Forum, Latvia, Medicine

Though patients and their interests have always been the focus of any healthcare system, patients do not always receive enough information, attention and empathy during treatment. The healthcare emergency brought about by the pandemic in spring highlighted the deficiencies of the current system, allowing for unambiguous conclusions about the need for an efficient and integrated future healthcare system in order to ensure proper navigation of patients at all stages of the healthcare process. The healthcare system is under constant pressure to efficiently manage access to services, improve their quality and cut costs. Advanced technology and access to quality data are capable of improving cooperation and relations between patients, healthcare providers and the healthcare system in general to satisfy the need for more customized and result-driven healthcare services.

Ilze Viņķele, the Minister of Health of the Republic of Latvia: “Rapid development of technology and innovation provide new opportunities to improve healthcare whose main purpose is to take care of patients and their health. Targeted, efficient, up to date and safe use of data may offer considerable benefits to healthcare professionals and researchers, as well as deliver solutions that may be required for improvement of the long-term healthcare policy.”

Various national and international healthcare professionals and leaders will participate in the summit, including Ilze Viņķele, Minister for Health of the Republic of Latvia, Dr. Abraham Verghese, Professor for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at Stanford University Medical School, Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Elena Bonfiglioli, Senior Director Health Industry, Europe Middle East Africa at Microsoft, and others. Personal patient stories will be shared by Zinta Uskale, Head of the ‘Pink Train’ charity and the #Pupkultūra movement, as well as Sondra Zaļupe, founder of the patient association ‘A Step Ahead of Melanoma’. The summit will be moderated by Kristaps Krafte, CEO of medtech start-up Vigo Health and Board Member of the Digital Health Society.

During the summit, the most urgent needs of the healthcare system highlighted by the global pandemic will be discussed, with a focus on facilitating data-driven healthcare. Two panel discussions with representatives of various sectors have been included in the agenda to deliberate on how meaningful data may practically improve patient healthcare experiences.

 “It is expected that in the coming years the healthcare system will undergo rapid digital transformation. To further purposeful and efficient use of data and technologies in healthcare, now it is important no raise the awareness of this issue in those who work in this field. We are convinced that after the summit medical staff and managers of the healthcare sector will be able to take well-considered decisions based on the knowledge acquired at the summit. As a result, it will benefit the patients, who will be provided with more efficient healthcare services of better quality,” explains Renāte Strazdiņa, Board member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Latvia.

The implementation of the E-health project, which has continued for more than 10 years but has not yet been completed due to a failure to introduce some of its products, has been found ineffectual, resulting in a new focus on development of a novel, effective system. The online summit ‘Toward Data-Driven Health: Sharing is Caring” aims to serve as a catalyst for the new system. Its purpose is to produce well formulated recommendations for the health data strategy and data-driven decision-making, and to improve awareness among responsible parties of the need and benefits of investing in digitization.

The online summit is free of charge and requires prior registration. For more information about the summit and its agenda, see: www.healthdatasummitriga.eu 

To respond to the current epidemiological situation and comply with all precautionary measures imposed by the Cabinet of Ministers as well as epidemiological guidance, the summit will take place online.