Advancing Healthcare: Highlights from Smart Health Summit 2023

The EIT Health Ireland-UK team recently attended the Smart Health Summit 2023 at Croke Park, Dublin. The summit, chaired by broadcaster and entrepreneur Ivan Yates, brought together over 350 industry professionals and featured an extensive line-up of key notes, and panel sessions, to discuss the challenges and opportunities in shaping the future of Ireland’s healthcare.  

As sponsors of the event, EIT Health hosted exhibitor booth providing the local team with the opportunity to engage with industry professionals on interesting and diverse healthcare topics.   

Innovation Showcase 

One of the summit’s key highlights was the Innovation Showcase, where digital solutions took centre stage. Recently appointed EIT Health Ireland-UK Managing Director Graham Armitage joined the expert panel of judges to offer valuable insights into the transformative power of healthtech innovation.  

Among the innovations were a unique motion capture technology platform for gait analysis (Digital Gait Labs), an emotional/mental health digital support solution in the workplace (OpaMind), a digital tool for patients to access and manage healthcare appointments (SPRYT), a menopausal symptom tracker to guide diagnosis and management of peri-menopause (identifyHer), and an AI-driven solution to minimise healthcare professionals’ administrative tasks (MedWrite). The judges chose identifyHer as the winner for coming up with a simple innovative solution to serve a historically underserved market.

What Were the Key Talking Points at the Smart Health Summit 2023?

1. Health Information Policy and Strategy: Sarah Gibney, Principal Officer & Head of Health Information Policy at The Department of Health, presented the Health Information Bill which provides for the creation of a summary care record which could enhance healthcare, improve patient experiences, and drive better outcomes.

2. Unlocking the Full Value of Investment in eHealth: A panel of experts, including Kevin O’Carroll from HIQA, Dr. Sarah Gibney, Dr. Orna Fennelly, Researcher and Electronic Health Record (EHR) analyst and Fran Thompson from HSE & eHealth Ireland engaged in a thought-provoking discussion on the future of eHealth strategy, the Digital Health Strategic Framework 2023-2030, and the roadmap for EHR deployment.

3. Technologies, Tools, and Approaches to Transformation: Sam Shah, Chief Medical Strategy Officer at Numan, took to the stage to explore the game-changing technologies and approaches that are driving meaningful transformation in healthcare. Sharing an interesting fact during his talk, Sam said, “There are now more than 350,000 digital health apps available to consumers. And approximately 110 dominant apps have each been downloaded more than 10 million times and make up almost 50% of total downloads.” He shed light on how these innovations can improve health and care outcomes and stressed the importance of harnessing them effectively. 

4. Digital Upskilling: As digital technologies become increasingly integral to healthcare, upskilling the workforce is crucial. This session addressed the skills gap, the role of technology in caregiver education, and the imperative of investing in the healthcare workforce.

5. Creating Reimbursement Models for Digital Health Apps: A fireside chat with Tom Melvin, Associate Prof of Medical Device Regulatory Affairs, Trinity College Dublin and Sam Shah from Numan, delved into the regulatory and reimbursement model of digital health technologies. 

With thought-provoking discussions, panel sessions, and insights from industry leaders, the summit highlighted the role digital innovation plays in improving patient experiences, streamlining healthcare delivery, and enhancing outcomes.

The EIT Health Ireland-UK team will be attending the Medical Technology Ireland Expo and Conference on 20-21 September in Galway. Contact us to set up a meeting, or subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on upcoming programmes and opportunities.