HiNZ conference growth shows digital health has hit the mainstream

NEWS – eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Picture: Ministry of Health chief technology and digital services officer Ann-Marie Cavanagh presenting at the HiNZ Conference 2017. 

Clinicians are the biggest driver in the growth of the HiNZ Conference, with the 2018 event expected to be the biggest yet, says HiNZ chief executive Kim Mundell.

Around 1000 delegates are expected at this year’s HiNZ Conference, running from Wednesday 21 November to Friday 23 November.

The event, held at Wellington’s TSB Arena and Shed 6, will also boast its largest ever exhibition hall, with 93 booths, and over 200 speakers.

Mundell says the growth of the conference year on year shows that digital health has moved out of the early adopter stage and into the mainstream.

Clinicians in particular are fuelling the growth in delegate numbers, she says.

“It’s no longer a niche subject that you have a few clinicians engage with – it’s now mainstream and part of everyday healthcare.”

Twelve international keynote speakers from the UK, US, Brazil, Hong Kong and Australia will speak on topics ranging from digitising patient records to artificial intelligence in healthcare and the role of smartphones in cancer research.

Keynote speaker Richard Corbridge was the former CIO of the Irish Health Service Executive and was named in 2017 as the “most disruptive tech or digital leader” in the European Union by Sir Richard Branson and Steve Wozniak.

He says an electronic health record is the key to efficiency and transparency and the only way a healthcare system can be integrated.

“Ireland was the first country in Europe to present a business case for a digital health system that included not just the traditional IT cost but also the cost of business change – the cost of ensuring not just the technology was procured, but that the cost of ensuring benefit gained was figured into the project,” he says.

“The citizens of New Zealand deserve a modern healthcare system that is built upon information. The ability to return information about patients to them to aid with their own health and wellness should be a modern expectation of the health system.”

Fellow UK-based keynote Lesley Holdsworth is the Scottish Government’s clinical lead for digital health and care and has been named both Scottish Digital Impact Leader of the Year and UK Digital Team Leader in 2018.

She is driving digitisation of Scotland’s patient records and benchmarking it against global frontrunners and says New Zealanders should embrace their medical records going digital, not fear it.

“There are many benefits to us all as both patients and citizens of having EHRs. These include ensuring that information about us is accurate, up to date and can be easily shared with both us and those who need to have this information,” Holdsworth says.

The HiNZ conference also includes a one-day eHealth Nursing and an eAllied Health event.

To read more about the HiNZ Conference 2018 click here >>

To read more about eHealth Nursing 2018 click here >>

To read more about eAllied Health 2018 click here >>

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