enjoy a virtual drink with the EHMA 2020 attendees.

Speakers:

• Scott L. Greer, PhD, University of Michigan, USA; European Observatory of Health Systems and Policies, Belgium
• Sarah D. Rozenblum, BA, MPA, University of Michigan, USA

Facilitator:

• Dr. Matthias Wismar, European Observatory of Health Systems and Policies, Belgium