How do you imagine health and care in 2029 in an era of digital transformation?
| EHTEL is working towards imagining the future of health and care systems in 2029. The initiative is based on active input from all the members of EHTEL's ecosystem. It also includes plenty of exciting advances from the European Union-supported projects in which the association participates. |
EHTEL imagines a positive, digital future in which all citizens will have better access to their health data, care data, and health, healthcare and care services thanks to digital tools and mobile apps. Health systems as a whole will benefit from a future in which health and care professionals from many different sectors, including the hospital and home, work closely together with citizens – using digital technologies. A more synchronised use of data will also improve the response of governments to health and care challenges, and will benefit the growth of European businesses and industries.
One example of the way this ecosystem can work together is the collaboration implicit in the health and care cluster which originated under the OPEN DEI project.
Top of the agenda in 2025 is everything that surrounds the launch of the European Health Data Space (EHDS).
European health and care continue, of course, to face many concrete immediate and long-term challenges. Systems and services are experiencing difficulties in dealing with a large number of threats, including handling major health conditions and diseases, facing ongoing epidemics, dealing with population shifts and changes, and needing to manage and organise upskilling and reskilling.
What is EHTEL doing in 2025?
This year EHTEL is placing its emphasis on implementation, deployment, and what implementers need. EHTEL’s Imagining 2029 work programme is therefore structured in three tracks. The three tracks are on: Transforming Care Delivery, Implementation Strategies, and Change Management. They build on earlier work developed by EHTEL.
EHTEL will also be present at, and involved in, a number of important European events and conferences.
What's in it for me?
For EHTEL members and the entire EHTEL community:
🎓 Knowledge-sharing on real and do-able implementation strategies, including in change management and capacity-building, through webinars and workshops open to all.
🏛️ Engagement with European institutions and initiatives on the topic of the EHDS.
💡Answers to your questions from digital health experts.
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⚜️ Additional activities for members only: 🤝 Personalised opportunities to network, match-make on EU-funded projects, develop partnerships, and get together with a select group of organisations which are getting things done in digital health. 📝 Precious front-row insights into EHDS policy and implementation through active involvement of implementers in a European Health Data Space (EHDS) Implementers' Task Force 📣 Getting implementers’ voices heard through a range of policy-related Partnerships. 🌟 Showcasing your work to other organisations in the EHTEL community. |
Many of EHTEL's events are open to all. However, throughout 2025, EHTEL will be especially active with a set of members-only activities: check out the EHTEL Members' Workspace to access materials and calls limited to EHTEL members only.
We encourage you to approach us about these activities and events, even if you aren’t an EHTEL member yet. Or simply, join EHTEL.
Your own involvement and engagement in these important moves forward throughout the year are strongly welcomed!
Transforming Care Delivery, including the use of AI
The transformation of care delivery, whether in health systems or in care systems or both (when they are brought together as integrated long-term care), is moving ahead rapidly. Implementers are keen to have this shift take place. Part of the implementation processes needed involves AI, including “generative AI”.
This track will focus on work related to:
- Prevention and personalised dementia and frailty solutions.
- Assessing and interventions supported by digital health solutions
- Integrated long-term care / Digital maturity assessment tool for Integrated Long-Term Care
It draws especially on the work of two EU projects: COMFORTage and Laurel. It is very involved with the European partnership, Transforming Health and Care Systems (THCS).
Webinars
▶️ “Analysing Patient and Caregiver Needs”, supported by COMFORTage | 21 March 2025
▶️ “Digital Innovation for Integrated Long-Term Care: Transforming Europe's Care Systems”, supported by LAUREL | 20 May 2025
▶️ “Assessing Interventions supported by Digital Health Technologies”, supported by COMFORTage | 20 June 2025
▶️ “Understanding the political (and financial) choices made by policymakers in supporting patients and carers affected by dementia and identifying innovative public initiatives”, supported by COMFORTage | 26 September 2025
Implementation strategies, including the European Health Data Space
This track has two parts. It is oriented towards:
- ⚜️ EHTEL members, through the regular meeting and activities of the EHDS Task Force.
- An interoperability hub with a focus on public health use of data, through the initiatives undertaken in the EU project xShare.
Support will also be given through liaison with projects such as Xt-EHR, i2x, and MyHealth@MyHands.
Webinars
▶️ “The Road to EHDS: legacies, challenges, and paths to success in Finland and Germany”, EHTEL's EHDS Implementers' Task Force 2nd meeting, organised for EHTEL members only | 18 February 2025
Change Management, including capacity-building
Building on a set of useful materials developed, and trialled/implemented, by EHTEL over a period of five+ years, many resources on tools and techniques are available. They provide useful reading and implementation materials.
This track has two parts. It is oriented towards:
- Inclusive access to healthcare promotion.
- Health workforce skills.
Its work is related to the focus of two EU projects: BeWell and Equicares.
Building on a set of useful materials developed, and trialled/implemented, by EHTEL over a period of five+ years, many resources on tools and techniques are available. They provide useful reading and implementation materials. Many are aimed at scaling up digital health and care.
Webinars
▶️ “The Digital Transformation Journey: Creating a digitally-confident health and care worksforce”, supported by BeWell | 24 April 2025
The big picture is the Common European Data Space
Europe is planning a European Data Space. Up to nine sectoral data spaces contribute to the space as a whole, including skills: health is a key data space. It is the first space on which Europe is focusing.
Upcoming in 2023 among the health data space initiatives will be technological shifts towards edge computing, cloud infrastructure and services, high-performance computing, “AI on demand”, and artificial intelligence (AI) testing and experimentation facilities.
Many of EHTEL’s past and present Imagining 2029 activities, including videos, quick reads and factsheets, have already concentrated on the importance of data, data sharing, and the European Health Data Space. EHTEL’s collaborations with important European projects and thought leader organisations have been key to these developments.
Looking forward to 2029 and a digital future for health and care
Two years have already passed since EHTEL started the Imagining 2029 initiative.
2021 showed how technologies are influencing the way health and care are organised and used. The disruption implicit in the 2019-2020 COVID-19 outbreak worsened many health and care challenges . The disruption forcefully affected the way people live. It changed the daily routines of each and every one of us, disrupting our social and working lives, and offering us opportunities to get more involved in health and social care management and provision, including self-care.
2022 was impacted by yet other societal and economic crises – polycrises. Nevertheless, the Imagining 2029 focus encouraged a more in-depth look at two themes, innovation and transformation. These two complementary themes showed absolute inter-dependence. Among the topics into which EHTEL took a deep-dive were:
- Innovation: architecture; data sharing; data governance; and, especially, interoperability.
- Transformation: digital health governance; health data standards; and medication management were all topics that corresponded to the ecosystem’s need for knowledge-sharing.
Throughout 2021 and 2022, EHTEL operated in this new era of digital health and care as a large-scale collaboration. In the years to come, EHTEL will continue to work with its members, helping you to join forces to propose and implement new solutions, make progress, and confront the serious challenges we all face in health and care.
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To take a look back in time at EHTEL’s heritage of work on developing future components of digital health, discover the EHTEL 20th Anniversary page.