Health Days 2025: A key event of the Austrian health community

Together with the Enterprise Europe Network Austria, EIT Health Austria collaborated for the second time with ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA, the trade promotion organisation of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber to host the “Health Days 2025” on March 13/14.

After last year’s edition on the European Health Data Space, this year’s conference provided an insightful exchange on “One Health”, featuring lively panels and a keynote address that delved into the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health (#climatechange). This topic attracted 300 experts from 40 countries and became a testimony to the need for collaboration in this field. Mariana Kühnel, Deputy Secretary General of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber highlighted this as well in her opening speech: Cross-national and cross-industry collaboration is necessary to tackle the challenges ahead of us!

The event began with an insightful keynote by Andrea Schmidt, Department Head One Health & Climate Resilience at Gesundheit Österreich GmbH, who gave an introduction to the overall One Health approach. This approach emphasises the importance of understanding how the health of humans, animals (both domestic and wild), and ecosystems are closely linked and interdependent. One Health seeks to balance and optimise health across these domains and addresses a wide range of health challenges, including the emergence of infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, food safety, and environmental contamination. In her keynote, Andrea highlighted the “4Cs” of One Health that are vital to this approach: Coordination, Collaboration, Communication and Capacity building. [Would you like to dive deeper into this topic? Read the Theory of Change by the One Health High Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP), that has an advisory function for the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations), UNEP (UN Environment Programme), WHO (World Health Organization) and WOAH (World Organisation for Animal Health).]

The following panels moderated by Damita Pressl (NZZ) evolved around the one health topic and covered a range of focal points from “Leap Frogging” (hosted by Klaus Donsa from AIT), to addressing international competition and the opportunity for collaboration. Speakers included Pravin Chaturvedi, CEO and Co-founder of Oceanyx Pharmaceuticals; Christine Neudert, Executive Director General Manager of MSD Animal Health; Markus Hochegger, Project Lead at the University of Graz & Spin-off PureSurf; Viktoria Prantauer, Manager Data & AI Life Sciences at The Chief Patient Officer & Capgemini Invent; Julie Rosser, CEO of the European Board of Veterinary Specialisation; Thomas Ebm, CEO of Wiener Privatklinik; Charlotte Gabet, VP Growth Strategy at Parkview Health; Thomas Röblreiter, Expert on Innovation and Internationalization at Enterprise Europe Network Austria; Eva-Maria Strassl, Director Health at ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA; and Michaela Topolnik, Public Affairs & Stakeholder Relations Lead at EIT Health Austria. All three organisers were keen to take diversity aspects into account when selecting the speakers.

One interesting aspect that came up repeatedly in the discussions is the need for data to overcome certain challenges. Hence, several panellists welcomed the European Health Data Space as an important opportunity for the One Health approach.

The conference concluded with over 500 1:1 meetings on the premises, which participants were able to arrange in advance. On the following day, the hosts of the excursions, including Klinik Floridsdorf and EIT Health Members Boehringer Ingelheim and Takeda, provided valuable insights to those Health Days participants who had registered early enough for one of the coveted places on their tours.

///

⇒ Are you interested in the ONE Health approach? Read more on the dedicated website of the WHO: Click here

⇒ Do you want to find out more about the European Health Data Space (EHDS)? Read our European EHDS Report or find out more about specific insights concerning Austria in our Austrian EHDS Report.

⇒ Would you like to find out more about the speakers of the event? Read our LinkedIn post.