Jeremy Hunt To Address The First UK e-Health Week

Rt. Hon. Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health will give the keynote speech at the forthcoming first UK e-Health event which takes place at Olympia on 3-4 March.  Delegates will also hear from two ex-health ministers; Rt. Hon. Alan Milburn and Rt. Hon. Stephen Dorrell as they go head-to-head in a lively debate as they discuss the health priorities the next Government needs to consider.

The ministers will join a packed conference programme of national leaders including Simon Stevens, Sir Bruce Keogh, Tim Kelsey, Beverley Bryant and Lord Victor Adebowale from NHS England and Mike Farrar at the National Hall, Olympia, London.

This is the first UK e-Health Week which is being organised by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, HIMSS, the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society supported by NHS England. The new event will feature HC2015, the Institute’s annual health informatics conference.

Dr Philip Scott, Chair of the programme committee for the BCS Healthcare Computing national conference, part of the Institute, explains: “We’re delighted to move HC2015 into UK e-Health Week, with so many influential speakers it is a great opportunity for IT, healthcare and social care professionals to come together to discuss some of the most important issues facing our healthcare systems today.”

The week will showcase the IT and digital innovations that can transform health and care and see a series of announcements by key decisions makers. It will consist of a wide range of content themes and areas from m-Health and the HIMSS UK Annual Innovation Conference to the Health Insights Annual Summit and HC2015 Conference.  As well as featuring an open stage, there will be an app village on the balcony and host a public meeting of the newly established National Information Board.

Beverly Bryant, Director of Strategic Systems & Technology, NHS England, adds: “e-Health Week is a great opportunity for us to have some wide ranging conversations about the technology agenda in the NHS as well as an opportunity to share best practice and share information. We are setting up an onstage conversation between the BMA, GPs and patients about the benefits of people having access to their records and I’m particularly looking forward to this, it should generate some very interesting viewpoints.”

Tim Kelsey, National Director for Patients and Information says: “Finding the best innovations in health and social care and spreading them to every corner of the system is crucial to ensuring services evolve to meet the changing needs of patients. This event brings together all those with a stake in delivering cutting edge care to exchange ideas on how we can best use technology and data to improve the lives of patients and citizens.”

Stephen Lieber, CEO and president of HIMSS adds: “UK e-Health Week is the only event to bring three health ministers, as well as the CEO of the NHS, together in one place during this crucial pre-election period. Their attendance highlights the increasing importance of healthcare IT within the political agenda and UK e-Health Week is proud to provide a platform that enables policy leaders, key decision makers and frontline staff to come together and improve healthcare by sharing best practice, innovation and lessons learned relating to healthcare IT.”

The event is free for the public sector to attend, full details of UK e-Health Week can be found at: http://ukehealthweek.com/