22 May 2019, Bad Hofgastein, Austria – With the theme of “A healthy dose of disruption? Transformative change for health and societal well-being”, the European Health Forum Gastein 2019 aims to boost the momentum for cathartic health policy change in Europe. The EHFG will take place from 2-4 October 2019, in Bad Hofgastein, Austria.  

 

European societies are witnessing disruptive changes on nearly all fronts simultaneously. From the political context to the social, economic and technological space, Europe is transitioning.  At the same time, transformative change for health often does not materialise as fast as it should to achieve positive outcomes for patients and health systems. Releasing its preliminary conference programme, the EHFG highlights this discrepancy, noting that, in order to engender the necessary disruption for healthcare, there is a strong need for out of the box-ideas and creative restructuring. 

 

In 2019, which is a year of change and new beginnings, with the European institutional change-over and the imminent election of a new Regional Director for WHO-Europe, the EHFG aims to inspire these much-needed creative ideas and to provoke bold action. While the EHFG will continue the conversation on how the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development can be achieved, the 2019 plenary sessions will explore what a “healthy dose” of disruption really is, how technological disruption fits into that, and what is needed to mitigate the disruption that comes with global climate change.

 

Among the key speakers at the EHFG 2019 are Vytenis Andriukaitis, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Zsuzsanna Jakab, Deputy Director-General at the WHO, Anne Bucher, Director General DG SANTE, Daniel Calleja Crespo, Director General of DG Environment, Rachel Melsom, Director of Tobacco Free Portfolios UK and Europe, and Ran Balicer, Director of Clalit Research Institute. More information about this year’s EHFG sessions is available on the newly released programme.

 

“Disruption is about much more than technology and digital solutions” said EHFG President Clemens Martin Auer. “It is a broad force that can completely alter our perceptions and structures, which is exactly why we need the right dosage of it to ensure that Europe’s health systems and health workforce are resilient to meet contemporary challenges”. To encourage leadership in disruptive change for health, the EHFG will award its new European Health Leadership Award, a new initiative to support pioneering achievements by individuals or organisations who challenged the status-quo, catalysing change in their environment.  

For more than twenty years, the EHFG has brought together over 500 experts from science, civil society, the public and private sectors for fair, frank, and future-shaping discussions on health policy. This year, the EHFG is looking to engender thought-provoking ideas to achieve progress for health and well-being in Europe.

 

The European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG) was founded in 1998 as a European health policy conference. It aims to provide a platform for all stakeholders from the fields of public health and healthcare, and beyond. Over the past decade, the EHFG has established itself as an indispensable institution in the scope of European health policy. It has made a decisive contribution to the development of guidelines and above all the cross-border exchange of experience, information and cooperation. Leading experts participate in the annual conference held in the Gastein Valley in the Austrian Alps for three days in October. 

 

 

 

Interested in finding out more about the EHFG? 

Contact the press office at press@ehfg.org or +32 2 321 90 16.