Warwick Medical School has hosted two high-profile events on patient data management, bringing together policymakers and industry leaders from across Europe.

Supported by the University’s European strategy team and in partnership with the leading European innovation network Science|Business, the School hosted a VIP dinner and UK launch event on 15 and 16 December at the Shard in London as part of the European ‘Healthy Measures’ campaign, which aims to deliver better healthcare across the EU using health data and patient outcomes.

84 delegates attended the launch event, including senior industry leaders, politicians and officials from the European Commission and UK government. Representatives were also present from health delivery organisations across Europe, including senior academics from Warwick Medical School, WMG, the Institute for Digital Healthcare and Computer Science, and board level representation from regional health partners.

During the event - one of a series of campaign launches in European capitals - keynote speeches and breakout sessions explored how healthcare systems can be improved by measuring what patients think about the care they receive.

Delegates discussed the challenges facing organisations aiming to do this, such as data privacy issues and budget constraints, and put forward suggestions for improving the way patient outcome measures are analysed while avoiding over-burdening already stretched health systems.

VIP dinner

In addition to the main launch event, the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Stuart Croft, hosted a dinner on the previous evening for 30 senior leads from the NHS and European industry and expert organisations – including four senior academic leads from Warwick.

Following a keynote address by the chair of NHS Digital, Noel Gordon, the evening provided an opportunity for a wide-ranging discussion on the future of the life sciences and highlighted four questions that need to be answered to advance the use of patient outcomes data:

• Which technologies should we focus on first?

• Which diseases should be targeted?

• How do we make society become a partner for science?

• How will converging technologies – in ICT, medical devices and biopharma – affect outcome measures?

Outcomes

The two events placed Warwick firmly at the centre of European networking and policy influence in relation to this key aspect of health systems management. Sudhesh Kumar, Dean of Warwick Medical School, said:

“I’m delighted that the event was successful in raising the profile and visibility of the excellent science we have at Warwick in the area of measurement of health outcomes. We had key representatives from industry and European institutions present and I expect some new research or educational collaborations to come out of discussions at this meeting.

“This is very important for WMS as we need to diversify our portfolio of research funders and see more grants from industry. Furthermore, Brexit notwithstanding, we would like to increase collaborative projects with high-quality scientists in Europe.”

Take a look at more photos of the dinner and launch event.