Conference Session ‘European Electronic Health Records – Digitalisation in the Healthcare Sector’

2020 is a special year for the nurses and the nursing profession, since it is the “Year of the Nurse and Midwife”, in honour of the bicentenary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. On this occasion all over the world, this year will be dedicated to highlighting the tremendous work and contribution nurses and midwives can achieve at all levels if they have the support to do so. At European level, the EFN, as Nursing Now European regional leadership group, focuses on Research & Innovation, particularly on the digitalisation of the healthcare sector. The need of patients and citizens to be able to access their health data is therefore high on nurses’ political agenda as part of designing people-centred care. To deepen Europe’s innovation capability, provide lasting prosperity and preserve our global competitiveness, the European Commission has set a new level of ambition. Horizon Europe will keep the EU at the forefront of global research and innovation and will support European Partnerships to deliver on global challenges and industrial modernisation through concerted Research & Innovation effort with the EU Member States, private sector, foundations and other stakeholders. For the K4I community and for those that are part of the planned European Partnerships, the further negotiations until the adoption and the implementation of Horizon Europe, are of major concern.
In this context, and under the scope of Knowledge4Innovation 11th European Innovation Summit, which programme is closely linked to the work of the European Partnerships and Missions under the headings of ‘Digital Transformation’, ‘Greening’ and ‘Innovation’, the European Federation of Nurses Associations (EFN) and Nursing Now Europe are organizing an event on digitalisation, with a special focus on the European Electronic Health Records, on 5 February 2020, at the European Parliament.
This will be an opportunity to exchange views with MEPs, the European Commission, civil society representatives and industry/SMEs, on the policies and steps to be undertaken to co-design the European Electronic Health Records, knowing that having a European Electronic Health Records’ exchange format is a growing priority of the EU Institutions, as pointed out in the Council Conclusions on Health in the Digital Society – making progress in data-driven innovation in the field of health (2017/C440/05) and the European Commission Recommendation on a European Electronic Health Record exchange format (C(2019)800).