Oracle discusses healthcare challenges and solutions at World Healthcare Congress Europe

As the European healthcare sector strives to cope with new demographic and economic challenges, Oracle’s major sponsoring role at the recent World Healthcare Congress Europe allowed the company to demonstrate and discuss new technologies for more efficient and more effective healthcare.

Oracle took a major sponsoring role in the recent Fourth World Healthcare Congress Europe in Berlin. Together with its partners and customers, Oracle participated at all levels of the event, demonstrating and discussing the technologies that are driving the European healthcare sector forward and enabling ever safer, more efficient , more cost-effective and more patient-centric service.

Attended by more than 500 very senior representatives from across Europe - from board members of hospitals and insurance providers to leading academics, industry players and government ministers – the World Healthcare Congress is one of the highest-profile healthcare events on the European calendar. Its aim is to bring together senior delegates from across the spectrum of healthcare provision and management to discuss the current challenges facing the sector and to establish some possible solutions.

As the European population becomes increasingly mobile, demand is rising for pan-regional healthcare initiatives. The challenge for European healthcare providers and insurers, which to date have been predominantly national in focus, is to find ways to co-operate, to standardize and to share technologies, information and best practices across borders. As a provider of proven, standardized data management technologies for the healthcare industry, Oracle was proud to take a major sponsoring role in the event and to contribute to the discussion on a number of levels.

Oracle EMEA vice president of healthcare solutions, Charles Scatchard, moderated the proceedings on the second day of the event. Together with BT, he also co-hosted a roundtable session and lunch for the six attending government ministers and secretaries of state for health – including ministers from the Netherlands, Russia, Poland and Estonia. The theme of the discussion was the changing demographics in Europe arising from increased mobility and an ageing population, and the resulting challenges for healthcare provision. The attending ministers shared information on how they are reforming healthcare systems and infrastructures in their country to cope with these new conditions.

Oracle partners and customers delivered presentations in the four conference tracks, on Chronic Disease Management, Implementing Health IT, Reforming Health Insurance and Improving Financial Performance, and Improving Quality and Patient Safety. Participating Oracle customers included the Balearic Islands Health Service, which has been pioneering electronic patient records using Oracle Healthcare Transaction Base to synchronize, manage and standardize patient data; and Knappschaft Bahn-See, a public insurer in Germany that is playing an important role in the introduction of an electronic patient record (ePA) using a Gematik-compliant telematics infrastructure. With about 20,000 policyholders, more than 50 physicians and a Knappschaft Hospital, the project is one of the largest pilot initiatives for the introduction of an electronic health card. The project uses Oracle Healthcare Transaction Base to collaborate and share patient data safely, accurately and securely between healthcare providers and insurers.

Oracle partners who played an active role in the conference included Docobo, a UK-based provider of telehealth solutions that allow patients to be monitored remotely by healthcare professionals after they have returned home, and IZIP, a company that is developing and managing the new e-health infrastructure in the Czech Republic.

During the three-day conference Oracle also saw good traffic to its exhibition stand, where it was showcasing Oracle Business Intelligence solutions for healthcare as well as its new Oracle Health Insurance solutions.