EHTEL highlighted the EHDS at its Thought Leader Symposium. Participants obtained exclusive insights at the EHTEL Symposium, while tapping into the vibrant energy and wide expert network of Radical Health Festival.
This year the Symposium:
drew on insights from leading-edge EHDS implementers
was based on a synergy of forward-looking working papers on what implementers really need
offered the chance to provide input through discussions, polls, and exercises.
At the Radical Health Festival in Helsinki, Joan Guanyabens, director of the TIC Salut i Social Foundation and president of EHTEL, presented Catalonia’s approach to health data management in the context of the European Health Data Space (EHDS).
EHTEL member, The Department of Care of Flanders looks at the vision, challenges, and road ahead towards implementing an integrated approach for digital transformation in health and care. It reflects on what it takes to build and implement a common vision, and examines the role of the EHTEL community and next steps on the EHDS.
Cyprus currently holds the six-month presidency of the European Council until 30 June 2026. Among the presidency’s keywords and phrases are: autonomy, competitiveness, long-term budget, security, and values – especially leaving no-one behind. The presidency’s programme of activities contains lots of interesting information on what can be expected from the EU over the next few months.
The EQUICARES project aims to make mental health in Europe more equitable, inclusive, and effective with a particular focus for people in vulnerable, marginalised situations – hence EHTEL’s commitment to work on inclusiveness through its contributions to EQUICARES. On 2 April 2026, EQUICARES is hosting a one-day deliberation event in Brussels, EQUICARES MapTheGap Mental Health Equity Mapping Hackathon.
On 17 December 2025, EHTEL and the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) co-organised an online workshop dedicated to the Digital Maturity Assessment Toolkit (DMAT), a key innovation of the Laurel project. The session brought together representatives from three selected good practices of integrated long-term care (I-LTC). The speakers and attendees validated the tool, gathered structured feedback, and co-designed its refinement and future deployment.
In January 2026, Health Management published the latest about the xShare yellow button, written by EHTEL digital health facilitator, Luc Nicolas. The article is entitled “A European Yellow Button to Break Silos and Empower People” and helps you to learn more about xShare and understand the background to health data use in example health-related use cases, like long COVID.
Building partnerships will help strengthen the availability of skills and training on digital health transformation. In December 2025, the Network for Digital Health Excellence held a European Digital Health Summit. The event concentrated on translating policy into practice and fostering partnerships among European Member States, academia, and industry.
The security of health data is critical for us all, but particularly patients. Many challenges to healthcare data are already here today, including in relation to electronic health records (EHRs). Cybersecurity was the core topic of one the break-out sessions at the European Digital Health Summit.
The DMAT is a toolkit developed in the Laurel project to support organisations involved in integrated long-term care (I-LTC) in assessing and improving their digital readiness. DMAT’s purpose is to enable the transition toward better integrated, person-centred services and to facilitate the adoption of smart digital solutions by strengthening care delivery and professional capacity.
In January 2026, the XiA project launched its first open learning session. Three guest speakers described what several European projects are doing when working on cybersecurity. Example projects include CYLCOMED, SECURED, and xShare. Evangelos Markatos shared further insights on current cybersecurity threats from the perspective of the xShare project.
Preparation for Europe’s next Multiannual Financial Framework is well underway. It presents a distinct opportunity to embed health into Europe’s economic, digital, environmental, and security agendas. This challenge was explored during the CARE Summit 2025 which took place in Brussels.The Summit produced a Roadmap for a stronger European Health Union.
The Equicares project – a project which focuses on mental for people in vulnerable situations – has launched plenty of information about what it is doing. Watch the project’s two-minute informational video. It will tell you all about the project’s aims and goals in relation to vulnerable groups and communities, its background and size, and its main current activities
