Data sharing and protection are currently the focus of discussions on cross-industry digitisation. The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) think tank is addressing the issue as a topic by organising the second European Data Summit in its Berlin Academy from 23-25 October this year.

The conference, scheduled to run over several days, is expected to bring together members from the EU Commission, the Federal Government and parliamentarians, digital experts, digital politicians and competition economists. Themes related to future data management at the EU level and wider will be discussed across all sectors under the motto "Competition Matters". 

Points of departure include the implementation of the Open Data Directive (PSI Directive), i.e. the politically regulated provision of data from public sectors, but also the British Furman report and the results of the Data Ethics Commission.

The focus is on health care, and the European Data Summit is dedicating a targeted programme with a Healthcare Session on the afternoon of 25 October – with a keynote address by Dr Gottfried Ludewig, head of digitisation and innovation at the Federal Ministry of Health. 

Digital maturity models make performance comparable

How can the degree of digital maturity amongst individual providers and industries in the German healthcare system be measured? And which regional, national and international comparisons are there for infrastructure and performance? 

These questions will be addressed by an expert panel with Dr Sebastian Krolop (HIMSS - owner of Healthcare IT News), Henning Schneider (Asklepios, private operator of hospitals and healthcare facilities), Nick Schneider (BMG - Federal Ministry of Health), Stefan Biesdorf (McKinsey) and Matthias Meierhofer (BVITG - the German Association of Health IT Vendors). 

Dr Afzal Chaudhry, CMIO of the Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, will also report on his experience in achieving Stage 6 of the HIMSS EMRAM model.

Medical 'data donation' and GDPR hurdles

Another key issue that the EU Data Summit will discuss with regard to healthcare is what exactly a medical 'data donation' should be, and whether it should be anonymous, mandatory or voluntary. According to a recent TMF survey, almost 79 percent of Germans would be willing to donate their health data.

Chris Berger, from BVITG, told Healthcare IT News: "How much data can be donated needs to be clarified – whether only individual biomarkers, that is, excerpts from a disease, or complete disease histories, as well as bio and genetics data. We want to discuss these questions together."

The theory that Europe is at a competitive disadvantage in terms of data laws compared to other states is also up for debate at the EU Data Summit: "A law with more than 250 pages of legal text contradicts the political objective of reducing bureaucracy," Dr Pencho Kuzev, KAS coordinator for data and digital policy, told Healthcare IT News in the run up to the event.

The European Data Summit is an expert meeting of digital policy makers, competition economists and representatives of the digital economy, and seeks answers to the digital challenges for the social market economy. It is free to attend. 

Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.