Conference &
Summit Workshop

(Including BCS Health Northern Ireland Official Launch)

Belfast - 21 & 22 January 2010

http://www.openisland.net/openhealth/

openhealth@openisland.net

Conference & Summit Workshop Overview:

Day One - 21 January, 2010 - Location: Spires Centre & Europa Hotel Belfast

One day free conference for registered delegates on open and connected technologies / services solutions for healthcare and the issues surrounding them.
Official Launch of BCS Health Northern Ireland - a new forum for knowledge sharing in Health Informatics & Connected Health in Northern Ireland.

Evening networking event on Mobile Open & Connected Health Technologies.

REGISTRATION FORM

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE – 21st January 2010

Location: Spires Centre, Belfast & Europa Hotel Belfast

Day Two - 22 January, 2010 - Location: University of Ulster at Jordanstown

International ‘invite only' ½ day summit workshop to discuss key issues relating to the strategic role of Information & Communications Technologies in the cost-effective delivery of improved health & well-being for everyone.
Context:

The population of Northern Ireland is projected to rise from 1.710 million in 2004 to 1.825 million by 2024.  As already identified by The Department of Health, over the next twenty years both demographic and social trends will impact on the need for services; for example, more people will live alone, there will be higher levels of social deprivation, sustaining rurality will pose challenges, and there will be higher levels of disability as people live with chronic illness.

This significant increased incidence of chronic diseases and conditions presents a huge challenge globally. Chronic diseases are those that can only be controlled and not, at present, cured. These include diseases such as diabetes, asthma, arthritis, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, dementia and a range of disabling neurological conditions.

Having to live and cope with a chronic disease has a significant impact on a person's quality of life and that of their family. The incidence of such diseases increases with age. Many older people are often living with more than one chronic condition and as a result are faced with particular challenges, both medically and socially.

As identified by the Department of Health in the UK, the care of people with chronic conditions also consumes a large proportion of health and social care resources. Patients with a chronic disease account for 80% of all GP consultations. They are twice as likely to be admitted to hospital, and stay in hospital disproportionately longer. Moreover this use of health services rises exponentially for people with more than one longstanding problem.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified that such conditions will be the leading cause of disability by 2020 and that, if not successfully managed, will become the most expensive problem for health care systems. According to WHO, currently in excess of 60% of all deaths are due to chronic disease, for example, they estimated that globally, of the 58 million deaths in 2005, approximately 35 million will have been as a result of chronic diseases, which is double the number of deaths from all infectious diseases, maternal and perinatal conditions, and nutritional deficiencies combined. They are currently the major cause of death among adults in almost all countries and the toll is projected to increase by a further 17% in the next 10 years.

This demographical change will pose increased problems for health and social care systems. The challenge is to change the type of care provision for increasing numbers of ageing people allowing health services to free hospital beds more quickly, resulting in decreased overall costs to health and social service providers.

Delivering services to individuals in their own home is where successful service delivery is more likely to be most cost-efficient and outcome effective. Opportunity exists to enhance personal independence, empowerment and autonomy, supporting individuals and their carers, sustaining families and preserving community. However this opportunity brings new challenges at strategic and operational service level.  Helping those with chronic diseases, for example, COPD, Diabetes and Alzheimer's to live independently at home will require the increased application of information and communication technologies (ICT) embedded within a health service fit for purpose.

Therefore given this ageing world population and the significant rising cost of the burden of care of managing chronic disease, yet faced with a finite amount of funding to provide this care, the development of cost-effective open & connected health product and service solutions to meet users' needs is core to maintaining and improving upon not only the quality of healthcare provided and the quality of life of the population of Northern Ireland, but also that of the population of other countries within Europe, the US and globally.

Goals:

Conference
The open+health one day free multidisciplinary conference will bring together the key stakeholders in connected health from the Health Trusts, Academia, Industry and Government to share their knowledge and experience of using open and connected technologies to improve service delivery and health & well-being.

Summit Workshop
The ‘invite-only' summit workshop will provide an opportunity for decision-makers to address key questions on the future strategy of open and connected health delivery and its evolution across a regional, national, European and global context, and move the discussion towards specific recommendations and actions.

The Speakers:
The conference speakers represent the key stakeholders in open and connected health from Northern Ireland, mainland UK, Republic of Ireland, Europe and North America.
The Audience:
The audience will be Health & Social Care Professionals and Service Users, Government, Academia and Open & Connected Health Service Solution Providers from Industry.

Whilst the conference is free to registered delegates there are a limited number of places so to find out more about the conference and to secure your place, visit the conference website and register today !

Conference Registration Deadline: Thursday 14 January, 2010.

Conference Website: http://www.openisland.net/openhealth/

Conference Organisation Email: openhealth@openisland.net
The Organisers:
The open+health conference and strategic summit workshop is being jointly organised by Open-N.I., OpenIreland and BCS Health Northern Ireland.

Both Open-N.I. and OpenIreland have a shared mission to:
"strategically promote awareness, understanding, development and uptake of free and open source software across both the private and public sectors, as well as enhancing the competitiveness of the indigenous software sector by exploiting the opportunities offered by Open Source business models."

BCS Health Northern Ireland is the new regional forum for knowledge sharing in Health Informatics & Connected Health in Northern Ireland with participation across the stakeholder groups including:

Health and Social Care Professionals;
HSC Informatics & Records Professionals;
Government;
Industry
Academia;
Service Users.

Its role is to:
be concerned with the interactive application of ICT and related technologies in the delivery of connected health, social care and well-being;
focus on the application of the technologies rather than on the technologies themselves, ensuring that the technologies (products and services) are user needs driven and not technology push;
disseminate successful applications of interactive care and wellbeing;
provide strategic responses to government and other body consultations.